Corporate Governance nelle quotate italiane: un’analisi empirica degli Amministratori e dei Consigli di Amministrazione.

This article aims at contributing to current scholarly knowledge on the Italian corporate governance system through an empirical analysis of the main characteristics of CEOs (age, gender, background, compensation) and boards (size, diversity, committees) and their relationship with financial performance. I gather data from companies’ reports (annual reports, corporate governance reports, sustainability reports) and I provide an updated picture of some of the main traits of the Italian corporate governance system. Studies implemented in the Anglo-Saxon context provide empirical results as to the relationship between corporate governance characteristics (such as board size, percentage of independent directors, percentage of women directors, CEO remuneration) and firms’ financial performance, but their generalizability to the Italian context is questionable. This work has three main aims. First, to provide an overview and discussion on the international academic literature dealing with the relationship between some corporate governance variables and corporate financial performance. Second, to provide some descriptive results on Italian corporate governance. Third, to discuss the empirical evidence found in the Italian context, suggesting some research topics for future research. Future studies implementing these research topics may provide useful insights to Italian policy makers as well, one case being the current debate on the minimum quota of women on Italian board of directors.