Size Of Municipality Research Articles

Participação Cidadã e Porte Municipal: Constatações à Luz das Manifestações do Período de 2015 a 2017

Abstract Internet democratization and the natural outspread of news reports and information in social media have been changing citizen’s participation at public sphere. The complexity of the current scenario takes to reflections about how participation practices have been taking place in municipalities. Thus, the aim of the present study is to assess what demonstrations show about municipality size and citizen participation within the Brazilian context. A quantitative-qualitative research schedule was developed in order to do so. The qualitative stage of it aimed at facing information gotten from effective participation in demonstrations carried out in municipalities. Results have shown that structural discrepancies among municipalities translate differences seen in citizen participation. If one takes into account what would be the best municipality size for the democratic exercise, the herein analyzed contextual aspects point toward the coexistence of fruitful environments to participation either in small- or large-sized municipalities, although there is the trend of concrete participation in larger municipalities.

Ko šalje novac kući - fiskalne posledice teritorijalne reprezentativnosti narodne skupštine

The practice of political representatives trying to provide benefits to voters in their local communities is not new. The phenomenon is most often operationalized through financing of public works, projects, subsidies, direct transfers or social benefits, provided in order to increase the political ratings and ultimately ensure reelection. Although the practice is more pronounced in candidate-oriented electoral systems consisting of single-member districts, it can also be identified within the countries employing the proportional list system. The authors' intention is to examine a correlation between the local representation in the Serbian parliament and budgetary transfers and moreover a general level of local financing. For this purpose, data on the residence of MPs was compared with the levels of transfers, subsidies and amount of local expenditures, while the models are additionally controlled with various variables including size of municipality, development level, unemployment rate, share of elderly population, as well as other developmental and societal factors. The sample covered 145 cities and municipalities in Serbia, for a period from 2013 to 2021. The empirical results indicate that pork barrel practices are indeed present even in the environment of closed electoral lists with at-large single district, which does not create institutional incentives for the cultivation of personal vote. But even in Serbia, it seems that local politicians favor their places of residence by increasing the level of public investments. Consequently, municipalities without deputies will remain without financial benefits that parliamentary representation provides. We found that these practices are primarily accomplished through central level subsidies, but can also be identified in the amounts of local budgets and local expenditures. On the other hand, direct annual transfers from the higher levels of government are mostly fixed due to the exact legal criteria, exempting the interference of elected deputies on this particular financing mechanism.

Digital Transformation of Slovenian Urban Municipalities: A Quantitative Report on the Impact of Municipality Population Size on Digital Maturity

Abstract Rapid technological progress and its concomitant need for new skills, ways of working and collaborating, paired with dynamic socio-economic change, have highlighted the main challenge facing Europe’s urban municipalities. Being the part of the public sector closest to citizens and their needs, the challenge addresses digital transformation’s goals to support and promote broader growth in the digital domain optimally and to realise digital transformation benefits such as user-friendly and citizen-centred services, increased quality of life and better business environments. Urban municipalities must identify local strengths, priorities and needs, including performance and digital maturity assessment, and define strategic goals and implementation roadmaps to implement digital transformation optimally. Furthermore, they must increase city administration, decision-maker and citizens awareness of the opportunities and benefits digitally enabled solutions offer. A comprehensive digital maturity self-assessment is the first step towards successful digital transformation. An example of a framework for such an assessment is the framework of the European Commission’s Intelligent Cities Challenge (ICC), the EU’s bespoke support programme for coaching, facilitation and inspiration, and successor to its Digital Cities Challenge. Therefore, the objective of our research was to analyse the digital maturity self-assessment results undertaken by eleven Slovenian urban municipalities utilising ICC’s assessment methodology framework for government services and social connectivity, which includes indicators sets of digitising public services, digital connectivity and open data. We further focused on the potential impact of municipality population size on its digital maturity. According to the existing research, this is one of the significant potential explanatory factors why municipalities differ in terms of digital transformation implementation and adaptation. One would a priori expect larger municipalities to be digitally more mature than smaller ones because they have more resources at their disposal, however, our results prove that this is not the complete picture. There is, however, a relationship between municipality population size and digital maturity, including indicators of open data sharing and security, but not entirely in the manner expected. Furthermore, our analysis has shown that municipality population size does not influence overall digital maturity but individual digital maturity indicators, highlighting the need to develop more detailed and accurate individual digital maturity indicators. Although the influence of municipality population size on overall digital maturity could not be demonstrated, its partial influence on individual sets is essential when endeavouring to achieve efficient digital transformation.

