This study discusses the main problems in assessing overall spending efficiency of local governments and presents an application of non-parametric techniques (DEA) to the activities carried out by Italian municipalities. The analysis relies on a sample of 262 municipalities in the Province of...

The diffusion of Integrated Tariff Systems (ITS) in Local Public Transport (LPT), that started up in Europe in the mid 1960s, may be due to three main factors: a) the development of the cities and the increasing need of mobility from the collectivity; b) the inconvenience the users face due to...

This paper analyses the effects of corporatization, mixed ownership and board composition on the behaviour and performance of a sample of 114 Italian local public utilities, for which information about 1,630 directors during 1994-2004 has been collected. Our main findings indicate that, while...

This paper contributes to the literature on firms' productivity and exporting decisions by analyzing the role played by organizational choice aspects. Rather than setting up a vertically integrated structure, manufacturers may act as sub-contractors in both domestic and foreign markets, and...