Standard expenditure and performance level: mapping of Tuscan municipalities

Position Paper 35/2024 | April

By Claudia Ferretti

The data made available by Opencoesione for 2019, which report the estimated standard requirements curated annually by Sose and accompanied by output indicators, return a mapping of Italian municipalities based on their performance. Specifically, the performance rendered by local governments is commensurate with both expenditure – and evaluated, therefore, on the basis of the gap between historical and theoretical standard expenditures – and output – and measured, therefore, in relation to the set of services rendered to citizens, more or less congruent with those provided by entities of the same size. In this sense they provide, therefore, a representation of government performance.

Within this paper, thus adopting this reading, the average regional behaviors with respect to these two dimensions are initially identified, both in the overall core functions and in greater sectoral detail, placing Tuscany within the national picture. Subsequently, the positioning of Tuscan municipalities will be observed, trying to identify the most virtuous areas and those with the greatest criticality.