Public works in north-east italy: An efficiency and risk allocation analysis

The present contribution provides an overview of public works completed and in progress in the Veneto Region, in north-east Italy. The analysis is conducted on regional data collected by the Italian government in accordance with the European Union’s transparency requirements on public spending. Cost and time overruns are considered as crucial indicators of efficiency in infrastructure development and risk assessment. The paper addresses the relevance of public works, and risk assessments in infrastructure development, also dealing with the theoretical framework and relevant regulatory innovation. We compare the proportion of risks considered by the Authority for the Supervision of Public Works, Services, and Supply Contracts (AVCP) with a sample of 4,331 works retrieved from the OpenData source on public works in Italy. The analysis confirms an improvement in the efficiency of the public administration in the territory analyzed. It also highlights the potential and also the bias of the data source in terms of the reliability of the present results, and for the purposes of future research.