How administrative degradation affects middle-sized cities: lessons from Poland's 1998 regional reform
利用波兰1998年区域改革这一准自然实验，研究发现失去行政首府地位对中等城市的经济增长有负面影响，并加剧了与大城市的发展差距。
Among Polish cities facing socioeconomic difficulties are the former regional capitals which lost their administrative status due to the 1998 reform, reducing the number of regions. Making use of this quasi-experimental setting, we assess the impact of the loss of administrative status on the affected cities with difference-in-differences estimations. Our findings show the negative impact of the regional amalgamation on economic and, to a lesser extent, on other dimensions of local development. We identify the reform’s contribution to the growing disparity between the second-tier and the largest cities and reflect on the design of place-based compensatory measures.