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This study uses banks' balance sheet and income statement data for an unbalanced panel of 403 Italian CBs over the period 2006 -2013, obtained from the Bilbank-Italian Banking Association database. The analysis also incorporates data on environmental variables that could affect bank efficiency. Information on the number of firms that went bankrupt over the total number of registered ones (DEFAULT_RATE) at the province level 1 are provided by Istituto Tagliacarne. Data on population, capital, patents, labour force and urban typology are obtained by the Italian Bureau of Statistics -ISTAT. The number of branches for each bank at the municipal level as well as data on deposits and loans at a provincial detail are taken from the Bank of Italy reports.

This paper investigates whether and how the competitive delay of the Italian hotel industry is influenced by the level of business corporation efficiency. A stochastic frontier production approach is proposed in which technical inefficiency is specified as a function of the internal and locational factors in a firm. The model is estimated on a balanced panel of tourism business corporations observed during 1998–2005. Estimates show that the competitive gap in the Italian accommodation system is not a result of poor business corporation performance, and the importance of location, human and immaterial capital is assessed as (in)efficiency determinants. The authors then suggest policies to improve the Italian tourist industry's competitiveness.