Abstract
The necessity for school consolidation is increasing due to the declining birthrate and, there has been considerable debate regarding the influence of municipal mergers on the consolidation of schools; however, its effects are not completely understood. Therefore, this study empirically analyzed the influence of municipal merger size on the school consolidation process. The estimation results revealed the following. (1) As the scale of the municipal merger increases, elementary schools are more consolidated but not junior high schools. (2) Elementary and junior high schools increased in municipalities that merged during the change in fiscal incentives. (3) Finally, the number of years passed since the municipal merger was not correlated with school consolidation.
https://ror.org/05m6adj80 
