Cross regional heterogeneity of individual attitudes towards public management of local services. An empirical analysis based on Italian data

Abstract

Over the last years, scholars looked at the decentralization of competences as a possible solution for several issue of public finance. Despite the development of a new branch in fiscal federalism theory (the so-called Second Generation Theory), the homogeneity of preferences at local level still represents one of the main assumption in this literature. This hypothesis allows assuming that a local allocation of public services minimizes the welfare losses that a central allocation could generate. The present contribution tries to underline how the homogeneity of preferences continues to represent a central topic in fiscal federalism theory, finding in the information issue a kind of trait d'union between them. Moreover, by means of an empirical analysis on the Italian case, we will try to analyze if individual attitudes towards a public management of local ser- vices present a greater heterogeneity at macroregional (NUTS1) or regional (NUTS2) level.