Local government amalgamations, mostly aimed at improving financial sustainability, remain a strongly contested public policy option. Proponents of amalgamation tend to emphasise the advantages of scale and plan around population size targets. By contrast, some scholars note the importance of understanding the needs and tastes of residents for local public services and stress the dangers of amalgamation dominated by population size considerations alone. In this paper, we conduct a robust empirical investigation of a recent amalgamation program dominated by population size considerations. Our results suggest that local government boundaries constructed principally to secure scale benefits have largely failed to deliver on the pecuniary promise of its public policy proponents. We conclude by offering some central public policy recommendations aimed at ensuring that future amalgamation programs might be more successful.

中文翻译：

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合并是否使地方政府更适合未来？

地方政府合并，主要是为了提高财政可持续性，仍然是一个备受争议的公共政策选择。合并的支持者倾向于强调规模优势并围绕人口规模目标进行规划。相比之下，一些学者注意到了解居民对当地公共服务的需求和品味的重要性，并强调仅考虑人口规模的合并的危险。在本文中，我们对最近一项以人口规模考虑为主的合并计划进行了强有力的实证调查。我们的研究结果表明，主要为确保规模效益而构建的地方政府边界在很大程度上未能兑现其公共政策支持者的金钱承诺。