Pubblico e Privato nei Servizi Pubblici Locali tra Concorrenza e Aspetti di Governance

This work presents a survey of the empirical literature concerning the management of local public utilities in Italy. The analysis deals with the evaluation of the operational activity, the corporate gov- ernance, the ef!ciency and the pro!tability of local public !rms and suggests some policy interventions to restructure the sector. In particular, it is necessary to reinforce the liberalization process before privatizing. However, the motivation of local governments for engaging in partial privatisation of local services is support- ed, since the evidence shows better performance results of mixed ownership versus full state ownership. The reduction of the polit- ical interference in the management of the !rms is a good oppor- tunity to improve both corporate governance practices and pro!t- ability. Finally, more costs than bene!ts appear to arise from the creation of large multi-utility and multi-municipality players, but the presence of scale economies suggests that operators would take bene!t from strategies aimed at increasing the size of their core businesses.