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Electoral Reform and Public Sector Efficiency. Some Evidence From Italian Municipalities

Author

Listed:
  • Marco Alberto De Benedetto

    (Università degli Studi di Messina)

  • Sergio Destefanis

    (Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Statistiche, Università degli Studi di Salerno)

  • Luigi Guadalupi

    (RISS-CNR)

Abstract

We study the effect of Law 81/1993, which introduced a different electoral rule for the election of the mayor, on the technical efficiency of Italian cities. Since 1993, municipalities below 15,000 inhabitants vote with a single-ballot system, whereas cities above 15,000 inhabitants threshold are subject to a double ballot. We first estimate the technical efficiency in 1994 (taken as a pre-change year), and 1999 and 2004 for a sample of Italian municipalities, through a non-parametric DEA, and then we perform on both input and output oriented efficiency scores a difference-in-differences analysis, through various panel techniques. We find evidence that, after the reform, municipalities voting under a double-ballot show low levels of efficiency compared to cities voting under a single-ballot, by about 16 (input oriented) and 4 percentage points (output oriented). We speculate that the difference in the level of efficiency among cities voting under a different electoral rule is essentially driven by a lower average quality of politicians elected under a double ballot compared to those elected with a single ballot.

Suggested Citation

  • Marco Alberto De Benedetto & Sergio Destefanis & Luigi Guadalupi, 2019. "Electoral Reform and Public Sector Efficiency. Some Evidence From Italian Municipalities," Working Papers 3_237, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Statistiche, Università degli Studi di Salerno.
    • Handle: RePEc:sep:wpaper:3_237
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    Cited by:

    1. lo Storto, Corrado, 2020. "Performance evaluation of social service provision in Italian major municipalities using Network Data Envelopment Analysis," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Electoral reforms; Technical efficiency; Difference-in-differences; DEA.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C21 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models
    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • C24 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Truncated and Censored Models; Switching Regression Models; Threshold Regression Models
    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • H76 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - Other Expenditure Categories

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