LA CONCORRENZA PER IL MERCATO NEL TRASPORTO PUBBLICO LOCALE: CRITICITA' DI UN APPROCCIO AD ASSETTO VARIABILE

In the last decade of the past century the Italian legislator introduced a new regulation in order to create a competitive market in local public transportation industry. The objective was to eliminate any form of in-house contracting and reinforce the mechanism of the “competition for the market” within the industry. However, it is straightforward that the achievement of such objective largely depends on the choices that will be made at the local government level about the regulation of the contests and the service contracts. The aim of this paper is to analyze the implications of the different regulatory options in terms of both degree of market contestability/openness to competition and local transportation firms’ profitability.