Quality of Life in Major Italian Cities: Do Local Governments Cost Efficiency Contribute to Improve Urban Life Style? An Introductory Analysis

In this paper we set forth a novel analysis of urban quality of life (QoL) using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approach. We use a newly constructed municipality database, which includes all 103 provincial capitals. In our approach we follow a two-stage method. In the first stage, we estimate efficiency scores through a nonparametric DEA with desirable and undesirable outputs. Estimated rankings are compared to Legambiente index. In the second stage, we regress efficiency scores on economic, social and political variables. Our main objective is to estimate non discretionary variables effects on efficiency. According to Simar and Wilson (2007) results show that local government efficiency is highly heterogeneous and that there exists high correlation among our rankings and Legambiente index. Considering exogenous effects, geographical conditions and political aspects constitute the main determinants of municipalities’ efficiency.