L’efficienza del settore pubblico regionale attraverso gli indicatori di contesto e la spesa pubblica consolidata

The efficiency of the regional public sector is evaluated according to two non-parametric techniques, the FDH and DEA, which estimate the efficiency of a given decision making unit as the distance between the observed input-output combinations and an efficient frontier based on the sample’s best practices. Our exercise utilizes as proxies for the level of outputs the context indicators drawn from the Community Support Framework databank, and as proxies for the level of inputs the consolidated public expenditure estimated by the Department for Development Policies, Ministry of Economy and Finance, Italy. Due to the large amount of variables involved, as a preliminary we select an appropriate normalization method and a suitable aggregation criterion. To this latter end, we also experiment with the weights resulting from the DEA application viewed as a method for achieving robust aggregation. The main findings are as follows: (i) the number of efficient regions changes according to the specific assumptions concerning the shape of the frontier; (ii) efficient regions are generally located in the North-East of Italy and along the Central Adriatic Coast, and finally (iii) there is considerable scope for improving efficiency