One more ride on the merry-go-round! Public ownership and delayed competition in local public services

I empirically investigate the relationship between municipal ownership and regulatory outcome. * I test the relationship by using Italian natural gas distribution liberalization reform. * A panel of Italian municipalities are used to test the impact of municipal ownership on the timing of compliance with the reform mandating competition for the market. * I find a negative impact of municipal ownership on compliance with the reform. This paper investigates the effect of public ownership on the use of competitive bidding to award local monopoly franchises. The empirical setting is provided by th... Mehr ...