The processes of highways privatization in Italy and Japan

In the last decade, the private sector has increased its role in the highways sector both through the construction and management of new assets. Private sector involvement, often justified by the need to ease public expenditure, allows a reduction in public participation for new investments. The public sector remains in charge of other important issues such as regulation, but privatization entails the transfer of a natural monopoly to another subject with completely different objectives compared with the public operator. The present work wants to analyse the highway privatization processes in Italy and Japan focusing on the two approaches and on their differences; the paper tries to evaluate the policies applied and their consequences on the general economic well – being according to a public economics viewpoint. Italy implemented a real privatization process (even if some regulatory issues have risen) while Japan still faces a strong public presence.