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Public Infrastructure Investment and Efficiency in Italian Regions

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Abstract

Evidence on growth rates in per capita income of Italian regions reveals persistent differences in development patterns between North and South Italy. While Northern regions manage to sustain high growth rates, Southern regions stagnate in low growth traps. To explain the phenomenon of different long-term growth paths, we use the stochastic frontier approach which allows to discriminate between the channels through which public infrastructure influences overall productivity. The main results are that the impact of core-infrastructure investment on efficiency is always positive. The impact of non-core infrastructure on efficiency is negative in the South and positive in the North.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics and Mathematics-Statistics, University of Lecce, Ecoteknem, via per Monteroni, Lecce, 73100, Italy

    Camilla Mastromarco

  2. Institute for Empirical Research in Economics, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstr. 30, CH, 8006, Zurich

    Ulrich Woitek

Authors
  1. Camilla Mastromarco
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  2. Ulrich Woitek
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Correspondence to Camilla Mastromarco.

Additional information

The present study was carried out while Camilla Mastromarco was Marie Curie Research Fellow at the Department of Economics, University of Munich. We are grateful to participants at the 2nd Hellenic Workshop on Efficiency and Productivity Measurement in Patras, 2003, at the Workshop on Efficiency and Productivity Analysis in Oviedo, 2003, at the First Italian Congress on Econometrics and Empirical Economics in Venice, 2005, and to seminar participants at the Universities of Lecce and Verona for helpful comments and suggestions.

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Mastromarco, C., Woitek, U. Public Infrastructure Investment and Efficiency in Italian Regions. J Prod Anal 25, 57–65 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11123-006-7127-9

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