Learning from Experience in NSW?

Title
Learning from Experience in NSW?
Publication Date
2016
Author(s)
Bell, Brian
Dollery, Brian E
Drew, Joseph
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3579-5758
Email: jdrew2@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:jdrew2
Type of document
Journal Article
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Asia
Place of publication
Australia
DOI
10.1111/1759-3441.12136
UNE publication id
une:19315
Abstract
While the bulk of the empirical evidence shows that municipal mergers do not improve the performance of local authorities, Australian policy-makers nonetheless continue to impose council amalgamation, as illustrated by the current New South Wales 'Fit for the Future' local government reform process. This paper first critically examines the empirical evidence employed by the Independent Local Government Review Panel on the impact of the 2004 council mergers. We argue that this evidence is flawed. We then provide an empirical assessment of the municipal mergers, which occurred over 2000-2004 with our sample drawn from Group 4 councils in the New South Wales variant of the Australian Local Government Classification System. Group 4 councils represent a group of significant regional cities and town councils with similar operational activities. We demonstrate that merged councils have not performed any better than their unmerged peers over the period 2004 to 2014. The paper concludes with some brief policy implications for local government reform in New South Wales and elsewhere.
Link
Citation
Economic Papers, 35(2), p. 99-111
ISSN
1759-3441
0812-0439
Start page
99
End page
111

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