L’efficienza delle strutture periferiche del ministero del lavoro e delle politiche sociali

The paper analyzes the efficiency of territorial offices of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, which use an high portion of the financial and human resources of the Ministry. The aim is to compare their efficiency in order to improve resource allocation from the center to the periphery and to promote competitive behavior on the better use of available resources among the offices themselves. Methods and Results: Two models are examined, both based on a non-parametric Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approach with bootstrapping techniques. Margins for a reallocation of resources and an increase of productivity are examined through a slack analysis. The first model concerns the inspection services carried out by the territorial offices on enterprises as concerns the labour and social security regulation enforcement an on construction sites, for security and health regulations. The second model also considers other activities such as the issuing of work permits for migrants and resolving disputes between employees and employers before lawsuits. Further specifications include collection of fines and the role of the higher-level regional offices. The results show a relatively high average performance of the territorial offices, albeit significantly different rankings among the models. The inclusion of regional coordination and support does not seem to modify relative efficiency scores. The second, more complete, model shows scale economies; while efficiency does not appear to be driven by the typical Italian North-Center-South divide. Conclusions: Albeit their complexity and multiple functions, estimating and analyzing the efficiency of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy’s territorial offices can provide useful insights also for productivity enhancement and cost rationalization. While there seems to be little margin to reduce inputs, if all offices were equally efficient, there could be relevant gains in terms of some of the activities carried out.

Keywords: Efficiency analysis, inspections, peripheral structures of the central government

Jel codes: D24, H11

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Francesco Silvi, Giuseppe Di Giacomo, Aline Pennisi, L’efficienza delle strutture periferiche del ministero del lavoro e delle politiche sociali in "RIVISTA DI ECONOMIA E STATISTICA DEL TERRITORIO" 3/2013, pp 5-44, DOI: 10.3280/REST2013-003001