Reassessing the capital structure of the largest Italian firms: Banks, markets and inter-firm funding, 1950-1970

This paper aims to provide a relatively different perspective on the ways in which firms actually financed their working capital and longer-term investments during the Golden Age, which was characterised in Europe by high growth rates. The paper re-constructs and analyses the capital structure of from 140 to more than 180 large Italian firms, belonging to both manufacturing and services sectors, from 1950 to 1970. Relying upon an original and new dataset, the paper deals with a relatively broad sample of largest listed firms. The first section of the paper provides a discussion of the source and its limits. The second section compares the sample selected for this dataset and the previous datasets at our disposal. The third section presents and discusses the financial structure of the sample for benchmark years by illustrating the sources of liabilities and the overall capitalisation levels reached by the sample as a whole. The fourth section specifically focuses on the trade debts and credits attributable to the firms within the sample as both a major finding and a novelty emerging from the research project. Finally, the fifth section draws some conclusions.