Differentiation Factors of the Debt Situation in Russian Urban Okrugs with over 100 000 Residents in 2015–2020

This article analyzes the debt standing of 189 Russian urban okrugs with over 100 000 residents and the factors that define the differences in the debt situation among these urban okrugs. The study was conducted using the municipal debt size and structure indices contained on official websites of local administrative bodies, as well as the data on local fiscal revenue and expenditures from Rosstat’s database of municipal bodies. The results of the analysis show that urban okrugs with a larger population suffer from a higher debt burden on their budgets: the worst debt standing is characteristic of million-plus urban okrugs and other major regional centers. At the same time, there is no explicit dependence of the debt indicators on the fiscal situation and the level of economic development. This dependence is violated by the impact of other institutional conditions, including features of the federal and regional fiscal policies, social assistance of large businesses and other reasons. According to the analysis of the purposes of municipal loans to the studied urban okrugs, there are very few cases in which the debt is taken for the implementation of urban development projects. In Russia, the market for municipal bonds, which are a widespread phenomenon abroad, remains undeveloped as well as other new ways of reducing municipal debt burdens. All of this generates a negative forecast of the budget and financial standing of the largest centers for the next several years and again proves the acute need for reconsidering the fiscal and tax policy and the system of distributing powers at the local level.

Spatial interdependence in cost efficiency and local government optimal size: The case of Italian municipalities

This study provides an original approach to empirically determine the optimal size of municipalities for efficient social service delivery in Italy, accounting for spatial spillover effects across municipalities as well as endogeneity between the output provided and its cost. A highly disaggregated and up-to-date database of Italian municipalities is used to estimate, through endogenous spatial frontier of Kutlu et al. (2020), the minimum costs. In municipalities with population ranging from 2000 to 3500 economies of scale in social service provision emerge, exhibiting cost-optimality. This outcome is completely ignored in some Regional government where financing criteria are based on historical, non-public, and ex-post repayment criteria.

Seeking the Optimal Dimension of Local Administrative Units: A Reflection on Urban Concentration and Changes in Municipal Size

In the search for a better administrative functioning as a key dimension of economic performances, changes in municipal boundaries and the creation (or suppression) of local administrative units reflect a progressive adjustment to a spatially varying population size and density. With intense population growth, municipal size reflects the overall amount (and spatial concentration) of services and infrastructures, being functionally related with agglomeration economies, land availability for building, and specific sociodemographic attributes of local communities. Based on these premises, the intrinsic relationship between settlement expansion, population growth, and municipal size in a metropolitan region of Southern Europe (Attica, hosting the Greater Athens’ area in Central Greece) was investigated in this study over nearly one century as a contribution to a refined investigation of the (changing) organization of local administrative units under a complete metropolitan cycle from urbanization to reurbanization. Based on descriptive statistics, mapping, (parametric and nonparametric) correlation coefficients, and econometric techniques, a quantitative analysis of the relationship between population size and density and municipal area provides pivotal knowledge to policy and planning adjustments toward a more balanced spatial distribution of population and administered land among local government units. Together with a slight decrease in the average municipal size over time, the average population density per municipal unit increased systematically, with a considerable reduction in spatial heterogeneity of settlements. The observed goodness-of-fit of the linear model explaining municipal area with population density, increased significantly over time. Empirical results of our study indicate that municipal size has slowly adjusted to population density across metropolitan areas, determining an imbalanced spatial distribution of resident population and a supposedly less efficient government partition. The recent administrative reform of local authorities in Greece (the so-called ‘Kallikratis’ law) seems to consolidate–rather than rebalance this organizational structure over space, reflecting spatially polarized settlements. Such conditions represent a base for informed analysis of the spatial structure of local administrative units as a pivotal element of economic sustainability and may contribute to the debate on the optimal size of municipalities at both urban and metropolitan scales of governance.

