Annexation Activity and State Law in the United States

This article explores the impact of 15 separate provisions of state annexation laws on seven different measures of annexation activity. This analysis uses annexation data from 42 states between 1990 and 1998. The analysis finds that there are different patterns of annexation activity for laws designed to constrain annexation, as compared with laws designed to facilitate annexation. Laws designed to facilitate annexation are likely to be associated with high levels of annexation activity. On the other hand, laws designed to constrain annexation are not very likely to have lower levels of activity.