Is there a mediterranean corporate governance system? : Evidence from literature

This paper aims to describe and explain corporate governance in Italy and, secondly, to provide an overview of corporate governance in the other main Mediterranean countries in order to verify whether a common model exists. Although there are contact points in terms of industrial structure, ownership structure and poor contestability of capital, the findings of the review does not confirm the hypothesis. Indeed, the Italian system shares only with the Portuguese one the presence of the three options and the prevalence of the horizontal two-tier model. However, it is characterized by both lesser specificity of alternative systems and less convergence towards the Anglo-Saxon system.