2000 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
An Empirical Study on Agglomeration Economies of Cities in view of Local Public Finance-A Basic Study for the Merger of Municipalities-
| Project/Area Number |
10630046
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
経済政策(含経済事情)
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| Research Institution | Yamaguchi University |
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Principal Investigator |
YOSHIMURA Hiroshi Yamaguchi University, Dep.of Economics, Professor, 経済学部, 教授 (30034862)
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| Project Period (FY) |
1998 – 2000
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| Keywords | city size / agglomeration economies / economies of cities / external economies / optimum size of a city / local public finance / merger of municipalities / efficiency of government |
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| Research Abstract |
The aims of this project are (1) to investigate the general relationship between the city size and the annual expenditure/revenue in the basis of data of all municipalities in Japan, througla this, (2) to show the evidence of agglomeration economies and the optimum size of a city in view of local public finance, and (3) to estimate quantitatively the effects of merger of municipalities on the local public finance.
Trough this study for three years, I could achieve aims mentioned just above and publish many papers and a book, which were quoted at the discussion in academic associations and local governments.
The main results are follows.
(1) The per capita annual expenditures (logarithmic transformation) can be expressed at the quadratic, concave function of the population size (logarithmic transformation).
(2) The per capita revenue (logarithmic transformation) which is independent from the national government can be expressed at the cubic, increasing function of the population size (logarithmic transformation). The per capita revenue (logarithmic transformation) which is dependent of the national government can be expressed at the quadratic, concave function.
(3) We can find the economies of scale in cities which have less than 300 thousand of population, diseconomies of scale in lager cities. In towns and villages, we can find always the economies of scale.
(4) The optimum size of a city in view of local public finance is about 20O〜300 thousand of population.
(5) Through these results, the mergers of the Larger Areas for Municipal Cooperation which amount to 341 areas will reduce annual expenditures by 3700 bilion yen (about 13%) that is equal to the construction cost of high way from Tokyo to Okayama prefecture.
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