Municipal amalgamations and the quality of public services: A study based on city-county mergers in China.

ABSTRACT: Municipal amalgamation is one of the core policy tools for Chinese government intervention in urbanization. The city-county merger policy provides a valuable research object for examining whether government-led urban expansion improves the quality of public services. By using city panel data from 2003 to 2019, this paper examines the policy effects of city-county mergers on the quality of public services using the Propensity Score Matching-Difference-in-Differences (PSM-DID) model. The results indicate that, after controlling for other factors, city-county mergers have increased the quality of public services by 1.2%. A placebo test has validated the robustness of this positive effect. Through further tests, the paper finds that the policy has positively affected all three aspects of the q

SUBMITTER: Mao Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9359547 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature