Using the 2016 merger of French regions as a natural experiment, this paper adopts a difference-in-differences identification strategy to recover its causal impact on individual subjective well-being. No depressing effect is found in the short term; life satisfaction has even increased in regions that were absorbed from both economic and political viewpoints. The empirical evidence at stake suggests that local economic performance has enhanced in these regions, which includes a faster decline of the unemployment rate. In the context of a unitary state, economic gains have therefore outweighed cultural attachment to administrative regions.

中文翻译：

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公民对地方边界的态度：来自法国地区合并的证据

本文以 2016 年法国大区合并为自然实验，采用逐差异识别策略，恢复其对个体主观幸福感的因果影响。短期内未发现抑郁作用；在经济和政治观点都被吸收的地区，生活满意度甚至有所提高。关键的实证证据表明，这些地区的当地经济表现有所增强，其中包括失业率下降更快。因此，在单一制国家的背景下，经济收益超过了对行政区域的文化依附。