Several studies have demonstrated the presence of significant asymmetries in the distribution of public employees in Italy. An econometric analysis of the civil registry services of Italian municipalities confirms this result, indicating the existence of significant deviations from the average ratio between input and output in the delivery of such services: specifically, municipalities with larger staff are located in the Centre-South and in areas where the unemployment level is higher. Therefore, there appears to be considerable room to achieve efficiency gains through an appropriate reallocation of public employees. However, a number of institutional factors, including, in particular, the lack of objective criteria for determining actual staffing needs, the high segmentation of public entities and the uncertainties flowing from different systems for classifying public employees, appear to hinder mobility flows, which are extremely low.
Published in 2017 in: Diritto delle relazioni industriali, v. 27, 1, pp. 127-166
