State annexation "constraints" and the frequency of municipal annexation

Municipal annexations of unincorporated areas is frequently the option Foll owed by local governments to expand their boundaries, State rules influence annexations by determining the range of powers available to local governme nts and by shaping the incentives of local actors to pursue this option, To date, empirical analysis has not provided strong evidence that state rules significantly affect local annexation pattens, The impact of state rules o n local boundary expansions is estimated through a Poisson regression of th e number of annexations occurring within the 50 states from 1990 through 19 95. The results provide strong confirmation that stare rules designed to co nstrain annexation do significantly influence local boundary patterns, alth ough in unexpected ways. Procedural constraints expected to reduce annexati on activity are instead shown to stimulate greater numbers of annexations.