How does government spending and institutional quality affect technical efficiency? Evidence on the Italian regions from a statistical-mathematical model

In this manuscript, the authors try to assess the impact of government spending, institutional quality, and their interaction on technical efficiency, that is, whether institutional quality represents a transmission channel of government spending to technical efficiency. To accomplish this research goal, the authors carry out an empirical analysis using annual panel data on the Italian regions ranging from 2004 to 2018. The statistical-mathematical model adopted by the authors to compute the efficiency scores consists of the Double-bootstrap DEA technique by Simar and Wilson (2007). The authors exploit their results to draw some relevant policy implications.