Abstract
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Regulation of local public services is a crucial field where specific training and capacity building for Public Administration and Civil Servants is needed, especially for local and regional governments and agencies.
In the last 20 years the debate on local public services constantly concentrated on liberalization and privatization. Nevertheless, local authorities still keep strong control both on strategies and on goods: furthermore, the long wave of liberalization and privatization seems fading, at least in Europe, and leaving room for a “back to public control” spread sentiment. Though public/private management of services and assets is a key issue, it leaves completely unanswered the need for a strong role of the local government in strategic decisions, regulation and control.
While for large network services (e.g. telecommunications, energy) regulation is well-established, at least in OECD countries, and it is normally operated by independent national authorities, at local level an equivalent framework for local public services does not exist or is only outlined, even though those services produce a not negligible share of the GDP and contribute significantly to people’s wellbeing.
Considering that local public services are provided mostly in conditions of natural monopolies and/or relevant market failures for the presence of externalities and public goods, and in a context of strong information asymmetries, regulation of these services is crucial, allowing to reach some desirable aims like, among others, the protection of consumer from market incumbents’ possible abuses, equity and environmental concerns. Different sectors are at stake, e.g.: waste and water cycle, energy, transport, green and sport facilities, education, local welfare.
This paper intends to present an international experience, the Turin School of Local Regulation (TSLR) launched to respond to specific and bespoke demand of education, training and research for LOCAL REGULATION.
Indeed, local regulation shows some specific and additional issues and factors of weakness compared to regulation implemented at national level. These factors lie in the existence of “improper costs” for the regulatory activity at local level, being these improper costs able to distort the well-known model of a regulator maximizing social welfare/benefits. As an example of improper costs borne by local regulators there are the psychological, human, professional costs associated with sanctioning (removing, fining, refusing accounting outcomes, …) and the possible loss of future income associated with hard present decisions against regulated firms and agents.
The improper osmosis among professional roles simply amplifies these improper costs: at local level the osmosis of people among roles (politics, regulation, business, consultancy, bureaucracy, and so on) seems, anecdotally, more frequent in comparison with the national level, posing a threat to the incentive structure lying behind regulatory work.
The TSLR is a network initiative whose activities are based on a policy-oriented approach, with the aim of spreading the culture and instruments of regulation and regulatory reform at local level, connecting academic research with local policy-makers, public officials, professionals, local regulatory agencies.
The paper will summarize the history of the initiative, present the scientific background, collect and analyse feedbacks from participants to the training initiatives organized so far (in particular from those from Central and Eastern Europe), illustrate future developments.
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