Flèche, Sarah 
ORCID: 0000-0001-8927-075X
(2021)
The welfare consequences of centralization: evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in Switzerland.
Review of Economics and Statistics, 103 (4).
pp. 621-635.
ISSN 0034-6535
Abstract
Many countries are reallocating tasks and powers to more central levels of government. To identify centralization’s welfare effects, I use a difference-in-differences design that relies on time and cross-cantonal variations in the implementation of centralization reforms in Switzerland. I find that centralization provokes significant decreases in residents’ life satisfaction. I identify one mechanism driving the effect: the procedural disutility that individuals experience from having less influence over the formulation of political decisions. This effect is largest among individuals with higher expected benefits from being involved in the political decision process, with detrimental effects on local political participation.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Additional Information: | Funding Information: I am grateful to Clément Bosquet, Andrew Clark, Sergei Guriev, Steve Pischke, Nattavudh Powdthavee, Eugenio Proto, Claudia Senik, and Aloïs Stutzer for helpful comments and discussions. I also thank seminar and conference participants at the LSE, PSE, and ESE and the IAAE, AFSE, LAGV, RES, and SAEE meetings. This work was supported by the U.S. National Institute on Aging, the John Templeton Foundation, the What Works Centre for Wellbeing, and the French National Research Agency Grant (ANR-17-EURE-0020). Publisher Copyright: © 2020 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. |
| Divisions: | Centre for Economic Performance |
| Date Deposited: | 07 May 2024 13:09 |
| Last Modified: | 16 May 2024 03:38 |
| URI: | http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/122951 |
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