Companies' insolvency and 'the nature of the firm' in Italy, 1920s-70s1
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3538276 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Paolo Di Martino (0000-0002-9030-9014, University of Manchester), Michelangelo Vasta (0000-0002-8683-8095, University of Siena) |
| Year | 2010 |
| Volume | 63 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 137-164 |
| Publication date | 2010-02-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Economic History Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0013-0117 • E-ISSN: 1468-0289 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1468-0289.2009.00481.x |
| OpenAlex | W2055754873 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 10 |
| References cited | 22 |
This article analyses the functioning of Italian insolvency laws and practices, in particular their role in the selection and relaunch of viable firms. The article investigates the period between the 1920s and the 1970s, and focuses on joint-stock companies. Using comparative data on the number of cases, we show that in Italy firms mainly used the procedure calledfallimento(bankruptcy), consisting of the collection and subsequent liquidation of assets. Other procedures, such as deals with creditors or forms of receivership, able to give companies a further chance, were rarely used. On the basis of archival documents we maintain that this result was due to the strictness and complication of Italian procedures, as well as to their inability to select viable companies. The article also investigates the relation between the features of insolvency law and the nature of the Italian industrial system, specifically the peculiar small size and rapid turnover of joint-stock companies. We suggest that the pro-liquidation character of the insolvency law might have been one of the causes of the peculiarity of Italian industrial capitalism, even if the opposite direction of causality cannot be excluded
Bankruptcy · Business · Capitalism · Creditor · Debt · Economics · Insolvency · Joint-stock company · Political science · Receivership · Stock (firearms) · Accounting · Corporate Finance and Governance · Corporate Insolvency and Governance · Finance · History · Italy: Economic History and Contemporary Issues · Law
The Functioning of Bankruptcy Law and Practices in European Perspective (ca.1880–1913)
Bankruptcy Law and Practice in Historical Perspective
Neglected elements
Italy’s Modern Economic Growth, 1861–2011
Happy 150 th Anniversary, Italy? Institutions and Economic Performance Since 1861
Institutions, Politics, and the Corporate Economy
Bankruptcy Laws Around Europe (1850–2015)
Reassessing the Italian “Economic Miracle”
Opening the black box of entrepreneurship
Competition, over-branching and bank failures during the Great Depression
Evolution of Italian Enterprises in the 20th Century
The Economic History of Italy 1860—1990
Firms, Contracts, and Financial Structure
Corporate Governance, Economic Entrenchment, and Growth
Legal Regime and Contractual Flexibility
Sectoral patterns of technical change
The Nature of the Transnational Firm
Law and Finance
The Nature of the Firm
The Bank Crisis in Italy
Business Failure, Judicial Intervention, and Financial Innovation
Approaching Disaster
Organizational Capabilities and the Economic History of the Industrial Enterprise
| Unique citing works | 10 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,63 |
| Citation span | 2010 - 2024 (15) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 10 |