The scope of public organisations with productive functions: insights from the inefficiency of Italian local public transport

Article Sidebar

PDF
Published: Dec 30, 2015

Main Article Content

Giacomo Di Foggia
University of Milano-Bicocca
Italy
Ugo Arrigo
University of Milano-Bicocca
Italy
Vol. 4 No. 2 (2015), Articles, pages 134-154
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17979/ejge.2015.4.2.4311
Submitted: Sep 24, 2018 Published: Dec 30, 2015
How to Cite

Abstract

It is a well-known fact that reforms necessary to enhance competition and make the economy more attractive play a major role in the Government activity in Europe. Considering the Italian state of affairs, this paper focuses on the inefficiency of public producers in the light of certain market and legal impediments. This paper describes key barriers that undermine the healthy functioning of an important industrial and service sector of the Italian economy: specifically local public transport. This paper also sheds some light on this problem analysing the impact that a controversial regulation framework may have on an industry and suggests that the degree of liberalisation affects the return on investments.

Keywords:

State-owned enterprises, efficiency, Italy, local public transport, competition

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Article Details

References

Afonso, Antonio, Ludger Schuknecht and Vito Tanzi (2005) ‘Public sector efficiency: an international comparison’, Public choice 123(3-4):321-347.

AGCOM (2014) Audizione presso la IX Commissione della Camera dei Deputati del Presidente dell’Autorità garante della concorrenza e del mercato Professor Giovanni Pitruzzella. Indagine conoscitiva sul settore del trasporto pubblico locale.

Allum, Percy A. (1974) ?Italy—Republic without Government?The World Today’ 30(11): 448-459.

Al-Obaidan, Abdullah M. and Gerald W. Scully (1992) ‘Efficiency differences between private and state-owned enterprises in the international petroleum industry’, Applied Economics 24(2): 237-246.

Amaral, Miguel (2008) ‘Public vs private management of public utilities–The case of urban public transport in Europe’, Research in transportation Economics 22(1): 85-90.

Amaral, Miguel, Stéphane Saussier and Anne Yvrande-Billon (2009) ‘Auction procedures and competition in public services: The case of urban public transport in France and London’, Utilities Policy 17(2):166-175.

Andrews, Rhys, George A. Boyne and Gareth Enticott (2006) ‘Performance failure in the public sector: misfortune or mismanagement?’, Public Management Review 8(2): 273-296.

Arnold, Jens M., Giuseppe Nicoletti and Stefano Scarpetta (2011) ‘Regulation, resource reallocation and productivity growth’, European Investment Bank Papers 16(1): 90-115.

Arrigo, Ugo and Giacomo Di Foggia (2013) ‘Schemes and Levels of State aid to Rail Indutry in Europe: Evidences From a Cross-Country Comparison’, European Journal of Business and Economics 8(3):14-20.

Arrow, Kenneth J. (1974) The Limits of Organization. Fels Lectures on Public Policy Analysis. London: Ww Norton & Co.

Asquer, Alberto (2011) ‘Liberalization and regulatory reform of network industries: A comparative analysis of Italian public utilities’, Utilities Policy 19(3):172-184.

Bandiera, Oriana, Andrea Prat and Tomasso M. Valletti (2008) Active and Passive Waste in Government Spending: Evidence from a Policy Experiment. CEIS Working Paper (115). Retrieved from: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1115339.

Bator, Francis M. (1958) ‘The anatomy of market failure. The Quarterly Journal of Economics’ 72(3): 351-379.

Boitani, Andrea, Marcelo Nicolini and Carlo Scarpa (2009) Do Competition and Ownership Matter? Evidence from Local Public Transport in Europe. Working Papers SIET 2009 - ISSN 1973-3208.

Bottasso, Anna and Alessandro Sembenelli (2004) ‘Does ownership affect firms’ efficiency? Panel data evidence on Italy’, Empirical Economics 29(4):769-786.

Boubakri, Narjess, Jean Claude Cosset and Walid Saffar (2008) ‘Political connections of newly privatized firms’ Journal of Corporate Finance 14(5): 654-673.

Bovaird, Tony and Elke Löffler (2009) Public management and governance. Taylor & Francis: Abingdon.

Boycko, Maxim, Andrei Schleifer and Robert W. Vishny (1996) ‘A theory of privatisation’, Economic Journal 106(435): 309–319.

Brennan, Willian J. Jr.(1977) ‘State constitutions and the protection of individual rights’, Harvard Law Review 90(3):489-504.

Brown, Trevor L., Mattew Potoski and David M. Van Slyke (2006) ‘Managing public service contracts: Aligning values, institutions, and markets’, Public Administration Review, 66(3):323-331.

Buchanan, James M. (1968) The demand and supply of public products (Vol. 6). Chicago: Rand McNally.

Caciagli, Mario (2006) ‘The long life of Clientelism in southern Italy’, in Kawata, J. (ed.) Comparing Political Corruption and Clientelism, 157-170, Burlington: Ashgate.

