Metro Area Fragmentation and Competitiveness

Here is one to read. It's a working paper by a Carnegie Mellon researcher on how metropolitan area fragmentation influences area economic competitiveness.

While it is clear the more fragmented MSAs are less competitive, the variation in competitiveness for less fragmented MSAs is more difficult to explain. Large increases in state centralization, and smaller populations help explain the performance of the unified MSAs with low competitiveness. Unifying an MSA or decreasing state centralization does not guarantee improved competitiveness, but continuing with a fragmented metropolitan government in a centralized state does not bode well for any future improvements in economic competitiveness.
Download the paper here.