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Banks and industry in Italy, 1911–36: new evidence using the interlocking directorates technique1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 September 2008

Michelangelo Vasta
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
Alberto Baccini
Affiliation:
University of Florence

Abstract

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Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © European Association for Banking and Financial History 1997

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References

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14 ibid., p. 8.

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38 An alternative method to calculate density measures, used in a similar way by Chiesi: Chiesi, A., ‘Property, capital and network structure in Italy’, in Stockman et al., Networks of Corporate Power, p. 198Google Scholar, consists of the whole number of interlocks as a proxy of intra-companies links, also considering their multiplicity. Using this method, for example, one link between two companies generated by two different directors is considered as two different interlocks. This method has been adopted in the counterfactual exercise concerning banks' role below. Indeed, we have also calculated the density for the same benchmark years: these are 0.0426 (1911), 0.0093 (1927) and 0.0065 (1936).

39 Chiesi, A., ‘L'elite fmanziaria italiana’, Rassegna Italiana di Sociologia, 23 (1982)Google Scholar; and idem, ‘Property, capital and network’.

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42 Only in the case of density is it possible to calculate the total number of ID possible without the banks. In the other cases, one should consider as non-existent each seat in any company occupied by a person also sitting on a bank's board of directors, thus reducing the reference counterfactual universe not only by the seats of the banks, but also by the seats of other companies occupied by ‘bank employees’.

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44 The use of share capital as a proxy for the size of industrial enterprises has been cogently argued for, among several others, by Giannetti, et al. , ‘Size and strategy’.Google Scholar

45 The result is relevant also from another viewpoint, i. e. it can be interpreted as reinforcing the plausibility of the use of share capital as proxy for the size of the enterprise. That is, if the number of ID are related to assets, as other studies have shown, and if capital is in its turn related to the number of ID, as we have just attempted to show, then it is reasonable to suppose that also capital and assets are related in some way.

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