Publisher's Synopsis
Italy and Japan are among the world's largets and richest economies, yet their performance has seldom been compared. This book, written by specialists coming from both countries, fills the gap. It looks in detail at areas such as coporate governance, growth, financial and foreign trade structure, labour markets and industrial organization. Two major themes emerge. First, both Italy and Japan have been successful without following the institutions, policies and practices of the dominant Anglo-American model. Second, behind a number of apparent similarities between the two economies are hidden equally numerous differences. Thus, both countries experienced rapid domestic and export growth, yet Japanese growth was spearheaded by large-scale conglomerates, Italy's by smaller firms. Both have dualistic economies, but while Italy's divide is regional, Japan's cuts across sectors and industries. And while neither economy has embraced shareholder capitalism, it is managers that have run Japan's companies, while family owners have dominated Italian firms. So far at least, convergence between the two models has been very limited.
