RISULTATI RICERCA

This paper presents a contingent valuation study set up to estimate the recreational value of an old mine, Porto Flavia, a site of the (UNESCO world heritage) Geo-mine Park in Sardinia. After discussing the role that appropriate policies and management of cultural goods can take for sustainable tourist development, we present the main features of the method, the survey design, and the data-set obtained. The econometric analysis focuses on the estimates of the demand curve, identifying possible targets for marketing actions, and a set of prices for different visit options.

In Italy, vehicle fuel taxation is both a form of taxation enjoying little public support and one of the main tools used by the government to raise revenues. From an economic point of view, this kind of taxation may find its rationale as an instrument to internalise some of the external costs arising from traffic, therefore inducing a resource allocation more efficient than the one arising from the market. Aim of this paper is to supply a quantitative estimate of the external costs arising from traffic that can be efficiently internalised by fuel taxation. To reach this goal, data from the most recent literature on the topic, mostly originating from the European Union project Extern E-Transport, will be considered.

This paper analyses the redistributive and efficiency effects of extending at national level the Reddito minimo di inserimento, introduced experimentally in 1998 in some Italian municipalities. We develop a behavioural micro-simulation tax-benefit model that allows for simultaneous labour supply decisions by household members, endogenous choice between dependent employment and self-employment, complete representation of the current Italian tax-benefit system. The results show a positive impact on both inequality and poverty, while overall labour supply would reduce. On average magnitude of labour supply disincentive would be small for married individuals, relatively larger for single persons and, within this category, for women than men.

In this paper we have examined the scale and cost efficiency of Italian and Swiss regional bus companies. For this purpose, we have used the estimation of a frontier cost model using a fixed effect approach. Two translog cost frontier models were specified and estimated using panel data. The first model was estimated for a sample of 58 Italian bus companies, whereas the second model was estimated for a sample of 55 Swiss bus companies. The findings on efficiency were discussed in the political and regulatory setting under which the Swiss and the Italian regional bus companies are operating.

The recent reform of local public services resulted in the establishment of an articulated structure based on separation of public functions. The article summarized herewith provides with economic tools to understand and operate within this new structure. Such reform is based on the general principle of the «separation of institutional duties», concerning ways of separating different functions: co-ordination and planning on one hand and service management on the other. The above reform also determines a vertically articulated diversification of activities based on technological criteria such as property of infrastructures, management of infrastructures and utility supply. The article demonstrates how such «technological separation» appears to be a convenient tool in achieving a more efficient «separation of institutional duties». In conclusion, the article underlines the difficulties in applying the principle of «technological separation » in several local public utilities.