Abstract

A significant strand of the recent literature suggests that «excessive» regulation and a heavy administrative burden on firms obstruct market entrance and reduce funding for investment projects, thus damaging competition and growth. The Italian system has a poor ranking in international classifications, both as regards anti-competitive regulations (an indicator of OECD markets' regulation) and as regards bureaucratic burdens of doing business (Report Doing Business 2011). Since Italy's position is the result of a combination of potentially very different local contexts, it might be relevant to evaluate such indicators at a regional level (considering those ones that do not depend on national laws but on local legislation and bureaucracy). The aim of this paper is to measure territorial variability of bureaucratic burdens, with reference to their costs and the length of the various administrative procedures that are vital for a business. Some suggestions on possible causes and the potential impact of these differences on productive system will be discussed.