Local governments’ communication on social media platforms: refining and assessing patterns of adoption in Belgium

This article relies on the literature on technology adoption and empirical studies on social media adoption in the public sector to analyze the case of Belgian municipalities. Our objective is threefold as we aim to: (a) provide a new approach to assess the adoption of social media platforms by governments, (b) describe the current situation in Belgium through the concept of “active adoption” and (c) determine the main factors that relate to the uptake of Facebook in Belgian municipalities over 10,000 inhabitants. To achieve these objectives, we used software to retrieve quantitative data regarding Facebook adoption and institutionalization. Our results reveal that municipality size, median age and longevity on the platform are positively associated with the adoption of Facebook. In contrast, median income is, surprisingly, negatively associated with several dimensions of active adoption. These findings contribute to the literature on the factors related to social media use. In addition, the new ways of uncovering social media adoption and institutionalization patterns provide a solid conceptual approach for future research. For practitioners, our study provides municipalities with a better assessment framework and offers them a new model to evaluate social media adoption, underlining the fundamental difference between registration and “active adoption”. Points for practitioners This article provides a new approach to assess social media adoption and institutionalization patterns in public organizations. It offers a framework to evaluate social media adoption, underlining the fundamental difference between registration and ‘active adoption’. It also identifies the main factors that relate to the uptake of Facebook in Belgian municipalities over 10,000 inhabitants: population size, median age, median income and social media-related variables – that is, activity on Twitter and Instagram – as well as longevity on the platform.

Municipality size and political participation: evidence from Australia

ABSTRACT Structural reforms over the past several decades have seen the institution of local government in Australia become progressively less local. Primarily as a result of municipal amalgamation, the average population of Australia’s local governments has more than doubled since the early 1990s. The democratic implications of this de-localisation, however, have been severely understudied. This article addresses this gap by analysing the effect of municipality size on several modes of local political participation in the mainland capital city regions of Adelaide and Perth. Drawing on a quantitative analysis of primary survey and electoral data, this paper presents evidence of a negative relationship between municipality size and participation – as size increases, rates of voting, candidacy, contact with local representatives, and council meeting attendance decrease. The implications for local government’s input legitimacy and its role as a training ground for democracy – as well as options for ‘re-localising’ local politics – are discussed.

Who Are the Local Policy Innovators? Cluster Analysis of Municipal Tobacco Control Policies in Massachusetts.

Tobacco use is a leading cause of preventable death, yet it is challenging to establish public policy to reduce tobacco use. Massachusetts has been a national leader in tobacco control, and its policy-making patterns can be informative to the country. To identify factors associated with the adoption of tobacco policy within 351 Massachusetts municipalities. We obtained the 2019 Massachusetts municipality-level tobacco control policy information from Massachusetts' Tobacco Automated Fact Sheet Information system and compiled it with data from American Community Survey, Massachusetts Municipal Association, and Massachusetts state government's Web sites. We used k -means clustering method to identify statistical clustering patterns and hotspot analysis (Getis-Ord Gi*) and Local Indicators of Spatial Association to identify geographic clustering patterns. We then performed multinomial logistic regression to identify factors associated with policy clusters. Massachusetts. Three hundred fifty-one municipalities in Massachusetts. Policy clusters-groups of municipalities with similar tobacco control policy behaviors. Based on the k -means analyses, we identified 3 clusters in Massachusetts municipal tobacco control policy behaviors: 54% (N = 191) of municipalities were "Policy Leaders" with a high adoption rate of the 6 tobacco control policies; 18% (N = 63) were "Peer-Influenced Actors" focused on tobacco purchase restrictions for individuals younger than 21 years; and 28% (N = 97) were "Policy Non-Actors," with no tobacco control policies in place. Policy Leaders were geographically clustered in larger cities and the MetroWest region. Policy Non-Actors were clustered in rural areas of Western and Central Massachusetts. Larger municipal population size, higher municipal tax income, and higher percentages of residents voting Democratic were associated with higher policy adoption activities. Local variation in the adoption of tobacco policies may exacerbate inequities in tobacco use and population health. Opportunities remain to implement additional tobacco control regulations at the local level to promote public health.

