Pubblicato in open access l’articolo “The reform of national judicial geography and access to local financial resources: unintended territorial effects of a central policy in Italy” a cura di Greta Falavigna, Roberto Ippoliti (UNIPO e Ricercatore Associato CNR-IRCrES) e Giovanni Battista Ramello (UNITO).
Italy’s judicial system has long been marked by inefficiencies that hinder local economic development. To improve judicial productivity—while at the same time seeking to contain public spending—a central policy was enacted to suppress and merge courts across the country. However, municipalities were excluded from the design and selection process, which resulted in unintended territorial consequences. This study investigates the impact of this reform on access to external financial resources for manufacturing SMEs, using a Difference-in-Difference approach between 2014 and 2018. We find that the consolidation of courts—while aimed at enhancing efficiency—altered the institutional landscape in ways that affected firms’ access to capital markets.
