The methodological approach to construct the infrastructure index

In order to measuring regional public infrastructure in physical terms for the very long period 1987-2016, we detected 30 elementary indicators frequently mentioned by main approaches used to compute infrastructural endowments (Table 5) and available for most of the required years. In particular, we consider:

- 18 elementary indicators for economic infrastructure, grouped in 8 intermediate categories (Roads, Airports, Railways, Ports, Water, Electricity, Gas and Petrol) and in 4 main classes (Roads (including Roads and Airports), Rails (including Rails and Ports¹⁰), Water disposal, Others (including Energy infrastructure));

- 12 elementary indicators for social infrastructure, grouped in 5 intermediate categories (Waste, Education, Culture, Social, Health) and in 3 main classes (Buildings (including Education, Cultural and Social infrastructure), Health, Others (Waste)).

The main category of Communication infrastructure was not considered because of the particular evolution of the sector during the long period 1987-2016 for which Biehl (1991) used elementary categories as Telephone, Telex, Fax network that, according to our own opinion, do not actually represent the current endowment of communication coverage increasingly related to internet networking system.

Thanks to the research centre Studiare Sviluppo involved in the industrial PhD and its collaboration with the Infrastructure and Transport Ministry (MIT), various data sources could be reached, yielding long and consistent time series for our indicators (Table 6). The main sources were Eurostat – Regional statistics, which provides relevant regional and sectoral data for 1990-2017, and Istat – Atlante Statistico Territoriale delle infrastrutture for specific data on infrastructure for 1996-2015. Other Istat statistics have been used from I.Stat and Istat – Indicatori territoriali delle Politiche di sviluppo. For less recent statistics the data have been sourced from Istat – Annuario statistico italiano, and MIT – Conto nazionale delle infrastrutture e dei trasporti. For some specific intermediate categories, more particular sources have been adopted: Terna for electricity network system, Unionpetrolifera and Economic Development Ministry (MISE) for statistics on Petroleum infrastructure, Autorità di regolazione per Energia, Reti e Ambiente (ARERA) for natural gas pipelines, Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale (ISPRA) for waste infrastructure.

In order to complete the time series, we have carried out linear interpolations by the arithmetic mean of adjacent known elementary values have been done. Furthermore, in order to provide a common unit of measurement to different elementary indicators, they were all divided by their respective mean over period 1987-2016. This approach differs from traditional methodology that normalizes elementary indicators respectively by either area and population and standardizes the results by the respective national normalized index. The advantage of our procedure is that we keep both the region-specific trend of the elementary index (which would be lost in dividing it by the national index) and the region-specific size of the physical endowment (which would be lost by the area or surface normalization).

Once carried out the above-described operation, an intermediate index is defined by arithmetic average of the relative elementary indexes (see Table 5, last column), according to the procedure applied by Biehl et al (1990).

Finally, an additional novelty has been introduced in the aggregation approach adopted for the sectoral and the aggregate indexes. While usually the synthetic indexes are obtained as simple averages of the intermediate indexes, in our case the index of the main class and the synthetic regional index are the weighted arithmetic average of the respective. Weights are given by the ratio of the respective investment expenditures taken from Conti Pubblici Territoriali data for 1996.

10 Roads include Roads and Airports, and Rails include Rails and Ports, in order to achieve comparability with the monetary indicators considered in Section 2.3.

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Tab. 5. Main, intermediate and elementary categories for infrastructural endowment index

Main class¹¹ Intermediate category

Elementary

index¹² Elementary indicator description Literature references¹³

Elementary aggregation methodology for intermediate

category

F_INDEX14

CORE

F_ROADS

ROADS ROAD1 Motorway (km) B, CEa, CEb, T

MEAN ( ¹¹₇ROAD1; ROAD2)¹⁵

ROAD2 Other roads (km) Detailed other roads (B, CEa, CEb, T)

AIRPORTS AIRP1 Runways surface (m2) B, CEa, CEb, T

MEAN (AIRP1; AIRP2)

AIRP2 Parking area (m2) CEa, T

F_RAILS

RAILWAYS RAIL1 Total railway lines (km) T

PORTS¹⁶

PORT1 Lenght of docks (m) CEa, Cab, Cab, T

MEAN (PORT1; PORT2; PORT3;

PORT4)

PORT2 Total quays surface (sqm) CEa, Cab, T

PORT3 Freight loaded and unloaded (thousand tonnes) PORT4 Passengers embarked and disembarked (thousand)

F_WATER WATER¹⁷

WATE1 Water delivered (thousand m3) T

MEAN (WATE1; WATE2; WATE3)

WATE2 Sewage treatment plants (thousand) T

WATE3 Regional population served by complete wastewater treatment plants (%)

