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What Lies Beneath these Creatures of the State: Understanding the Birth and Death of U.S. Local Governments

Special districts
Dissolution
Intergovernmental affairs

Christopher B. Goodman and Suzanne M. Leland. “What Lies Beneath these Creatures of the State: Understanding the Birth and Death of U.S. Local Governments”

Authors
Affiliations
Christopher B. Goodman

Northern Illinois University

Suzanne M. Leland

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Published

January 2021

Abstract

After analyzing 35 years of data, this study finds that the dissolution of special districts, “exits” in U.S. counties, are largely unrelated to demand factors. Using fixed effects regression specified at the all county and urban county levels, we find that restrictions of fiscal autonomy of cities are associated with decreases in the special district exit rate. There is also evidence that state grants of “broad” or “limited” functional home rule to cities increases special district dissolutions. The findings are consistent with the circumvention argument, made in the local autonomy literature, and may also indicate some service consolidation albeit from a different perspective.

BibTeX Citation

@unpublished{goodman-leland-2021,
  author = {Goodman, Christopher B. and Leland, Suzanne M.},
  note = {Working Paper},
  title = {What Lies Beneath these Creatures of the State: Understanding the Birth and Death of U.S. Local Governments},
  year = {2021}}