Why do cities go bankrupt? Anatomy of governance failures

Why do cities go bankrupt? While most studies on financial distress in local government have focused on the analysis of financial condition, the influences of governance structures and systems have not been deeply investigated yet. This paper aims to analyze the role of governance mechanisms in local government bankrupts. We use a relevant case of municipal bankruptcy in Italy in order to discuss the influence of governance characteristics, such as political and management structure, interaction, and accounting variables and behaviours. This case question the efficacy of the existing regulatory framework and give rise to a debate about the role of governance-related reforms intervening ex post. The study is situated in the Italian local government context but there is a lot other countries can learn from this case about how to avert municipal bankruptcies.