1,721,089 research outputs found
Digital agendas, regional policy and institutional quality: Assessing the Italian broadband plan
No full textBroadband policy has been booming with the support of the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF). However, its performance and impact remain contentious, since primary evidence is lacking. We study the first Italian plan for financing broadband-deprived areas through ESIF, characterised by multi-level governance (MLG). We find that its overly centralised design suffered from serious policy faults, that hampered regional efforts. Funding mismatches and other institutional obstacles disadvantaged Northern and Central regions; however, because the latter enjoyed higher institutional quality, they managed to leapfrog the (more supported) Southern ones. The Digital Agendas performance is shaped by the institutional quality-MLG mix
Procuring NGA infrastructure: The performance of EMAT auctions in Italy
No full textItaly was a patent laggard in the market roll-out of NGA networks. In 2015, the Italian Government introduced the “ultrabroadband strategy”, an ambitious policy agenda addressing the NGA market failures. This paper assesses the procurement policy assigning public concessions to build and manage passive infrastructure in “NGA white areas”: in detail, the techno-economic properties and outcomes of the auctions are analyzed, both theoretically and empirically. Because the applicable procurement law was the EU one, the EMAT scoring rules were mandatory. Relevant findings stand out, which confirm the received wisdom on first-price auctions, and extend it to high-tech sectors, where EMAT remains under-researched. First, the concession auctions unleashed vibrant bidding competition in many white areas, which enabled substantial budget savings. Second, the quality scoring rules provided adequate flexibility to prioritize the procurement of the most innovative and pro-competitive architectures (FTTH/B/P), despite the presence of high uncertainty. Third, the EMAT framework catered for a multidimensional procurement agenda; the latter targeted efficient and innovative procurement, universal service and higher market competition, while accommodating the ambitious industrial policy of the Government. Evidence of a potential trade-off between the plan implementation delay and its innovativeness emerged; such a conflict was eventually exacerbated by the bandwidth shortages generated by the COVID-19 crisis. By providing the very first study on EMAT auctions for broadband, this work stimulates future comparative research on additional EU member States
E-government e capitale umano nella Pubblica Amministrazione italiana. Una prospettiva di medio periodo
No full textItaly has recently progressed in the aggregate DESI rank of the EU Digital Agendas, but remains a laggard member state for e-government, because of its critical digital public services. Owing to the scarcity of micro and territorial data, this work examines the main stylized facts, and interprets them with a transdisciplinary theoretical framework. On the one hand, we find that the digital delay of the Italian Public Administration (PA) is rooted in a peculiar mix of institutional obstacles, such as the legalistic juridical culture, normative chaos, political instability and patronage: these factors dampen the clarification and simplification of processes and the back office, required by e-government to be effective. On the other hand, we posit that hiring policies and those of austerity (block of the personnel turnover in the PA) have increasingly lowered the quantity and quality of the digital public services.
These policies may have created an original case of technological adoption disconnected from the necessary investment in human capital and organization of the PA (inadequate e-government supply). Finally, this work, while calling for a further appraisal of this policy case, recalls the deficit of statistics and open Government data which harm the study of the Digital Agenda of Italy
The state and prospects of regulation: A long term perspective on Italy and beyond
No full textAdopting a long term perspective helps to evaluate the rationale, outcomes, and dilemmas of the regulation evolution and its reforms. After having been ignited by market liberalisations and privatisations of the 1980s and 1990s, regulation reforms impacted on utilities differently. Some sectors (like telecoms) appear to have reaped the highest benefits from incentive-based regulation; others (such as electricity), for a variety of reasons, did not completely abandon rate-of-return (ROR) or featured hybrid tools. While the price cap stands as the regulatory champion, its many variants prevent sound experimental assessments; moreover, so far it has not been able to entirely solve quality underinvestment. Consequently, a new generation of output-based regulation is being developed: it encompasses a wider menu of policy targets. Telecoms, which remain the front-runner of future trends, experiment new regulatory models for stimulating infrastructure-based competition, and guaranteeing universal service. Furthermore, the role of privatisations remains contentious and appears generally overstated. The regulatory agenda is now concerned with the solution of Government failures, and the harmonisation between regulation and industrial policy. The resurgence of the latter in the EU is unveiled by a 'vibrant' State aid policy, that targets sectors (utilities) that are nodes of systemic interdependence. At the same time, telecoms markets uncover original policy dilemmas at the intersection of antitrust and regulation. While industrial eras and regulatory paradigms seem to chase one another, new insights on how to better regulate monopolistic markets come from "nudges" and behavioural theories of regulation. Concerning the research agenda, cases of 'regulatory exuberance' may warrant scrutiny, while a deeper investigation of the limits of independent authorities is needed
The EU State aid policy for broadband: An evaluation of the Italian experience with first generation networks
No full textState aid (SA) measures for broadband have been flourishing in the EU, but our knowledge about the effectiveness and efficiency of this policy remains extremely scarce. We investigate the SA experience with the first generation of broadband services (FGB) in Italy, whose market was long plagued by extensive market failures, largely due to market power. By exploiting original open Government data and sources, we analyse the main domains of the EU SA policy, and assess whether its ex ante goals have been met in Italy. Four main results stand out. First, the plan extended the FGB coverage of rural areas, although with a substantial delay and incompletely, with respect to the ambitious targets of the Digital Agenda for Europe. Second, public consultations have significantly increased the transparency of the market and of the SA intervention, promoting investment and a gradual increase in the efficiency of public procurement. Third, the direct effects of SA on competitive entry appear less pronounced, at least in the static sense. Fourth, the final matching between allocative and dynamic efficiency of SA policy, and its coherence with industrial and innovation policies remain critical, based on the Italian experience: in fact, the persisting digital divide affecting the business-rich areas depicts another relevant instance of partial Government failure
Commenti
No full textLe scienze sociali da decenni indagano il ruolo dei mass media nell’“universo
mondo”, e le singole discipline in principio possono fornire angolature diverse ma
potenzialmente utili a comporre una valutazione composita di fenomeni complessi
e sfaccettati, che si inseriscono all’intersezione di tecnologia, economia, istituzioni
e società. Quindi, un tema intrinsecamente transdisciplinare come i mezzi di comunicazione
di massa dovrebbe richiedere naturalmente il concorso tra discipline
che si indirizzano ai suoi componenti costitutivi
La crisi e il declino italiani. Dibattito ed evidenze recenti
No full textItaly has not yet managed to recover from the last big crisis, and the country continues to worsen its rank concerning the most important indicators of growth and socio-economic development. Looking at a long run perspective, the Italian model of economic development and productive specialisation persists and increases its weaknesses, while a few well-known criticalities of the institutional system remain relevant. At the same time, the issue of the feasible economic policies cannot be overlooked: as a matter of fact, it remains the cornerstone within the broader debate on the EU austerity orientation. Disappointingly, this debate is often characterised by ideological positions – sometimes related to mere party’s marketing strategies - thereby loosing adherence to the socio-economic facts and figures. In this work, we reconsider the debate on the economic crises and the structural decline, by examining a comprehensive range of medium-term socio-economic indicators. The main aim is to carry out a reality-check for the received wisdom, and to point to the main conditions for re-launching the country’s economy
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