Local government amalgamations: state of the art and new ways forward
系统综述了市政合并的经济、民主、服务、行政人员及社会经济影响，发现成本节约和效率提升有限，但民主受损、服务改善不大，行政人员压力增加。
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.