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The public sector efficiency in Italy: The case of Lombardy municipalities in the provision of the essential public services

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  • Tommaso Agasisti
  • Antonio Dal Bianco
  • Massimo Griffini

Abstract

This paper evaluates how efficient are the municipalities located in the most populous Italian Region (Lombardy) in providing essential public services: general administration, municipal and administrative police, waste collection, road network and street lighting. The empirical analysis is conducted through bootstrap Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) on a sample of 331 municipalities with more than 5,000 inhabitants, and refers to the three years 2010, 2011 and 2012. The results highlight that there is room for substantial improvement of efficiency: the same level of output can be obtained while reducing the resources of about 33%. A second-stage truncated regression reveals that: the structure of population matters, scale effects do exist, and more financially healthy municipalities are also more efficient in providing essential services

Suggested Citation

  • Tommaso Agasisti & Antonio Dal Bianco & Massimo Griffini, 2016. "The public sector efficiency in Italy: The case of Lombardy municipalities in the provision of the essential public services," ECONOMIA PUBBLICA, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2016(1), pages 59-84.
    • Handle: RePEc:fan:epepep:v:html10.3280/ep2016-001004
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    Cited by:

    1. Tommaso Agasisti & Francesco Porcelli, 2019. "Local governments’ efficiency and its heterogeneity – empirical evidence from a Stochastic Frontier Analysis of Italian municipalities 2010-2015," Working papers 81, Società Italiana di Economia Pubblica.
    2. Simona Ferraro & Tommaso Agasisti & Francesco Porcelli & Mara Soncin, 2021. "Local governments’ efficiency and educational results: empirical evidence from Italian primary schools," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(35), pages 4017-4039, July.
    3. Ifigeneia-Dimitra Pougkakioti, 2021. "Measuring The Efficiency And Productivity Change Of Municipalities With An Output Oriented Model:Empirical Evidence Across Greek Municipalities Over The Time Period 2012-2016," Romanian Journal of Regional Science, Romanian Regional Science Association, vol. 15(1), pages 98-125, JUNE.
    4. D'Inverno, Giovanna & Carosi, Laura & Ravagli, Letizia, 2018. "Global public spending efficiency in Tuscan municipalities," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 102-113.
    5. Fusco, Elisa & Vidoli, Francesco & Rogge, Nicky, 2020. "Spatial directional robust Benefit of the Doubt approach in presence of undesirable output: An application to Italian waste sector," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    6. Ermini, Barbara & Santolini, Raffaella & Ciommi, Mariateresa, 2023. "Equitable and sustainable well-being in Italian municipalities: Do women in politics make the difference?," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    7. Perugini, Francesco, 2024. "Local government efficiency and economic growth: The Italian case," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H72 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Budget and Expenditures
    • H83 - Public Economics - - Miscellaneous Issues - - - Public Administration

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