Calandra, Piero (1978) Storia dell'amministrazione pubblica in Italia [history of Italian Public Administration] (Vol. 180), Bologna: Il Mulino.

Capano, Giliberto (2003) ‘Administrative traditions and policy change: when policy paradigms matter. The case of Italian administrative reform during the 1990s’, Public Administration, 81(4):781-801.

Cassese, Sabino (1993) ‘Hypotheses on the Italian administrative system’, West European Politics, 16(3): 316-328.

Dabla-Norris, Era, Jim Brumby, Annette Kyobe, Zac Mills and Chris Papageorgiou (2012) ‘Investing in public investment: an index of public investment efficiency’, Journal of Economic Growth, 17(3): 235-266.

Dahl, Robert A. (1947) ‘The science of public administration: Three problems’, Public Administration Review, 7(1): 1-11.

Del Monte, Alfredo and Erasmo Papagni (2001) ‘Public expenditure, corruption, and economic growth: the case of Italy’, European Journal of Political Economy, 17(1): 1-16.

Della Porta, Donatella and Alberto Vannucci (1997) ‘The ‘perverse effects’ of political corruption’, Political studies 45(3): 516-538.

Dewenter, Kathryn L.and Paul H. Malatesta (2001) ‘State-owned and privately owned firms: An empirical analysis of profitability, leverage, and labor intensity’, The American Economic Review, 91(1): 320-334.

Dwyer, Larry and Deborah Edwards (2009) ‘Tourism Product and Service Innovation to Avoid “Strategic Drift” 1, International Journal of Tourism Research, 11(4): 321–335.

Entwistle, Tom and Steve Martin (2005) ‘From competition to collaboration in public service delivery: a new agenda for research’, Public administration 83(1): 233-242.

Esping-Andersen, Gosta (1990) The three worlds of welfare capitalism (Vol. 6). Cambridge: Polity press.

European Commission (2014a) Directorate-General for Competition, Competition Policy in the European Union. Retrieved from http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/competition/index_en.htm.

European Commission (2014b. Report on Competition Policy 2013 {SWD(2014) 148 final}.

Fiorino, Nadia, Emma Galli and Ilaria Petrarca (2012) ‘Corruption and Growth: Evidence from the Italian regions’, European Journal of Government and Economics 1(2): 126-144.

Forrer, John, James E. Kee, Kathryn E. Newcomer and Eric Boyer (2010) ‘Public–private partnerships and the public accountability question’, Public Administration Review, 70(3): 475-484.

Frank, Robert H., Ben Bernanke and Louis D. Johnston (2007) Principles of economics. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

Fratianni, Michele and Franco Spinelli (1982) ‘The growth of Government in Italy: Evidence from 1861 to 1979’, Public Choice 39(2): 221-243.

Frederickson, H. George, Kevin B. Smith and Christopher W. Larimer (2003) The public administration theory primer. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

García, César (2013) ‘Clientelism, Economic Structure, and Public Relations in Southern Europe: An Example of Diversity in the Western World’,. Public Relations Journal 7(2): 214-241.

Garrone, Paola, Luca Grilli and Xavier Rousseau (2013) ‘Management discretion and political interference in municipal enterprises. Evidence from Italian utilities’, Local Government Studies 39(4): 514540.

Guardia di Finanza (2014) Rapporto annuale 2013 [Annual report 2013].

Grandy, Christopher (2009) ‘The “Efficient” Public Administrator: Pareto and a Well‐Rounded Approach to Public Administration’, Public Administration Review, 69(6):1115-1123.

Guzzini, Stefano (1995) ‘The ‘long night of the first republic’: Years of clientelistic implosion in Italy’, Review of International Political Economy 2(1): 27-61.

Habermas, Jürgen (1994) ‘Three normative models of democracy’, Constellations 1(1): 1-10.

Haque, M. Shamsul (2001) ‘The diminishing publicness of public service under the current mode of governance’, Public Administration Review, 61(1): 65-82.

Hartley, Jean, Eva Sørensen and Jacob Torfing (2013) ‘Collaborative Innovation: A Viable Alternative to Market Competition and Organizational Entrepreneurship’, Public Administration Review 73(6): 821-830.

Haskel, Jonathan and Stefan Szymanski (1992) ‘A bargaining theory of privatization’, Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, 63(2): 207–228.

Heady, Ferrel (2001) Public administration, a comparative perspective. New York: CRC Press.

Hood, Christopher (2000) ‘Paradoxes of public-sector managerialism, old public management and public service bargains’, International Public Management Journal 3(1): 1-22.

Istituto Bruno Leoni (2012) Indice delle liberalizzazioni 2012 [Index of Liberalisation 2012]. Torino: IBL Libri.

Jonsson, Ernst (1984) ‘Recurrent cost and performance comparisons within public administration: A method of generating efficiency-promoting competition’ Public Choice 42(2): 185-192.

Kettl, Donald F. (2002). The transformation of governance: Public administration for twenty-first century America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Kowalski, Przemyslaw, Max Büge, Monica Sztajerowska and Matias Egeland (2013) State-Owned Enterprises: Trade Effects and Policy Implications, OECD Trade Policy Paper, No. 147, OECD Publishing.

