TY  - JOUR
AU  - Alesina,Alberto
AU  - Baqir,Reza
AU  - Hoxby,Caroline
TI  - Political Jurisdictions in Heterogeneous Communities
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 7859
PY  - 2000
Y2  - August 2000
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w7859
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w7859.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Alberto F. Alesina
Department of Economics
Harvard University
Littauer Center 210
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 617/495-8388
Fax: 617/495-7730
E-Mail: aalesina@harvard.edu

Caroline Minter Hoxby
Department of Economics
Stanford University
Landau Building, 579 Serra Mall
Stanford, CA 94305
Tel: 650-725-8719
Fax: 650-725-5702
E-Mail: choxby@stanford.edu
AB  - We investigate how the number and size of local political jurisdictions in an area is determined.  Our model focuses on the tradeoff between the benefits of economies of scale and the costs of a heterogeneous population. We consider heterogeneity in income, race, ethnicity, and religion, and we test the model using American school districts, school attendance areas, municipalities, and special districts.  Using both cross-sectional and panel analysis, we find evidence of a significant tradeoff between economies of scale and racial heterogeneity.  We find weaker tradeoffs between economies of scale and income or ethnic heterogeneity.  That is, it appears that people are willing to sacrifice the most, in terms of economies of scale, in order to avoid racial heterogeneity in their jurisdiction.
ER  -