In this paper we look at the Italian NationalHealth System as a case study, in order to investigate whethercompetition exerts positive effects on the efficiency of hospitals.Using the DEA technique we measure the efficiency of Italianhospital production; secondly, we take a regression...

The paper highlights issues on the theory of voluntary provision of public goods, building on the investigation by Peacock, in connection with the contributions by Coase and Buchanan. Our goal is twofold. We first draw attention to the early literature investigating the provision of public goods...

This paper analyses the role of tourism in the enhancement of local development focusing on the role of UNESCO World Heritage List (WHL) as attractor of tourism demand. It aims at evaluating the performance of the Italian regions as tourism destinations in the period 1995-2010, using the Data...

Cultural heritage is a complex and elusive concept, constantly evolving through time, and combining cultural, aesthetic, symbolic, spiritual, historical and economic values. The Handbook on the Economics of Cultural Heritage outlines the contribution of economics to the design and analysis of...