Research database

In the field of public policy and administration there has been an increasing debate over digital transformation DT, which “entails the pervasive adoption of digital technologies in production and consumption activities that rely on a significant dimension of data development and data analysis”. In parallel, DT has been at the top of the EU reform agenda, particularly after the pandemic. Next Generation EU and the Italian NRRP represent a unique opportunity for improving on the DT of the public administration (PA) in Italy. Yet these extraordinary investments are not per se a sufficient condition for reforms. As highlighted by the contemporary literature, IOs, governments and stakeholders largely support DT and outline the potential gains for the improvement of PA; yet this emphasis is not paralleled by reform advancements. DIGITRANS-PAR addresses this paradox by casting light on the policy challenges posed by DT and its policy impact in the Italian case. In terms of the empirical strategy, two policy sectors are investigated, the governance of which is shared between the State and the regions: health policy and (active) labor market policy. DIGITRANS-PAR focuses on the factors that favor or hinder the DT of PA at national and especially subnational levels of government. Moreover, it investigates the impact of the same process on the implementation of policies and administrative performance. Assessment of new reforms and programs launched by the Italian NRRP is crucial to shed light on the likely trajectory of DT in Italy and provide effective policy recommendations. DIGITRANS-PAR aims to innovate the current state of the literature by: a) adding to administrative and organizational preconditions the systematic analysis of political factors; b) providing a fine-grained analysis of the impact of DT on PA, going beyond the effects of the process on the quality of administrative routines to focus on efficiency, effectiveness and quality performance indicators. To do so the project adopts a context-based and mixed-method design, combining quantitative analysis of politico-institutional factors with qualitative analysis of individual and organizational factors to account for the adoption of DT, as well as of impact of DT on specific policies closely related to citizens’ wellbeing and life chances at the regional level. DIGITRANS-PAR has three overarching aims: a) to explain the delay of Italy (and the variation across regions) in the DT of the PA. Albeit focused on one country case, our research strategy makes use of potentially large variation at the regional level to probe into the importance of factors and drivers identified by the literature; b) to assess the potential outcomes of DT of the Italian PA; c) to provide policy recommendations to policymakers and practitioners at both national and regional levels.