Malignant neoplasms in people with hypothyroidism in Spain: A population-based analysis.

The objective of this study was to determine the association between hypothyroidism and overall and site-specific cancer in Spanish population. A cross-sectional study was performed using the population-based database BDCAP (Base de Datos Clínicos de Atención Primaria, primary care clinical database) to analyze the relative risk of cancer in Spanish population with hypothyroidism. In a total of 2,414,165 patients diagnosed with hypothyroidism in BDCAP in 2019, the relative risk (OR) of cancer, compared to the non-hypothyroid population, was 1.73 (1.72-1.74) (P<0.0001). The higher risk was observed in both men (OR 2.15 [2.13-2.17]; P<0.0001) and women (OR 1.67 [1.636-1.68]; P<0.0001). However, hypothyroid persons aged 65 years or older had a reduced risk of cancer (OR 0.98 [0.97-0.98]; P<0.0001). In addition, hypothyroid patients aged 65 or over showed a decreased risk of cancers of the bladder, colorectal, gastric, pancreatic and prostate. Socioeconomic characteristics such as income level, municipality size, country of birth and employment situation had limited influence on the association between hypothyroidism and cancer. However, hypothyroid patients receiving replacement therapy exhibited higher cancer risk compared with patients without treatment (OR 1.30 [1.28-1.31]; P<0.0001). Spanish hypothyroid patients of both genders have a risk of overall cancer higher than that found in non-hypothyroid population. However, people over 65 years have a reduced risk of various malignancies. This peculiarity of hypothyroidism should be considered by the health authorities.

Population mortality in the central Russia municipalities

The Central Federal District (CFD) is the most populous district in Russia, as of the beginning of 2021, 27% of the Russian population lived out there. However, the CFD mortality rate is characterized by a significant variation across different territories of the District. The purpose of this study is to assess the CFD territorial differentiation of mortality rate based on life expectancy with a breakdown on municipalities in 2010-2019. Life expectancy by CFD municipality and urban district was based on information about population size of the CDF municipalities and urban districts, obtained from the database on municipalities for the period 2010-2020 and individual non-personalized Rosstat (Federal State Statistics Service) data on cause-of-death mortality. A total of 326 municipalities and 63 urban districts were included in the analysis. A total of 11.5 thousand life tables were developed. The analysis shows a significant differentiation of mortality rate at the municipal level. Even though the CFD life expectancy is above the Russian average mainly due to high levels of life expectancy in Moscow, the vast majority of the CFD municipalities report a life expectancy below the Russian average. The worst situation with mortality in the CFD is developed in municipalities with a population of less than 10 thousand people. The main factor for a high gap in life expectancy across territories and gender is a high male mortality in working ages. There are significant reserves of for life expectancy growth within the CFD. These reserves are concentrated in the regional capitals with adjacent municipalities, as well as other large municipalities with a population over 100 thousand people.

An ecological approach to predict areas with established populations of Ixodes scapularis in Quebec, Canada

Public health management of Lyme disease (LD) is a dynamic challenge in Canada. Climate warming is driving the northward expansion of suitable habitat for the tick vector, Ixodes scapularis. Information about tick population establishment is used to inform the risk of LD but is challenged by sampling biases from surveillance data. Misclassifying areas as having no established tick population underestimates the LD risk classification.We used a logistic regression model at the municipal level to predict the probability of I. scapularis population establishment based on passive tick surveillance data during the period of 2010-2017 in southern Quebec. We tested for the effect of abiotic and biotic factors hypothesized to influence tick biology and ecology. Additional variables controlled for sampling biases in the passive surveillance data.In our final selected model, tick population establishment was positively associated with annual cumulative degree-days > 0°C, precipitation and deer density, and negatively associated with coniferous and mixed forest types. Sampling biases from passive tick surveillance were controlled for using municipal population size and public health instructions on tick submissions. The model performed well as indicated by an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.92, sensitivity of 86% and specificity of 81%.Our model enables prediction of I. scapularis population establishment in areas which lack data from passive tick surveillance and may improve the sensitivity of LD risk categorization in these areas. A more sensitive system of LD risk classification is important for increasing awareness and use of protective measures employed against ticks, and decreasing the morbidity associated with LD.

