Institutional Change and Ownership Patterns in Italy

Literature indicates that institutional changes in corporate governance systems can lead to a radical transformation of the ownership structure. Starting from this premise, in this chapter we explore the Italian case as the large increase of investors’ rights and the massive privatizations experienced in the last two decades did not seem to affect significantly the stability of the ownership structure of large listed companies. The chapter shows that while concentrated and family ownership remained relatively stable, the large privatization process and the increase in investors’ rights contributed respectively to decrease state ownership, the use of control enhancing mechanisms and the separation between ownership and control rights. The evidence collected shows that the study of ownership structures is still very intriguing and open to several interpretations.