open access

https://hdl.handle.net/2115/45393

Municipality Mergers and the Influence on Local Government Expenditure in Hokkaido

日本語

2011-03-31

北海道大学大学院農学研究院

The Nokei Ronso : The Review of Agricultural Economics Hokkaido University

66

29-36

In Japan, as the population is decreasing and society is aging with a declining birthrate, many local governments have worked on what are termed the“Great Mergers of the Heisei Era,”aiming at efficient fiscal management. But this goal was not able to be achieved through municipality mergers in Hokkaido to the same extent as it was in other regions. One reason for this may be that the municipalities in Hokkaido cover such wide areas. In this paper, we used the Cobb-Douglas annual expenditure function considering population and area for a simulation analysis of: (1) the effects of population and area on the amount of annual expenditure per person of the population, and (2) the influence of municipality mergers on the amount of annual expenditure in the 22 regions in Hokkaido where such mergers were completed. The results showed that the influence of area on the amount of annual expenditure per person of the population in Hokkaido is stronger than in other regions, and that there are both municipalities in Hokkaido where expenditure cuts were expected due to a municipality merger and those where such cuts were not expected.

紀要論文

Version of Record

0385-5961

AN0020151X