The impact of inter-municipal land use plans on social segregation: first lessons from the French experience

The article aims to investigate whether social segregation in urban areas can be reduced by transferring jurisdiction over urban planning from municipalities to the inter-municipal level. Specifically, we analyse the evolution of social segregation between 1968 and 2010 in French inter-municipal cooperation structures exercising jurisdiction over urban planning since at least 1995 and compare it with that of groupings of municipalities that do not have this competence. In order to minimise the risk of selection bias we use difference-in-difference matching methods. The effects revealed by the analysis are mixed and show that the success of this transfer of competence depends on the communities' intentions as well as on the extent of responsibilities that have been transferred.