Effects of Outsourcing on Performance Measurement and Reporting: The Experience of Italian Local Governments

Much has changed over the past few years regarding the financial and nonfinancial information Italian Local Governments (LGs) publish even as a consequence of the process of externalization of local public services. This paper is aimed at describing the causes and the effects of the administrative reform process that interested Italian LGs and at identifying the possible different dimensions of LG performance. In particular, this paper distinguishes among performance achieved by LGs strictu sensu (general performance), performance attained by the municipal group (group performance), and performance achieved by all other producers of local public services (global performance). The group and global dimensions of performance are briefly discussed, as well as the tools used to measure them.