Local border reforms and economic activity
利用德国大规模市政边界改革数据，结合夜间灯光和土地利用数据，发现合并后成为新行政中心的市镇经济活动显著增加，而被合并且失去行政中心的市镇则下降，且前者收益大于后者损失。
Abstract In this article, we make use of large-scale municipal border changes in Germany to provide the first evidence on the effect of local border changes on the distribution of activity in space. To allow for a comparison of economic activity within unique geographical units over time, we use geo-coded light data as well as local land-use data. Applying a difference-in-differences approach, we find evidence that municipalities absorbing their merger partners and hosting the new administrative center experience a significant increase in local activity, while the municipalities that are being absorbed and are losing the administrative center experience a decrease in such activity. The difference between the gains in activity from absorbing municipalities and the losses from absorbed ones is positive. These previously undocumented results point to the importance of distance to the administrative center as a determinant of the spatial distribution of economic activity.