Digital agendas, regional policy and institutional quality: Assessing the Italian broadband plan

Broadband policy has been booming with the support of the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF). However, its performance and impact remain contentious, since primary evidence is lacking. We study the first Italian plan for financing broadband-deprived areas through ESIF, characterised by multi-level governance (MLG). We find that its overly centralised design suffered from serious policy faults, that hampered regional efforts. Funding mismatches and other institutional obstacles disadvantaged Northern and Central regions; however, because the latter enjoyed higher institutional quality, they managed to leapfrog the (more supported) Southern ones. The Digital Agendas performance is shaped by the institutional quality-MLG mix.