Inefficiency and Self-Determination: Simulation-Based Evidence from Meiji Japan
98 Pages Posted: 11 Sep 2015 Last revised: 21 Dec 2015
Date Written: December 1, 2015
Abstract
Does the exercise of the right of self-determination lead to inefficiency? This paper considers a set of centrally planned municipal mergers during the Meiji period, with data from Gifu prefecture. The observed merger pattern can be explained as a social optimum based on a very simple individual utility function. If individual villages had been allowed to choose their merger partners, counterfactual simulations show that the core is always non-empty, but core partitions contain about 80% more (post-merger) municipalities than the social optimum. Simulations are possible because core partitions can be calculated using repeated application of a mixed integer program.
Keywords: Municipal mergers, one-sided matching, moment inequalities, mixed integer programming, Gifu
JEL Classification: C63, C71, H77, K33, N95
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