How do citizens perceive centralization reforms ? Evidence from the merger of French regions

Résumé éditeur

Using the 2016 merger of French regions as a natural experiment, this paper adopts a differencein-difference identification strategy to recover its causal impact on individual subjective wellbeing.No depressing effect is found despite increased centralization; life satisfaction has evenincreased in regions that were absorbed from economic and political viewpoints. The empiricalevidence also suggests that local economic performance improved in the concerned regions,which includes a faster decline in the unemployment rate. In this setting, economic gains havelikely outweighed cultural attachment to administrative regions.