Abstract

Administrative division adjustment (ADA), including both amalgamation and fragmentation of local governments at different levels, has occurred frequently around the world in recent decades. Accordingly, an international community of researchers has emerged to empirically examine the impacts of ADA in different political and social contexts. To outline the general theoretical landscape of their research and evaluate their debates, this article reviews the relevant English journal publications over the period of 2000-2020, identifies the main research questions and hypotheses, and triangulates their empirical findings. On the one hand, global researchers have largely converged on several issues, including the negative impacts of large jurisdictions on political trust, the marginalization of small localities after amalgamation, and the possibility of free riding behaviors by local governments facing mergers in their fiscal policies. On the other hand, researchers are divided on whether amalgamation can improve the efficiency of local fiscal policies and public services. The article further connects the global ADA scholarship to the Chinese literature, advocates for studying the heterogenous effects of ADA in China, and highlights the importance of balancing regional interests in ADA policy-making processes

Citation

He, J.. (2022). What Have We Learned about the Impacts of Administrative Division Adjustment from Two Decades Empirical Research?. Journal of Public Administration, (4)：175-194+200.