The 2011 Report on territorial finance in Italy is aimed at recognizing the main features of the Italian situation in this difficult economic downturn. The last two years has seen a massive regulatory activity, primarily addressed to tackle financial emergency, ensure expenditure and debt control, and reorganize the institutional setting. A novelty in this seventh edition of the report concerns the chapters devoted to analyze financial trends on the basis of regional data. In particular, the volume includes a monitoring study of territorial administrations as regards the structure, dynamics and levels of income and expenditure, broken down by allocation type. It also offers an in-depth investigation of local finance, with an overview of some European countries’ performance.
The first part of the report analyzes the financial health of local administrations, provides evidence on the impact of State provisions for the budgets of municipalities in terms of current expenditure, investments and tax burden; it also surveys expenditure of central and local public administrations, illustrates the situation and prospects of the prevalent local financing tools, and analyses how the institutional set-up of local authorities is affected by the economic-financial provisions.
The second part of the report examines the new system of local fiscal autonomy, investigates the structural features of the real estate building stock and proposes an initial assessment of the management experience of regions with the Internal Stability Pact.
The third part of the report discusses at some length the role of regional authorities in local financial systems for some European countries.
Autore: IRES Piemonte, IRPET, SRM, IReR, IPRES
