Italian municipalities' NPFM reforms: an institutional theory perspective

Elisabetta Reginato; Isabella Fadda; Aldo Pavan

doi:10.18002/pec.v0i11.633

Authors

Elisabetta Reginato University of Cagliari. School of Economics
Isabella Fadda University of Cagliari. School of Economics
Aldo Pavan University of Cagliari. School of Economics

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18002/pec.v0i11.633

Keywords:

Gobiernos locales, Gestión de las finanzas públicas, Teoría institucional, Sistema de contabilidad, Local government, New public financial management, Institutional theory, Accounting system.

Abstract

Entender las razones del fracaso o el éxito de las reformas impulsada por el NPFM es un tema que ha atraído recientemente la atención de la literatura sobre la gestión del sector público. Sobre la base de un estudio de caso realizado en el gobierno local italiano, la investigación analiza el estado de real aplicación de las reformas mencionadas anteriormente, y contribuye al debate teórico sobre las razones que explican las diferencias entre los cambios formales y sustanciales en la administración utilizando un enfoque institucional. Para este fin se realizó una encuesta sobre una muestra estadísticamente representativa de los municipios italianos con más de 5.000 habitantes y una serie de entrevistas semi-estructuradas con observadores privilegiados. Basándose en los resultados del análisis, la introducción de reformas inspiradas en el NPFM en Italia se puede considerar como un caso en el que la innovación anunciada por la ley es más formal que de fondo. En cuanto a las razones de la brecha entre los cambios administrativos de forma y de fondo, los resultados del estudio sugieren la hipótesis de una correlación directa entre las prácticas contables y, respectivamente, las presiones isomorfas que han acompañado a la introducción de nuevas herramientas de contabilidad -nuevo institucionalismo sociológico (NIS)- la cultura organizacional de los municipios -viejo institucionalismo económico (VIE)- y el tamaño de los gobiernos locales.

Understanding the reasons for the failure or the success of NPFM reforms is an issue that has recently attracted the attention of public sector management literature. Basing on the Italian Local Government -LG- case, the research analyses the NPFM reform actual implementation, and contributes to the theoretical debate about the reasons for the discrepancies between actual and formal accounting changes using an institutional approach. To this end a survey carried out on a statistically representative random sample of Italian municipalities with more than 5,000 inhabitants together with semi-structured interviews to privileged observers are used. According to the results of the analysis, the Italian NPFM reforms introduction can be regarded as a case wherein innovation heralded by the law is rather formal than substantial. As regards the reasons for the gap between formal and actual changes the study findings suggest the hypotheses of a direct correlation between accounting practices and respectively isomorphic pressures affecting the introduction of the new accounting tools -New institutional sociology (NIS)-, municipality’s organisational culture -Old institutional economics (OIE)- and municipalities’ size

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