Perceptions of the public sector’s effectiveness lag behind other OECD countries

Italy’s pension and debt servicing costs are higher than in most other OECD countries, while growth-enhancing spending is lower

Outcomes from Italy’s public spending lag behind in some areas, such as building skills and reducing poverty rates among children and families

Italy has developed a large number of performance indicators, but they have little influence on what public goods and services the budget funds

Italy has substantially improved how it designs regulations, but still regulates some sectors heavily

Italy’s public sector workforce has been reduced to among the smaller across the OECD

Italy’s ageing public workforce will soon bring a loss of experience and an opportunity for renewal

Public service pay rates are compressed, with low skill and the top echelon of public servants earning relatively high wages

Smaller municipalities have thinner procurement capacity and use direct purchasing more often

Italy has made significant progress in transforming public services through digital technologies and data, but take-up lags

Local authorities that digitalise are more effective, but most only digitalise when compelled

Italy has room to shift resources to active labour market policies with a greater focus on serving jobseekers

Italy is moderately decentralised, and subnational governments have an important role delivering public investment

Most of Italy’s 7900 municipalities are small

Improving the efficiency of childcare services would help raise access

Larger municipalities execute a lower share of their public investment projects

Public enterprises play a large role in Italy, and their governance can be improved

Most public enterprises are held by local governments and many have few employees