Martimort, David and Jerome Pouyet (2008) ‘To build or not to build: Normative and positive theories of public–private partnerships’, International Journal of Industrial Organization 26(2):393-411.

Ministero dell'Economia e delle Finanze (2013) Rapporto sulle partecipazioni detenute dalle Amministrazioni Pubbliche al 31 dicembre 2011 [Report of Participation of public administrations by December 31 2011]

Musgrave, Richard A. (1959) The Theory of Multi-Level Public Finance. In Proceedings of the Annual Conference on Taxation under the Auspices of the National Tax Association (pp. 266-278). National Tax Association.

Newman, Meredith A. (1994) ‘Gender and Lowi's thesis: Implications for career advancement’, Public Administration Review, 54 (3): 277-284.

Niskanen, Willian A. (1973) Bureaucracy: Servant or master? London: The Institute of Economic Affairs.

Nozick, Robert (1974). Anarchy, state and utopia. New York: Basic books.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2004) Access pricing in telecommunication. Paris: OECD Publishing.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2006) Comparative Report on Corporate Governance of State-owven Enterprise. Paris: OECD Publishing

Ongaro, Edoardo (2008) ‘Introduction: the reform of public management in France, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain’, International Journal of Public Sector Management 21(2): 101-117.

Ongaro, Edoardo and Giovanni Valotti (2008) ‘Public management reform in Italy: explaining the implementation gap’, International Journal of Public Sector Management 21(2): 174-204.

Osborne, Stephen P. and Kirsty Strokosch (2013) ‘It takes Two to Tango? Understanding the Co‐production of Public Services by Integrating the Services Management and Public Administration Perspectives’, British Journal of Management, 24(S1): S31-S47.

Ostrom, Vincent and Elinor Ostrom (1971) Public choice: A different approach to the study of public administration. Public Administration Review 31(2): 203-216.

Peters, B. Guy and John Pierre (1998) ‘Governance without Government? Rethinking public administration’, Journal of public administration research and theory 8(2): 223-243.

Piattoni, Simona (Ed.) (2001) Clientelism, interests, and democratic representation: the European experience in historical and comparative perspective. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Pitlik, Hans, Werner Hölzl, Christof Brandtner, Friedrich Heinemann, Florian Misch, Mustafa Yeter, Geert Steurs, Simon Gagnage and Kristof Mertens (2012) Excellence in public administration for competitiveness in EU Member States. Report for the European Commission, DG Enterprise and Industry.

Pizam, Abraham (Ed.) (2010) International Encyclopedia of Hospitality management (Second Ed.). Oxford: Elsevier.

Pollitt, Christopher. A. (2004) Public management reform: A comparative analysis. New York: Oxford University Press.

Putnam, Robert D., Robert Leonardi and Raffaella Y. Nanetti (1994) Making democracy work: Civic traditions in modern Italy. Princenton: Princeton University Press.

Raadschelders, Jos C.N. and Kwang-HoonLee (2011) ‘Trends in the Study of Public Administration: Empirical and Qualitative Observations from Public Administration Review, 2000–2009’, Public Administration Review 71(1):19-33.

Rainey, Hal G., Robert W. Backoff, and Charles H. Levine (1976) ‘Comparing public and private organizations’, Public Administration Review, 36(2):233-244.

Sapienza, Paola (2004) ‘The effects of Government ownership on bank lending’, Journal of Financial Economics 72(2): 357-384.

Schmidt, V. A. (2006) ‘Procedural democracy in the EU: the Europeanization of national and sectoral policy-making processes’, Journal of European Public Policy 13(5): 670-691.

Shleifer, Andrei and Robert W. Vishny (1994) ‘Politicians and firms’, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 109(4): 995-1025.

Spicer, Michael W. (2010) In defense of politics in public administration: A value pluralist perspective.Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.

Tanzi, Vito (1998) Corruption around the world: Causes, consequences, scope, and cures. International Monetary Fund Working Paper WP/98/63.

Toninelli, Pier A. (Ed.) (2000) The rise and fall of state-owned enterprise in the Western world (Vol. 1). New York: Cambridge University Press.

Torres, Lourdes (2004) ‘Trajectories in public administration reforms in European Continental countries’, Australian Journal of Public Administration, 63(3): 99-112.

Walsh, Ciaran (2003) Key management ratios. Master the management metrics that drive and control your business (3rd ed.). Harlow: Financial Times Prentice Hall Publishing.

Warner, Mildred E. (2011) ‘Competition or cooperation in urban service delivery?’, Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics 82(4): 421-435.

Willner, Johan (2001) ‘Ownership, efficiency, and political interference’, European Journal of Political Economy,17(4): 723-748.

Zheng, Jinghai, Xiaoxuan Liu and Arnbe Bigsten (2003) ‘Efficiency, technical progress, and best practice in Chinese state enterprises (1980–1994)’, Journal of Comparative Economics 31(1):134-152.