Local government amalgamations: state of the art and new ways forward

This paper offers a systematic literature review of the studies investigating the impacts of municipal amalgamations. These are presented and discussed by distinguishing five categories: economic impacts, impacts on democracy, impacts on services provided, impacts on administrative staff, and socioeconomic impacts on population. Although the heterogeneity of impacts makes it difficult to draw some final conclusions on the effects of amalgamations, findings seem to suggest that cost savings and efficiency gains are modest, several aspects of local democracy are eroded, improvements of services are limited, and the duties of municipal staff increase, fostering professionalism but also stress.