@article{Weese:211545, recid = {211545}, author = {Weese, Eric and Hayashi, Masayoshi and Nishikawa, Masashi}, title = {Inefficiency and Self-Determination: Simulation-Based Evidence From Meiji Japan}, address = {2015-08}, number = {1858-2016-152747}, series = {Economic Growth Center Discussion paper}, pages = {98}, year = {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 indiidual 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.}, url = {http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/211545}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.211545}, }