F_OTHERS¹⁸

ELECTRICITY ELEC1 Lenght of electricity network system 220Kv (Km) CEb, T

MEAN (MEAN (ELEC1;³⁸₂₂ELEC2);

ELEC3) ELEC2 Lenght of electricity network system 380 Kv (Km) CEb, T

ELEC3 Net production of electrical energy (GWh) T

GAS GAS1 Total lenght natural gas pipelines (km) B, CEa, CEb, T

PETROL¹⁹ PETR1 Total lenght petroleum pipelines (km) B, CEa, CEb, T

MEAN (PETR1; PETR2) PETR2 Cumulative n. of oil wells

NON- CORE

WASTE WAST1 Production of urban waste (thousand tonnes) B, T

F_BUILDINGS²⁰

EDUCATION

EDUC1 n. of maternal classrooms CEa, T

MEAN (EDUC1; EDUC2; EDUC3;

EDUC4; EDUC5)

EDUC2 n. of primary classrooms CEa, T

EDUC3 n. of secondary first cycle classrooms CEa, T

EDUC4 n. of secondary upper cycle classrooms CEa, T

EDUC5 n. of university professors and researchers CEa, T

CULTURE CULT1 n. of visitors of public art institutes CEa, T

MEAN (CULT1; CULT2)

CULT2 n. of tickets for theatres and concerts CEa, T

SOCIAL SOCI1 n. of available beds in nursing and residential care

facilities B, CEa

MEAN (SOCI1; SOCI2)

SOCI2 Kindergartens (number of users) B

F_HEALTH HEALTH HEALT1 n. of beds in hospitals B, CEa, T

MEAN (HEALT1; HEALT2)

HEALT2 n. doctors T

Note: 30 elementary indicators frequently mentioned by main approaches have been used to compute infrastructural endowments.

11 The main class index is the simple average of the relative intermediate indexes, unless otherwise specified.

13B (Biehl et al. (1990)), CEa (Confindustria-Ecoter, 2000a), CEb (Confindustria-Ecoter, 2000b), T (Istituto Tagliacarne)

36 Tab. 6. Primary and secondary sources by elementary index over the period 1987-2016

Elementary index

Primary data source

(green)

Secondary data source

(yellow)

1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

ROAD1 Eurostat Istat

ROAD2 Eurostat Istat

AIRP1 Istat MIT

AIRP2 Istat MIT

RAIL1 Eurostat

PORT1 Istat MIT

PORT2 Istat MIT

PORT3 Eurostat Istat

PORT4 Eurostat

WATE1 Istat

WATE2 Istat

WATE3 Istat

ELEC1 Istat MIT

ELEC2 Istat MIT

ELEC3 Istat MIT

GAS1 ARERA Istat

PETR1 MIT

PETR2 MISE

13B (Biehl et al. (1990)), CEa (Confindustria-Ecoter, 2000a), CEb (Confindustria-Ecoter, 2000b), T (Istituto Tagliacarne)

14 The general index F_INDEX for infrastructure in physical terms is the weighted arithmetic mean of the intermediate infrastructure indexes. Weights are given by the ratio of the respective investment expenditures taken from Conti Pubblici Territoriali data for 1996.

15 The weighted are defined in Biehl et al (1990).

16 For reasons of data availability, we use as output indicators freight loaded and unloaded (Istituto Tagliacarne uses n. of approaches for goods) and passengers embarked and disembarked (Istituto Tagliacarne uses n. of approaches for passengers).

17 For reasons of data availability, we use an indicator (regional population served by complete wastewater treatment plants) not considered by literature references.

18 The index for the main category F_Others is the weighted average of the intermediate categories of Energy and Waste infrastructure. Weights are given by the ratio of the respective investment expenditures taken from Conti Pubblici Territoriali data for 1996.

19 For reasons of data availability, we use an indicator (cumulative number of oil wells) not considered by literature references.

20 The index for the main category F_Buildings is the weighted average of the intermediate categories of Education, Cultural and Social infrastructure. Weights are given by the ratio of the respective investment expenditures taken from Conti Pubblici Territoriali data for 1996.

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WAST1 Istat

EDUC1 Istat

EDUC2 Istat

EDUC3 Istat

EDUC4 Istat

EDUC5 Istat

CULT1 Istat

CULT2 Istat

SOCI1 Istat

SOCI2 Istat

HEALT1 Eurostat Istat

HEALT2 Eurostat Istat

Note: Different data sources have been used for the 30 elementary indicators (primary data source (2^nd column) has been used for green cells and secondary data source (3^rd column) has been used to fill yellow cells). Linear interpolations among adjacent known elementary values have been carried out to fulfil white cells.

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