Diversification strategies and scope economies: Evidence from a sample of Italian regional bus transport providers

Elisabetta Ottoz (1) , Marina Di Giacomo (2)

1 Dipartimento di Economia Cognetti
2 Scienze Economiche G. Prato

A growing number of local public transport (LPT) companies diversify their production lines by providing a large set of services. We investigate the cost structure of a sample of LPT companies operating in Italy and assess the presence and the magnitude of scope economies. We split the whole sample of firms according to their diversification strategy: private firms, mainly diversifying in competitive transport-related services and public firms providing non-transport services in regulated markets. Scope economies appear sizeable for both groups but higher for firms pursuing a transport related strategy, suggesting caution in the multi-utility development pursued by public LPT firms in Italy.

Mots clés: Social Sciences & Humanities

Domaines: Économie et finance quantitative [q-fin]

Elisabetta Ottoz, Marina Di Giacomo. Diversification strategies and scope economies: Evidence from a sample of Italian regional bus transport providers. Applied Economics, 2011, pp.1. ⟨10.1080/00036846.2011.568399⟩. ⟨hal-00711444⟩