Performance evaluation of Italian Firms in the last decade: a Latent Growth Models approach

In Italy, the crisis period (from 2008 to 2014) was characterized by a deep negative conjuncture until 2009 and by a slight recovery until the first half of 2011, and from 2011 to 2014 by an intense recession. The aim of this work is to collect evidence on the riskiness trends of Italian manufacturing system with the following goals: to calculate the main financial ratios related to firms’ riskiness and distress risk trend by means of the book-value data; to detect the guide-variables outlining the firms’ riskiness and distress risk trend in the period 2008-2017. A Latent Growth Curve Model is proposed to analyse riskiness by using an important Italian private database containing the book-value data of the joint-stock company Italian firms.