Cooperazione locale in Italia: le Unioni di Comuni

Local cooperation in Italy: The municipal consortia This study presents an analysis of the financial statements of consortia from 2005 to 2012. The data come from the final accounts made available by the Ministry of Interior and cover 404 consortia and 2,090 participating municipalities that, with an average adhesion of 5.17 municipalities per consortium, represent 25.95% of the total municipalities. The goal of the analysis is to identify the existence of different types of consortia, characterized by both the composition of joint expenses and financing sources, and to assess the effect that the consortium has on both the overall levels of spending and its composition. In light of the above data, we can state that the weight, in terms of revenue and expenditure of municipal consortia, within the Italian public administration has so far been modest. However, the degree of activism of consortia, in terms of the ratio between the consortium per capita expenditure and the per capita expenditure of the belonging municipalities, is very heterogeneous both regionally and for spending functions.