Asymmetric Decentralization: Some Insights for the Italian Case, Osservatorio Regionale sul Federalismo. Note e Contributi. N. 4 Maggio, Issn: 2611-5328.

The aim of this paper is to analyse the requests of asymmetric decentralization that have been recently proposed in Italy by Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia Romagna in light of the tiny economic literature on asymmetric federalism, and the present Italian institutional set-up. In particular, according to article 116, Paragraph 3 of the Constitution, we retrace the steps that have been put in place up to now, namely from the original requests coming from the three regions to the Preliminary Agreements signed in February 2018, and the following Agreements signed in February 2019. Attention is focused on three of the subject matters for which a higher degree of decentralization has been requested: Health, education, and public finance and regional fiscal coordination. After an analysis on which types of funding resources could be provided to the regions to finance the supply of goods and services related to higher decentralization, we discuss the eligibility criteria of the regional requests to obtain a higher degree of decentralization and the alternative methods to allocate resources and services among Regions.