The effect of population size and technological collaboration on firms' innovation

In the current knowledge economy, firms hardly innovate alone; the collaboration with other partners has become crucial for successful innovation. Literature has recently focused on two modes of collaboration: the learning-by-doing, by-using and by-interacting (DUI) and science and technology-based innovation (STI). Nevertheless, collaboration seems to be easier if firms are located in highly populated areas. This paper aims to analyse whether the population size of municipalities where firms are located influences firm innovation either in a direct way or by shaping the effect of the DUI and STI partnerships. Applying panel data methodology to a sample of 3004 Spanish manufacturing firms over the period 2009 to 2016, the results show that innovative performance benefits from STI and DUI innovation modes, especially product innovation. In contrast, location in less populated municipalities seems to have no effect on innovation, regardless of the threshold used to limit the number of inhabitants. Also, weak evidence of the moderating role of the population size on the effect of DUI and STI partnerships on firm innovation is found.

The Effectivity of Local Fee Collection: Case Study in Selected Municipalities of the South Bohemian District, Czech Republic

Local fees and tax income are one of the income sources of a municipality budget. Their size and collection is regulated by the municipality and a particular state. 12 municipalities of the South Bohemian District were chosen according to their size to find out the efficiency of the collection of the higher mentioned income. Next, a relationship between individual shares and size of selected municipalities in number of inhabitants was calculated based on shares among city fees, tax income and total income. The size of yields in local fees differs and the size of municipality (based on the number of inhabitants) is not the main factor of the difference. Yields of municipalities are also influenced by geographical and economic factors (e.g.: growth of tourism, Český Krumlov). Furthermore, absence of any relationship among local fees, tax income and total income was found within selected municipalities.

Does City Size Affect International Migrants and Native-Born Workers Differently? Exploring Inequalities in Unemployment and Occupations Across Spanish Cities

The 20th century witnessed populations increasingly concentrated in cities, and this global pattern has persisted into the 21st century. A principal reason for the urban concentration lies in the greater employment advantages offered by bigger metropolises. While this relationship is well documented, few studies have examined whether these benefits differ according to urban dwellers’ birth country. This article analyzes to what extent the migrant–native gap in unemployment and occupational attainment varies according to municipality or city size and, if so, whether that change in inequality is explained by differences in the sociodemographic composition of foreign and native-born populations in big metropolises. Using data from the Spanish General Social Survey, results show that absolute migrant–native labor inequality does vary across city sizes, although in different ways. In larger cities, gross inequality with respect to unemployment seems to be disappearing, whereas in the same places, gross inequality in access to unskilled occupations grows progressively. Controlling for individual, family, and context-related factors explains changes across cities in the unemployment gap, but not in occupational attainment. In other words, big cities do not equalize the risk of unemployment between foreign-born workers and the native-born population but do have a negative impact on equality when it comes to avoiding the occupational ladder's bottom rung. This finding suggests that many international migrants may move to big cities attracted by employment chances, but, in this urban “land of opportunities,” they are more dependent on unskilled jobs and fall into a “trap of precariousness.”

Estimation of the incidence of invasive meningococcal disease using a capture–recapture model based on two independent surveillance systems in Catalonia, Spain

ObjectivesInvasive meningococcal disease (IMD) is an urgent notifiable disease and its early notification is essential to prevent cases. The objective of the study was to assess the sensitivity of two...

