Evaluation of the Italian transport infrastructures: A technical and economic efficiency analysis

By applying a DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) framework and Tobit analysis, this paper aims to measure 32 Italian airports' technical efficiency and investigate how several characteristics impact on their productivity and sustainability. Our findings show that some Italian hubs are technically efficient, although smaller airports that are dominated by low-cost carriers prove to be not least productive. Another conclusion of this paper is that efficiency and environmental impact is independent of an airport's size, although the size matters in determining an airport's superior performance. This article highlights how the Italian public shareholder's system became decisive to increase efficiency in small airports due to the lack of private financing.