The implementation of public works in Italy: institutional features and regional characteristics

Audinga Baltrunaite, Tommaso Orlando () and Gabriele Rovigatti
Additional contact information
Tommaso Orlando: Bank of Italy

No 659, Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) from Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area

Abstract: Project duration is an important metric in the assessment of public works procurement and consists of the time taken to complete the three major sub-phases (design, awarding and execution). The overall duration may be influenced by various factors such as project characteristics, local market conditions, and the features of the contracting authority. Italy is characterized by stark territorial differences, potentially encompassing all the above dimensions. This paper uses granular data on Italian procurement to investigate public works’ completion times in the last decade. We unveil performance differentials across macro-areas and analyze possible drivers. We find that i) Southern regions underperform with respect to those in the Centre-North, in particular in phases characterized by a greater intensity of administrative tasks; ii) durations are significantly correlated with the features of the contracting authority, such as workforce composition, workload and experience, and administrative efficiency; iii) these factors, however, explain the North-South divide only partially, suggesting the need to further analyze the internal functioning of contracting authorities.

Keywords: public procurement; public works; local authorities; local administrations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D73 H54 H57 R58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.bancaditalia.it/pubblicazioni/qef/2021-0659/QEF_659_21.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bdi:opques:qef_659_21

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) from Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().