IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i18p7599-d413932.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Demographic and Economic Determinants of Financial Sustainability: An Analysis of Italian Local Governments

Author

Listed:
  • Serena Santis

    (Department of Political Science “Jean Monnet”, University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, viale Ellittico, 31, 81100 Caserta, Italy)

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyze the influence of demographic and economic variables on financial sustainability in Italian local governments (ILGs). Many international organizations have highlighted the importance of pursuing financial sustainability, and identifying what the factors impacting financial sustainability are, allowing to manage risk and opportunities as well as to support the decision-making process better. A total of 104 ILGs with more than 60,000 inhabitants were investigated for the year 2018. The adjusted income statements served as the dependent variable of a regression model for testing several demographic and economic variables. The results showed that demographic factors did not influence financial sustainability while, regarding the economic variables, there was a negative influence of financial autonomy and positive influence of the level of indebtedness. These values indicate a pathological scenario where local governments pursue short-term strategies that will impact future generations.

Suggested Citation

  • Serena Santis, 2020. "The Demographic and Economic Determinants of Financial Sustainability: An Analysis of Italian Local Governments," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-16, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:18:p:7599-:d:413932
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/18/7599/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/18/7599/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sandra Cohen & Marco Bisogno & Ioanna Malkogianni, 2019. "Earnings management in local governments: the role of political factors," Journal of Applied Accounting Research, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 20(3), pages 331-348, September.
    2. Gerard Turley & Geraldine Robbins & Stephen McNena, 2015. "A Framework to Measure the Financial Performance of Local Governments," Local Government Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(3), pages 401-420, May.
    3. Christian Schultz & Tomas Sjöström, 2004. "Public Debt, Migration, and Shortsighted Politicians," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 6(5), pages 655-674, December.
    4. Joseph Drew & Brian Dollery, 2014. "The impact of metropolitan amalgamations in Sydney on municipal financial sustainability," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(4), pages 281-288, July.
    5. Andr鳠Navarro-Galera & Salvador Rayo-Cant & Juan Lara-Rubio & Dionisio Buend𫑃arrillo, 2015. "Loan price modelling for local governments using risk premium analysis," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(58), pages 6257-6276, December.
    6. Juan Lara-Rubio & Salvador Rayo-Cantón & Andrés Navarro-Galera & Dionisio Buendia-Carrillo, 2017. "Analysing credit risk in large local governments: an empirical study in Spain," Local Government Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(2), pages 194-217, March.
    7. Emma Capalbo & Giuseppe Grossi, 2014. "Assessing the influence of socioeconomic drivers on Italian municipal financial destabilization," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(2), pages 107-114, March.
    8. José Luis Zafra-Gómez & Antonio Manuel López-Hernández & Agustin Hernández-Bastida, 2009. "Developing an alert system for local governments in financial crisis," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(3), pages 175-181, May.
    9. Peter Howley & Mark Scott & Declan Redmond, 2009. "Sustainability versus liveability: an investigation of neighbourhood satisfaction," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(6), pages 847-864.
    10. María Deseada López Subires & Laura Alcaide Muñoz & Andrés Navarro Galera & Manuel Pedro Rodríguez Bolívar, 2019. "The Influence of Socio-Demographic Factors on Financial Sustainability of Public Services: A Comparative Analysis in Regional Governments and Local Governments," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(21), pages 1-18, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zhakupova Aizada & Arystanbayeva Saule & Issakhova Parida & Shakbutova Aliya & Alimshan Faizulayev, 2023. "Fueling Financial Sustainability in Emerging Markets: An Investigation of ESG Public Policy and Other Determinants in the Oil and Gas Industry through Effective Financial Planning," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 13(4), pages 365-374, July.
    2. Andri Ottesen & Dieter Thom & Rupali Bhagat & Rola Mourdaa, 2023. "Learning from the Future of Kuwait: Scenarios as a Learning Tool to Build Consensus for Actions Needed to Realize Vision 2035," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-25, April.
