Computerization, Accounting Transparency and Competitiveness of Public Administration : A Regional Analysis

The aim of this work is to provide information of use in evaluating Italian local public entities from two angles. 1) computerization and supply of web-services; 2) “accounting transparency” and use of accounting information for internal control and benchmarking. The analysis is based on data gathered periodically by the Bank of Italy. In order to give a broader view of the quality of Italian public administration, the outcome of the analysis is compared with the Formez research on business activity policies, employment policies and territorial competitiveness policies. The computerization index shows a better performance by northern regions. The “accounting transparency” index, based on SIOPE data, instead reveals that geographical location is not a crucial determinant of the performance gap between Italian regions