Esami per avvocato in Italia: eterogeneità geografica ed impatto della riforma

In the European context regulation of the legal professions typically involves several restrictions on entry and professional conduct. Certain regulations are in the public interest as a remedy to market failures arising from information asymmetries and negative externalities. Before 2003, the entrance exam in Italy was characterized by a national written and oral exam evaluated by different local commissions for each Court of Appeals circuit. This modality produced many territorial inequalities, generating higher eligibility rates in the South of Italy than in the North. The 2003 Reform has changed the structure of the entrance exam, introducing a new method of commission formation. This paper investigates the effect of the 2003 Reform on eligibility rates which had modified the entrance exam for legal professions in order to verify whether evaluations have become more homogeneous across Italy.