An Empirical Investigation on the Efficiency, Capacity Ownership of Italian Airports

In this paper we study the efficiency of Italian airports applying a DEA model to 34 airports. We find that large airports are more efficient than domestic and regional ones, i.e. small airports have spare capacity since they are more distant from the frontier than large airports. The Tobit regression on the estimated DEA scores shows that efficiency is positively related with the hub premium and with privatisation. Hence we suggest that privatisation incentives to invest in large airports (close to saturation) and development plans to improve the small airports may form the benchmarks of Italian short-run air transportation policy.

Using citation metrics as part of academic recruitment decisions leads to an increase in self-citations

The use of citation metrics in academic hiring and promotion decisions was intended as a response to important and legitimate concerns over the meritocracy of recruitment procedures. However, evidence suggests that doing so distorts scientists' behaviour and increases the risk that these measures become unreliable. Marco Seeber, Mattia Cattaneo, Michele Meoli and Paolo Malighetti investigated the use of citation metrics within the Italian higher education system and found that scientists responded to a new regulation linking career advancement to metric scores by increasingly citing their own work. Policymakers should take note and use bibliometric tools as a means of informing rather than determining evaluations, as advocated by initiatives such as DORA and the Leiden Manifesto

The impact of airport competition on technical efficiency: A Stochastic Frontier Analysis applied to Italian airports

We investigate how the intensity of competition among airports affects their technical efficiency by computing airports’ markets on the basis of a potential demand approach. We find that the intensity of competition has a negative impact on airports’ efficiency in Italy during the 2005–2008 period. This implies that airports belonging to a local air transportation system where competition is strong exploit their inputs less intensively than do airports with local monopoly power. Furthermore, we find that public airports are more efficient than private and mixed ones. Since public airports take into account the positive externalities created by air transportation in the local economy, they are more willing to subsidize airlines in developing the airports’ connections. Hence, policy makers should provide incentives to implement airports’ specialization in local systems where competition is strong. Moreover, when regulating airport charges, they should take into account the impact of the above externalities

Low-cost carrier entry at small European airports: Low-cost carrier effects on network connectivity and self-transfer potential

Airport connectivity can improve the competitiveness of regions by attracting tourism and inward investment. Regions traditionally accessed international destinations via connecting flights to national gateway airports usually operated by full service network carriers (FSNC). However, the entry of low-cost carriers (LCC) in these markets has led to changes in incumbent FSNC service provision. We analyse how intra-European connectivity has changed at small airports between 2002 and 2012 and how LCC entry has affected the quality of day-return schedules in these markets. Results show that offline LCC connectivity is greater than that scheduled by FSNCs. Furthermore, LCC entry had a negative effect on the quality of the connectivity offered by FSNCs. Interestingly, we also found that day-return itineraries become more difficult for passengers in markets where the LCC is the sole operator. Regional policy-makers may need to more carefully consider the connectivity implications in the design of LCC start-up incentive schemes