Modeling Local Variations in Intermarriage

We utilized all Spanish marriage records available at the municipality level from 2005–2007 to model spatial variations in intermarriage. We constructed a spatial regime zero-inflated Poisson model and grouped-data probit model, with spatially lagged regressors, to predict the absolute and relative presence of intermarriage between Spaniards and migrants based on structural characteristics of the local marriage markets and their neighboring areas (i.e., relative group size, homogeneity of national origins, and sex ratio indicators). Our models do not assume collapsibility of the marriage market. Instead, they incorporate the local dimension of the marriage market and examine the association between intermarriage and structural variables at the spatial local level. The model also investigates intermarriage variation by size of place. The local characteristics of the marriage markets are robust indicators of both the absolute and relative importance of intermarriage, but their impact varies by size of municipality. The relative size of the migrant community positively impacts intermarriage. The homogeneity of the origins of migrants is negatively related to it. The impact of sex ratios in the migrant and native communities on intermarriage is not uniform across all municipalities and is not always related to more intermarriage.

Early-life conditions, height and mortality of nineteenth-century Dutch vagrant women

ABSTRACT Adult height is a remarkably accurate summary of early-life environmental conditions. Because of that, height may be negatively associated with mortality. These relationships – between early-life conditions and height, and between height and mortality – have been well-studied in modern samples of both genders, and in historical samples of men. However, these relationships are understudied historical samples of women. Therefore, this study aimed to better-understand the determinants and consequences of female adult height. More specifically, this study examined the relationships between (1) early-life environmental conditions and adult height, and (2) adult height and mortality. To accomplish this, we used a unique dataset that provided lifetime information of 1,088 women who were born between 1811 and 1838, and who were convicted of vagrancy and sent to the penal colonies of Veenhuizen and de Ommerschans. An ordered logistic regression was used to assess the relationship between early-life determinants and adult height. Cox regression analyses were performed to investigate the relationship between height and mortality. In terms of findings, region of birth, population size of municipality at birth, parental socio-economic status and religion were associated with adult height. The results examining height’s relationship to mortality were more surprising: taller vagrant women – those more than one standard deviation above the mean height – had higher probabilities of dying earlier than those within 0.5 standard deviations of the mean height. Ultimately, this study adds to the evidence that taller height is likely not universally beneficial for living longer.

Racial and socioeconomic disparities in breast cancer diagnosis and mortality in Pennsylvania.

Many studies have demonstrated disparities in breast cancer (BC) incidence and mortality among Black women. We hypothesized that in Pennsylvania (PA), a large economically diverse state, BC diagnosis and mortality would be similar among races when stratified by a municipality's median income. We collected the frequencies of BC diagnosis and mortality for years 2011-2015 from the Pennsylvania Cancer Registry and demographics from the 2010 US Census. We analyzed BC diagnoses and mortalities after stratifying by median income, municipality size, and race with univariable and multivariable logistic regression models. In this cohort, of 5,353,875 women there were 54,038 BC diagnoses (1.01% diagnosis rate) and 9,828 BC mortalities (0.18% mortality rate). Unadjusted diagnosis rate was highest among white women (1.06%) but Black women had a higher age-adjusted diagnosis rate (1.06%) than white women (1.02%). Race, age and income were all significantly associated with BC diagnosis, but there were no differences in BC diagnosis between white and Black women across all levels of income in the multivariable model. BC mortality was highest in Black women, a difference which persisted when adjusted for age. Black women 35years and older had a higher mortality rate in all income quartiles. We found that in PA, age, race and income are all associated with BC diagnosis and mortality with noteworthy disparities for Black women. Continued surveillance of differences in both breast cancer diagnosis and mortality, and targeted interventions related to education, screening and treatment may help to eliminate these socioeconomic and racial disparities.

COVID-19, Gender Housework Division and Municipality Size in Spain

The COVID-19 health crisis brought with it an increase in the workload on family members due to the restriction of services and the suspension of formal and informal care networks. Numerous studies have analyzed how home confinement have affected different gender gaps, including the gender gap related to chores within the home. This research aims to contribute to the existing literature from the perspective of gender geography by introducing the variable municipality size in the analyses. Our research in the case of Spain shows the COVID-19 health crisis to have had a significant impact on gender gaps, albeit to varying degrees. Women, especially those living in small municipalities, experienced a widening of the gap related to care and domestic workload during confinement. The study of the distribution of the more burdensome chores between genders shows an even more imbalanced scenario to the detriment of women. However, following the end of confinement, the situation improved. Although the imbalance against women remains, the gap with respect to the pre-pandemic situation has been reduced.