Modelli di governance nei servizi pubblici: il trasporto pubblico locale in Italia

This paper address the issue of governance of public services adopting the interpretative lens provided by the Transaction Cost Economics. In particular, we aim at studying the alignment between characteristics of transactions and governance structures within Local Public Transport systems. Our focus is on the relationship between the local government and the service provider, seen as a contracting problem. The empirical section of our study addresses three case studies, pointing out an articulated organizational configuration in terms of actors involved and governance structures adopted. Our analysis is able to confirm alignment between the main theoretical tenets of Transaction Cost Economics applied to public governance and the choices underlying the design of local transport systems.