    3. Alejandra Trejo-Nieto, 2021. "The geography of financial condition in the Mexico City metropolitan area," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 36(6), pages 487-504, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Guyot, Alexis & Doumpos, Michael & Zopounidis, Constantin, 2016. "A novel multi-attribute benchmarking approach for assessing the financial performance of local governments: Empirical evidence from FranceAuthor-Name: Galariotis, Emilios," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 248(1), pages 301-317.
    2. Manuel Pedro Rodríguez Bolívar & Andrés Navarro Galera & Laura Alcaide Muñoz & María Deseada López Subires, 2016. "Analyzing Forces to the Financial Contribution of Local Governments to Sustainable Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(9), pages 1-18, September.
    3. Vicente Pina & Patricia Bachiller & Lara Ripoll, 2020. "Testing the Reliability of Financial Sustainability. The Case of Spanish Local Governments," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-22, August.
    4. Lotta-Maria Sinervo, 2020. "Financial Sustainability of Local Governments in the Eyes of Finnish Local Politicians," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-16, December.
    5. Juan Lara-Rubio & Francisco J. Galvez-Sánchez & Valentín Molina-Moreno & Andrés Navarro-Galera, 2025. "Analysing credit risk in persons with disabilities as an instrument of financial inclusion," Journal of Social and Economic Development, Springer;Institute for Social and Economic Change, vol. 27(2), pages 581-603, August.
    6. María Deseada López Subires & Laura Alcaide Muñoz & Andrés Navarro Galera & Manuel Pedro Rodríguez Bolívar, 2019. "The Influence of Socio-Demographic Factors on Financial Sustainability of Public Services: A Comparative Analysis in Regional Governments and Local Governments," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(21), pages 1-18, October.
    7. Beatriz Cuadrado-Ballesteros & Noemí Mordán & Isabel-María García-Sánchez, 2014. "Is Local Financial Health Associated with Citizens’ Quality of Life?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 119(2), pages 559-580, November.
    8. Dionisio Buendía-Carrillo & Juan Lara-Rubio & Andrés Navarro-Galera & María Elena Gómez-Miranda, 2020. "The impact of population size on the risk of local government default," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 27(5), pages 1264-1286, October.
    9. Pérez López, Gemma & Plata Díaz, Ana María & Zafra Gómez, José L. & López Hernández, Antonio M., 2013. "Deuda viva municipal en un contexto de crisis económica: análisis de los factores determinantes y de las formas de gestión," Revista de Contabilidad - Spanish Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 83-93.
    10. Robbins Geraldine & Turley Gerard & McNena Stephen, 2016. "Benchmarking the financial performance of local councils in Ireland," Administration, Sciendo, vol. 64(1), pages 1-27, May.
    11. Rakhman, Fuad & Wijayana, Singgih, 2024. "Human development and the quality of financial reporting among the local governments in Indonesia," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    12. Mulliner, Emma & Smallbone, Kieran & Maliene, Vida, 2013. "An assessment of sustainable housing affordability using a multiple criteria decision making method," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 270-279.
    13. Dorota Mantey, 2021. "Objective and Subjective Determinants of Neighborhood Satisfaction in the Context of Retrofitting Suburbs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-19, October.
    14. Aditjandra, Paulus Teguh & Mulley, Corinne & Nelson, John D., 2013. "The influence of neighbourhood design on travel behaviour: Empirical evidence from North East England," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 54-65.
    15. Yuan Gao & Kun Liu & Peiling Zhou & Hongkun Xie, 2021. "The Effects of Residential Built Environment on Supporting Physical Activity Diversity in High-Density Cities: A Case Study in Shenzhen, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(13), pages 1-16, June.
    16. John P. Conley & Robert Driskill & Ping Wang, 2019. "Capitalization, decentralization, and intergenerational spillovers in a Tiebout economy with a durable public good," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 67(1), pages 1-27, February.
    17. de Chazal, Jacqueline, 2010. "A systems approach to liveability and sustainability: Defining terms and mapping relationships to link desires with ecological opportunities and constraints," Research Reports 95056, Australian National University, Environmental Economics Research Hub.
    18. Eziyi O. Ibem & Pearl A. Opoko & Egidario B. Aduwo, 2017. "Satisfaction with Neighbourhood Environments in Public Housing: Evidence from Ogun State, Nigeria," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 130(2), pages 733-757, January.
    19. Greg D. Simpson & Jackie Parker, 2018. "Data on Peer-Reviewed Papers about Green Infrastructure, Urban Nature, and City Liveability," Data, MDPI, vol. 3(4), pages 1-10, November.
    20. M. Reza Shirazi & Ramin Keivani & Sue Brownill & Georgia Butina Watson, 2022. "Promoting Social Sustainability of Urban Neighbourhoods: The Case of Bethnal Green, London," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(3), pages 441-465, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:18:p:7599-:d:413932. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.