Polin V., Tartamella F. (2020).

A PILOT STUDY ON REGIONAL FINANCIAL REDISTRIBUTION OF THE ITALIAN GOVERNMENT SECURITIES OVER 2007-2017. Rivista internazionale di scienze sociali, n. 2 , 2020, pp. 219-254.

Abstract:

It is well known how high and persistent is the Italian public debt and its annual cost borne by citizens. However, less known, from an empirical point of view, are the redistributive effects of this burden, particularly in their territorial dimension. In this article we try to shine a light on the regional financial redistribution of public expenditures government securities in Italy over a long period of time. Regarding the methodological approach, we estimate for each region a monetary transfer based on two items, from the payer side, the financial resources levied at the regional level, whose amount depends on four different criteria, to finance the annual cost of public debt (both external and domestic) and, from the recipient side, the transfers received by each region based on the holders of domestic Italian public debt. According to our findings, the financing burden, estimated using alternative criteria, is borne by all regions and, for most regions, the enjoyed benefits, as government securities holders, are not sufficient to offset the amount paid through taxes. Furthermore, the monetary losses are not homogeneously distributed at regional level: Southern regions and some of the centre show a greater financial disadvantage. Finally, our regional results show that household sector, an important domestic investor and taxpayer, is almost always loser, and this finding does not depend on the type of possession considered (only directly or directly plus indirectly) and on the financing criteria adopted.