I fondi comuni italiani: imitazioni domestiche di modelli esteri alla prova della globalizzazione finanziaria

The purpose of this article is to illustrate Italy's experience with mutual investment funds. These instruments appeared in Italy in the 1960s as an offshoot of non-Italian experiences. They began to develop in the late 1980s and then took off in the 1990s, but have declined significantly since the year 2000. The paper starts from the expectations of those who promoted this instrument, looking at behaviour and dynamics, and analysing the changes from the original model. The discussion closes with an account of the most recent trends. The conclusions highlight the fact that mutual funds have failed to take a leading role in corporate finance (which would have helped the Italian capital market itself to progress), that fund management has been persistently unsatisfactory and costly, and that the mutual fund system has proved to be fragile against a backdrop of financial globalization