The Italian Financial System: neither Bank Based nor Market BasedManuscript received 21.10.96; final version received 9.12.97.

Abstract

New data on the sources of ¢nance for the non-¢nancial corporate sector show that Italian ¢rms as a whole use more equity ¢nance than their Anglo-Saxon counterparts, and smaller Italian ¢rms use equity more intensively than larger ¢rms. Both ¢ndings can be understood in terms of the structure of industry and banking in Italy and the relations between them. Firm managers have considerable autonomy vis-a© -vis both ¢nancial markets and intermediaries, and the Italian ¢nancial system should be seen as substantially di¡erent from either the high internal ¢nance systems of the USA and the UK or the bankbased system of Japan.