The regional public spending for tourism in Italy: an empirical analysis

In this paper, we analyse the effects of public spending for tourism in the twenty Italian regions. The evaluation is made possible by the availability of the databank under the project ‘Conti Pubblici Territoriali’ (‘Regional Public Account’) of the Ministry of Economic Development, wherein the spending of all public institutions is aggregated for each region, and it is also classified according to different criteria, including the sectoral criterion. We take a cross-sectional regression analysis approach, and the effects of public spending for tourism on tourism attraction are investigated. Generally speaking, the effectiveness of public spending appears to be weak.