TY - JOUR AB - Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to offer a concise survey and comparison of Italian accounting research and academic publications during the second half of the 20th century.Design/methodology/approach– The paper discusses the special relation between economia aziendale (business and public economics) and ragioneria (accounting) in Italy. The subsequent discussion on “financial accounting” includes a sub‐section on income‐orientation (vs capital‐orientation), especially important in Italy during this period, and the present crisis of economia aziendale as affecting ragioneria, contributions by major Italian accountants of the period (above all, Onida and Amaduzzi) are discussed. After a section on “cost and managerial accounting” (of less significance in Italy than financial accounting), and a look at “novel accounting trends”, the paper closes with a discussion of some representative historical studies of the period.Findings– The paper reveals the changing international position of Italian accounting research.Research limitations/implications– The paper is limited by selecting the most prominent and relevant contributions among a host of pertinent publications.Originality/value– In contrast to previous research, the paper offers an integrated survey of major Italian accounting publications of the entire second half of the 20th century. VL - 6 IS - 1 SN - 1475-7702 DO - 10.1108/14757700710725449 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/14757700710725449 AU - Viganò Enrico AU - Mattessich Richard PY - 2007 Y1 - 2007/01/01 TI - Accounting research in Italy: second half of the 20th century T2 - Review of Accounting and Finance PB - Emerald Group Publishing Limited SP - 24 EP - 41 Y2 - 2024/04/26 ER -