Abstract

This paper examines the phenomenon of late payment by Italy's General Government. The main contribution to the debate are new estimates on the stock of trade payables and the average debtor days for the years 2008-2014 which, compared with those published in the Bank of Italy's Annual Reports, incorporate a number of methodological refinements. We also investigate the distribution of trade debts according to several characteristics of creditor firms (sector, size, geographical area, intensity of relations with the public sector) and propose some useful elements for evaluating the effectiveness of the Government's 2013-2014 programme aimed at reducing the outstanding debts.