THE PUBLIC-PRIVATE FINANCING OF THE FIRST ITALIAN HIGHWAYS: A HISTORICAL ANALYSIS

The highway infrastructures were of a prominent importance under the fascist propaganda. Nonetheless, they were far less extended than they would have been in the second half of the XXth century. In spite of this limited extension, the highway case seems to be significant due to its precocity in a country, like Italy, that had a low motorization index and a very bad maintenance of ordinary roads. The Italian system relied on a model of private concessionaires, which however was bound to fail due to weak economic incentives. Despite the substantial failure of the fascist experiences, the highway network has been built in Italy since the 1950s by resorting once again to the system of concessions, which includes government subsidies, government guarantees on debt and a devolution to the state of a share of revenues. However, unlike the early cases in the 1920s, during the second half of the century a crucial difference was that concessionaires were mostly public-owned.