Carlo Caporali (p), Francesco Scotti, Giovanni Baiocchetti

Jouke van Dijk

Different territorial challenges such as urbanization, agglomeration, decentralization, and increased autonomy and responsibilities may require the progressive adaptation of administrative bodies' boundaries to new required functions. However, Italy experienced the lowest number of mergers across European countries over the period 1995-2020 and existing evidence struggles to provide a complete overview of the impact of the amalgamation process. We aim to fill this gap by analyzing the effect generated by municipality mergers in terms of economic efficiency over the time frame 2016-2020 after the promulgation of the 'Delrio' law. Through a panel event study, we highlight that amalgamated administrative units experienced significantly larger current transfers, consistently with the regulatory framework establishing financial incentives for the merged municipalities. We also show that the larger financial capacity was not used neither to shrink the fiscal pressure nor to reduce the cost of local services. Conversely, merged administrative units experienced a significant increase in current expenditures with a specific focus on the Education, Tourism, and Transportation sectors. Growth in investments requires some years before being observed and is limited to a few specific years, with high heterogeneity across sectors and geographical macro-areas. This finding suggests a non-structural nature of the change, with investment projects needing some years to be designed and implemented.

Jafar Jafarov (p), Tejendra Pratap Singh

Jouke van Dijk

We examine if the national elections held in India differentially affected minorities after the ruling party’s landslide victory in 2019. Using nationally representative survey data, we find a significant increase in sleeplessness among minorities, particularly within the Muslim community. Muslims experience a 124.94% (2.87 minutes) increase in sleeplessness intensity relative to the pre-election mean, while Christians exhibit an increase of 262.72% (0.29 minutes). Moreover, our results uncover significant heterogeneity in the main effect, with a more pronounced impact in districts characterized by high electoral competitiveness. We establish the credibility of our research design through a battery of empirical tests. Backof- the-envelope calculations suggest sleeplessness-driven daily wage loss of approximately $3 million.

Tongjing Wang (p)

Jouke van Dijk

The range of intercity connections is diverse and can be measured in many ways. Traditional measures of city relationships predominantly hinge on the frequency of various forms of connections, such as transport services, academic collaborations, and joint intellectual property ventures. Similarly, the emergent method of toponym co-occurrence analysis assesses the strength of relationships between places based on the frequency with which their names are mentioned together in texts. These methods, while offering diverse insights, uniformly presuppose that more frequent interactions or co-occurrences between two places signify stronger relationships. However, this study argues that the reliance on interaction frequency as a primary indicator of relationship strength has its limitations. Notably, high frequencies of connection, especially between larger cities, are often a reflection of their size and prominence rather than an indicator of meaningful inter-city relationships. Conversely, the relative frequency approach may overstate the importance of sporadic interactions between smaller cities, interpreting even infrequent connections as significant due to their rarity. In response to these limitations, this paper proposes a shift from traditional frequency analysis to a more refined collocation analysis. This approach is aimed at distinguishing genuine interdependencies between cities from relationships that may arise primarily due to the individual prominence of the cities. An empirical analysis of toponym co-occurrence among 100 European cities is conducted to validate this approach. The study initially demonstrates how perceived relationship strength varies based on different metrics, followed by categorizing city relationships into four distinct groups, indicative of true interdependence. This methodology offers a more accurate insight into the complexities of inter-city relationships. The findings particularly highlight that frequent mentions of major cities like London and Paris in texts are often more indicative of their individual prominence than of strong inter-city relationships. In contrast, the frequent co-mentions of second-tier cities such as Lisbon and Porto suggest a higher degree of interdependence. These observations underscore the necessity for a more nuanced approach in studying city interactions, moving beyond simple frequency analysis to a deeper understanding of city relationship dynamics.