Effects of merger of municipalities on social welfare administration

The aim of this paper is to estimate the effects of merger of municipalities on the social welfare administration (hereafter SWA) through simulations of city models. In these models we use the general tendencies of relation between city size and SWA in view of costs/services/efficiency, based on recent Japanese data. The main results are as follows. (1) The effects of merger of municipalities on the costs of SWA are plus in all models with just population as an explanatory variable, and are plus in almost all models with population and area as explanatory variables. (2) The effects of merger of municipalities on the services of SWA are minus in almost models in the services for the aged, while are plus in all models in the services for the children. (3) The effects of merger of municipalities on the efficiency of SWA are plus in all models of both of the aged and the children. (4) In all models, the smaller the municipality is, the larger the effects of merger of municipalities on SWA are. (5) When we consider the merger of municipalities in resent Japan from point of SWA, it is important to stimulate the merger of small municipalities, especially smaller ones with fewer inhabitants than ten thousand.