Maurizio Conti

The productive effect of transport infrastructures: does road transport liberalization matter?

In this paper we analyze the impact of motorway networks on production for a panel of twenty one manufacturing and service sectors of eleven EU countries observed over the period 1980-2003. In particular, we analyze if the degree of regulation of the road transport sector affects the link between productivity and motorway infrastructures. Overall results suggest that output elasticity with respect to motorway is found to be lower for countries characterised by a high degree of entry barriers in the road transport sector. This result is found to be more evident for industries which rely more heavily on transport services.

The introduction of the euro and economic growth: Some panel data evidence

We use a difference in difference estimation framework to analyse the effects of the adoption of the euro on the level of per capita GDP for a sample of seventeen European countries (the EU15 plus Norway and Iceland) over the period 1990–2010. We find that the adoption of the euro may have raised the level of per capita GDP (and labour productivity) by about 4 percent. There is also some evidence that the impact of the euro has been smaller in the case of countries with a high debt-to-GDP ratio in 1999 when the euro was introduced. Results are robust to controlling for country fixed effects, time trends and to estimation strategies that control for cross-country parameter heterogeneity.

Efficiency and Productivity Growth in a Sample of Italian Container Terminals

In this study we estimate a production frontier for a sample of Italian container terminals observed over the period 2001-2008 in order to assess the pattern of Total Factor Productivity (TFP). Estimates of different stochastic frontier models suggest the existence of a modest but positive TFP growth rate over the period 2001-07 and an abrupt fall in TFP in 2008, which probably reflects the onset of the 2008-9 world recession. We also find that scale economies and technical change have positively contributed to TFP growth over the sample period ; in turn, all models find a decline in technical efficiency. Finally, the different stochastic frontier methods considered in this paper give a broadly consistent picture of the productivity and efficiency developments that have occurred in this sample.

An Assessment on the Cost Structure of the UK Airport Industry: Ownership Outcomes and Long Run Cost Economies

In this paper we analyze the cost structure of the UK airport industry by estimating a variable cost function for the period 1994-2005. Overall results suggest that the long run average costs curve is U-shaped: it decreases until passenger traffic reaches approximately five millions, it remains flat over the range between five and fourteen million passengers and afterwards it starts to increase. Moreover, our findings provide evidence consistent with the existence of some degree of overcapitalization for the largest regulated airports. Finally, we analyze whether different forms of ownership entail cost differentials across airports and we find that privately owned airports are characterized by lower costs with respect to public and mixed ones, although cost differentials shrank over time as public and mixed airports improved their rate of cost reduction. Main results are robust to unobserved heterogeneity at the airport or market level and to possible endogeneity biases. Possible regulatory and policy implications of these results are also discussed.

Una nota sul Servizio idrico italiano dopo i referendum del giugno 2011

In questo lavoro si discutono le possibili implicazioni economiche dei due quesiti referendari del giugno 2011 che hanno interessato il settore idrico italiano e che hanno abolito l’obbligo del ricorso alla gara come modalita standard di affidamento del servizio e il riferimento alla adeguatezza della remunerazione del capitale investito, rispettivamente. Per quanto riguarda il primo punto, si ritiene che l’esito referendario non avra implicazioni negative sull’evoluzione del settore e possa aver accelerato la creazione di un quadro regolatorio piu chiaro nel quale una autorita indipendente assume un ruolo determinante. Inoltre discutiamo le possibili implicazioni economiche della vittoria del si nel secondo quesito referendario, sia nel caso in cui i capitali privati dovessero fuoriuscire dal settore, sia nel caso in cui cio non dovesse succedere. Infine, discutiamo le proposte preliminari in tema di revisione del metodo tariffario normalizzato recentemente avanzate dall’Autorita dell’Energia.

The Cost Structure of the Airport Industry: Methodological Issues and Empirical Evidence

Abstract nThis chapter examines the main methodological issues involved in the comprehension of the cost structure of the airport industry and suggests considerations for future airport cost analyses. Such understanding has become a crucial concern for policy makers, regional planners, and managers in order to deal with optimal market design (e.g., regulation and market configuration) and airport strategies (e.g., pricing, investments, and alliances). An in-depth analysis of the economics of cost functions is presented, together with a description of the relevant multi-output cost economies measures (average incremental costs, scale and scope economies, and cost complementarities). We also discuss the assumptions underlying estimates of total versus variable cost functions and the importance of estimating a sufficiently flexible functional form. Moreover, we provide a critical survey of the international empirical literature on the cost structure of the airport industry, which highlights how econometric estimates strongly depend on the sample choice and the empirical model considered. Indeed, while econometric studies on international samples based on long-run cost function estimates show that long-run scale economies are never exhausted, single country studies mostly estimate variable cost functions and find lower values for scale economies at median sample points that tend to decrease with size. We discuss why we believe that studies based on the estimation of short-run variable cost functions offer more reliable results, given the reasonable assumption of airport overcapitalization in the short run. We conclude our work by noting that underlying policy issues related to planning and regulation, as well as to the optimal market structure of the airport sector, need to take into account the role played by vertical relationships between airports and airlines.

Economie di scala e di densità nel settore idrico: ulteriore evidenza empirica per l'Inghilterra

In this paper we estimate a cost function for the English water only sector in order to improve the knowledge of the technological structure of the industry. The analysis of the existence and extent of cost economies might provide useful insights for the regulator and policymakers in terms of industry design and economic regulation. In order to expand previous results in Bottasso and Conti (2008), we estimate a cost function which includes, together with water delivered and connected properties, the service area size. This specification allows us to consider different measures of cost economies, namely economies of output and customer density and scale economies. Economies of output density provide useful information on the impact on costs deriving from higher demand generated from the existing customer base; economies of customer density are the relevant measure to consider when output grows because of demand arising from new customers; finally economies of scale shed light on possible gains deriving from mergers between nearby utilities. In particular, we verify whether previous results are confirmed when estimating a total cost function, given that estimates from a variable cost function might suffer from possible multicollinearity problems.Our main results show that economies of output density exist and tend to decrease with firm size, while economies of customer density are positive but slightly increasing with the scale of the utilities. This latter result implies that population growth should not lead to increases in the average production costs. Moreover, estimates suggest the existence of moderate economies of scale which do not seem to vary with size. This finding implies that utilities at the median of the sample (i.e. companies with a production of about 270 ML/d, about half a million customers and with a service area of about 2000 squared Km) might be enjoying modest cost savings from prudent aggregations. Furthermore, the Morishima elasticities of substitution suggest a relatively limited degree of substitutability between inputs.

Industry Productivity, Infrastructure and Road Transport Liberalization in Europe

In this paper we assess the impact of both the highways network and the degree of regulation in the road freight sector on industry productivity by estimating a Cobb-Douglas production function on a panel of twenty one manufacturing and service sectors of eleven EU countries observed over the period 1980-2003. The production function estimates suggest that the highways network elasticity � ��