1. Italian small business: strength and weakness in the long term view
Andrea Colli | Università Bocconi, Milano
SAPIENZA UNIVERSITÀ DI ROMA
25-26 NOVEMBRE 2016
CONVEGNO SCIENTIFICO
LA SOCIETÀ ITALIANA E LE GRANDI CRISI ECONOMICHE

2. The Italian “exception”
25-26 NOVEMBRE 2016 | SAPIENZA UNIVERSITÀ DI ROMA
Italian small business: strength and weakness in the long term view
The Italian “exception”
Italy is the only Mediterranean country which had a true industrial revolution at the end of the Nineteenth century, which had been followed by a process of (discontinuous) convergence with the most advanced industrialized countries during the Twentieth century.
However, a completely divergent industrial “demography”.

3. Small firms in Italy today – the quantitative evidence
25-26 NOVEMBRE 2016 | SAPIENZA UNIVERSITÀ DI ROMA
Italian small business: strength and weakness in the long term view
Small firms in Italy today – the quantitative evidence

4. Small firms in Italy yesterday – some quantitative evidence (I)
25-26 NOVEMBRE 2016 | SAPIENZA UNIVERSITÀ DI ROMA
Italian small business: strength and weakness in the long term view
Small firms in Italy yesterday – some quantitative evidence (I)

5. Small firms in Italy yesterday – some quantitative evidence (II)
25-26 NOVEMBRE 2016 | SAPIENZA UNIVERSITÀ DI ROMA
Italian small business: strength and weakness in the long term view
Small firms in Italy yesterday – some quantitative evidence (II)

6. Small firms in Italy in the long run – some propositions
25-26 NOVEMBRE 2016 | SAPIENZA UNIVERSITÀ DI ROMA
Italian small business: strength and weakness in the long term view
Small firms in Italy in the long run – some propositions
The “Italian exception” is largely due to the fact that notwithstanding the increasing relevance of big business (private and State-owned) in the course of the country’s economic history, the “small firm economy” has kept over time a:
a) Under the quantitative perspective, a constantly relevant contribution to GDP formation and AV in the manufacturing sector
b) Under the qualitative perspective, a largely autonomous and non- subordinated (to the big business) role, differently from other industrialized economies (memo: Japan)

7. 25-26 NOVEMBRE 2016 | SAPIENZA UNIVERSITÀ DI ROMA
Imprenditorialità e cicli economici in Italia. Linee generali di interpretazione

8. Small firms in Italy in the long run – the explanations
25-26 NOVEMBRE 2016 | SAPIENZA UNIVERSITÀ DI ROMA
Italian small business: strength and weakness in the long term view
Small firms in Italy in the long run – the explanations
Business history research has tried to provide a number of explanations for such a peculiar persistency (Colli 2002; Colli and Rinaldi 2015)
A belated industrial developement, largely linked to the primary sector and to regional markets until WW1, in which the small dimension could operate efficiently
Some “efficiency-enhancers” for small firms: persistent trading capabilities, the role of the family as provider of capital and labor, the presence of clusters (industrial districts), a efficient, small-dimension oriented, banking system.
An overall intense “institutional tolerance” (memo: endogeneity matters a lot): fiscal tolerance, political and cultural support.
A “macroeconomic efficiency”: the countercyclical argument

9. Focus: the countercyclical argument
25-26 NOVEMBRE 2016 | SAPIENZA UNIVERSITÀ DI ROMA
Italian small business: strength and weakness in the long term view
Focus: the countercyclical argument
A new research direction: one reason of the resilience of small firms lies in their flexibility phases of economic downturn and crisis.
Some (scarce) evidence in existing literature about industrial demography and economic cycles.
Qualitative evidence (Colli 2002) shows that small business pervasiveness increases in phases of slowdown of the economic cycle.
Some crucial phases:
1870s and the crisis in the primary sector
The postwar reconstruction(s)
The 1930s
The 1970s
Which proxies for birthrates?