Nell’ultimo decennio del secolo scorso, il legislatore italiano ha posto le premesse giuridiche per la creazione di un mercato concorrenziale dei servizi di trasporto pubblico locale, in vista della eliminazione di ogni forma di “affidamento diretto” e dell’applicazione del meccanismo della “concorrenza per il mercato”. Posto che l’efficacia del progetto di riforma istituzionale e di mercato è funzione delle scelte regolamentari adottate nell’architettura disciplinare delle gare e dei collegati contratti di servizio, il presente lavoro si prefigge lo scopo di analizzare le implicazioni che le scelte medesime producono sul piano del reale grado di apertura e di contendibilità del mercato, da un lato, e su quello della “attrattività del business” del trasporto pubblico locale, dall’altro.
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 fi rms’ profi tability.
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 fi rms’ profi tability.
