Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Fabrizio Balassone Author-Name: Stefania Zotteri Author-Name: Daniele Franco Title: Il primo anno di applicazione del Patto di stabilit? interno: una valutazione Abstract: Il primo anno di applicazione del Patto di stabilit? interno: una valutazione (di Fabrizio Balassone, Daniele Franco e Stefania Zotteri) - ABSTRACT: A Domestic Stability Pact has been introduced in Italy with the budget law for the year 1999. The Pact aims at involving Regions and other local authorities in the effort to attain the objectives set for the budget of general government under the European Stability and Growth Pact. However, certain features of the Domestic Pact appear ill-suited to this goal. Specifically, we note that: a) the Domestic Pact uses a definition of budget balance which is different from the one adopted in EMU; b) the incentives for the actual attainment of budgetary targets set for local governments are weak. The results obtained in the first year following the introduction of the Domestic Pact confirm the relevance of these problems. The developments of local governments? finance appear less favourable if reference is made to the definition of budget balance used in EMU than if the Domestic Pact definition is used. The Regions recorded a relevant overshooting of the target. The Domestic Pact was modified by the budget law for the year 2000; however the changes introduced are likely to have further reduced its effectiveness. Specifically, negative effects can be expected as: a) local authorities can now choose among several options the rules according to which budgetary targets are to be set; b) health expenditures have been excluded from the computation of the budget deficit. We argue that binding budget constraints are necessary in order to ensure consistency between compliance with EMU budgetary rules and fiscal decentralisation. Such constraints should be reconciled with the flexibility needed to deal with unfavourable cyclical developments and the financing of public investment at the local level. Classification-JEL: Keywords: Note: Pages: Volume: 2001/2 Year: 2001 Issue:2 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=15593&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:epepep:v:html10.3280/Ep2001-002001 Number: 1 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Paolo Silvestri Author-Name: Maria Cecilia Guerra Author-Name: Paolo Bosi Author-Name: Massimo Baldini Title: La scelta tra ICI e addizionale all'IRPEF nella politica tributaria locale: aspetti distributivi Abstract: La scelta tra ICI e addizionale all?IRPEF nella politica tributaria locale: aspetti distributivi (di Massimo Baldini, Paolo Bosi, Maria Cecilia Guerra e Paolo Silvestri) - ABSTRACT: This paper compares the distributional effects of changes, providing the same revenue, in the rates of the two main taxes available to Italian municipalities: the property tax (ICI) and the additional rate to the national personal income tax (IRPEF). The analysis is carried out using a recently developed microsimulation model, MAPP98, based on the micro data of the 1998 Bank of Italy Survey on Household Income and Wealth. Particular attention is devoted to the choice of the most appropriate welfare indicator: besides disposable equivalent household income, we also use the Indicator of Economic Situation (ISE), and propose a new welfare indicator. The analysis leads to the conclusion that, from a distributional perspective, the recourse to ICI is the better alternative; this result is mainly due to the different distributions across the population of real estate, subject to ICI, and of personal income, subject to IRPEF. Further, the number of households exempted from ICI is much greater than that of those who do not pay the personal income tax. Across demographic groups, the burden of ICI is relatively lower for small households, those with a young head and those of the employees. There is however a great dispersion in the results, which should suggest caution in evaluating the effects of the different policies here examined. The recourse to the property tax, for example, could have undesired consequences upon particular sectors of the population, for example house-holds with low incomes, but owners of the house of residence. Classification-JEL: Keywords: Note: Pages: Volume: 2001/2 Year: 2001 Issue:2 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=15594&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:epepep:v:html10.3280/Ep2001-002002 Number: 2 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Antonio Majocchi Author-Name: Giovanna Gavana Author-Name: Anna Marenzi Title: Gli effetti della riforma fiscale sui bilanci delle imprese manifatturiere Abstract: Gli effetti della riforma fiscale sui bilanci delle imprese manifatturiere (di Giovanna Gavana, Antonio Majocchi e Anna Marenzi) - ABSTRACT: The fiscal reform on business income, recently approved by the Italian authorities, has deeply modified the whole system of taxation. Two new taxes: IRAP, the regional taxation on business activities, and the Dual Incom Tax have been introduced. The paper assesses the achievments of the reform estimating the amount of taxes due according to the old and new rules. The empirical appraisal of the reform has been carried out through a micro-simulationmodel based on the financial statement of 27 thousand Italian manufacturing firms. The results confirm that the new system lower the burden of overall business taxation. This reduction is distributed homogeneously throughout the industrial sectors but varies according to the capital structure of the firms with businesses with a low level of debt gaining more then others from the reform. Classification-JEL: Keywords: Note: Pages: Volume: 2001/2 Year: 2001 Issue:2 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=15595&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:epepep:v:html10.3280/Ep2001-002003 Number: 3 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Gilberto Turati Author-Name: Gian Paolo Barbetta Title: L'analisi dell'efficienza tecnica nel settore della sanit?. Un'applicazione al caso della Lombardia Abstract: L?analisi dell?efficienza tecnica nel settore della sanit?. Un?applicazione al caso della Lombardia (di Gian Paolo Barbetta e Gilberto Turati) - ABSTRACT: The paper measures the technical efficiency in the health care industry. Our aim is twofold: on one side we have a methodological goal, while on the other we want to apply different methodologies developed to measure technical efficiency to a set of empirical data; moreover, we want to explain different efficiency levels of hospitals located in Lombardia. After proposing a brief review of the most important measures (Debreu-Farrell, Shepard?s distance function) and methodologies (dea, stochastic frontiers) in the measurement of technical efficiency, we survey the recent empirical literature on efficiency assessment in the health care sector. We then apply efficiency estimation techniques to a cross-section of public and private hospitals in Lombardia. Our results show that dea efficiency scores are not robust to different model specifications; moreover, efficiency measures obtained with dea and with the alternative stochastic frontier approach show high levels of correlation only when input and output are defined in the same way. Second stage results are more controversial. There seems to be a direct relationship between technical efficiency and firms? dimensions. Moreover, we found no evidence to support the hypothesis of structural differences in efficiency between nonprofit private hospitals and public hospitals. Classification-JEL: Keywords: Note: Pages: Volume: 2001/2 Year: 2001 Issue:2 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=15596&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:epepep:v:html10.3280/Ep2001-002004 Number: 4 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Gerardo Marletto Title: Costi esterni e politiche dei trasporti: critiche a un recente articolo di Marco Ponti Abstract: Classification-JEL: Keywords: Note: Pages: Volume: 2001/2 Year: 2001 Issue:2 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=15597&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:epepep:v:html10.3280/Ep2001-002005 Number: 5