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Research

Endogenous Local Government Formation and Nation Building, slides available upon request -

This paper provides new evidence on the drivers of local government amalgamation and its effects on public goods provision, economic activity and national identity. I focus on an administrative reform in Ukraine between 2015-2020, during which smaller local councils (LCs) had the opportunity to voluntarily amalgamate in order to keep a substantially larger portion of their tax revenues and gain greater autonomy over the local administration. I show that pre-reform characteristics such as nightlight intensity, population, and the share of native Ukrainian speakers significantly predicted amalgamation, with evidence of homophily, where more similar units were more likely to amalgamate. Using a staggered difference-in-differences model, I find that the reform led to a cumulative increase in nightlight intensity per capita and higher district-level personal income tax collection, but no clear effect on standardized college exam scores in Ukrainian and math. A nationally representative repeated cross-sectional survey data further reveal stronger self-identification as Ukrainian in rural areas with a higher share of residents in the newly formed \textit{hromadas}, emphasizing the reform's impact on national identity. +

This paper provides new evidence on the drivers of local government amalgamation and its effects on public goods provision, economic activity and national identity. I focus on an administrative reform in Ukraine between 2015-2020, during which smaller local councils (LCs) had the opportunity to voluntarily amalgamate in order to keep a substantially larger portion of their tax revenues and gain greater autonomy over the local administration. I show that pre-reform characteristics such as nightlight intensity, population, and the share of native Ukrainian speakers significantly predicted amalgamation, with evidence of homophily, where more similar units were more likely to amalgamate. Using a staggered difference-in-differences model, I find that the reform led to a cumulative increase in nightlight intensity per capita and higher district-level personal income tax collection, but no clear effect on standardized college exam scores in Ukrainian and math. A nationally representative repeated cross-sectional survey data further reveal stronger self-identification as Ukrainian in rural areas with a higher share of residents in the newly formed hromadas, emphasizing the reform's impact on national identity.