SOCIAL COOPERATIVES IN ITALY: ECONOMIC ANTECEDENTS AND REGIONAL DISTRIBUTION

Social cooperatives represent the most notable form of non‐profit organizations operating in Italy in the social services field, the birth and development of which has been strongly linked to, and conditioned by, the needs and resources of territories and communities. This paper intends to demonstrate how certain socio‐economic factors, recognized in economic literature as antecedents of the development of social enterprises, may account for the spread of social cooperatives in different Italian regions. Furthermore, the research results demonstrate an inter‐regional differentiation of the shape social cooperation has entered into in Italy.     

Lessons from Environmental Regulation for the Nonprofit Sector

As the third sector's economic and social impact grows worldwide, efforts by governments to regulate the sector have focused on increasing compliance in tax–exempt organizations. This article turns to the environmental sector for guidance, summarizing key characteristics of environmental regulation and noting what strategies are likely to prove useful for application to regulation of nonprofit organizations. The article finds some value in promotion of market–based enforcement schemes, but little value in promulgation of laws specifying governance structures and performance standards by a central authority. The most promising opportunity for improvement of the nonprofit regulatory process involves incorporation of financial incentives into monitoring schemes.     

The nonprofit sector in international perspective: The case of Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, a developing country, has a small but growing nonprofit sector that engages in the formation of social overhead and human capital, as well as in more traditional social services. The most active multipurpose organizations combine large foreign monetary donations with domestic donations of volunteer labor. Smaller organizations depend primarily on modest government grants for financial support. Private domestic monetary contributions, unlike in the U. S., play only a minor role. Origins of these nonprofit institutions, motivations of foreign donors and of volunteer labor, interactions with the government, and implications for economic development and social welfare are examined.     

论体制转轨的动态过程——非国有部门的成长与国有部门的改革

本文试图将中国经济体制转轨所取得的成就和所面临的问题 ,放在一个简化了的动态模型中加以系统地分析。文章指出 ,动态地看 ,体制转轨的根本问题就是非国有经济比重的不断提高和经济的所有制结构的转变。在非国有经济的增长率高于国有经济的增长率的“基本假定”下 ,体制转轨的最重要的问题首先不是改革国有经济 ,而是发展非国有经济。这不仅是由于非国有经济的发展支撑着经济的增长和市场体制的形成 ,而且也是由于它创造出使国有经济得以改革的更有利的条件。国有经济改革的重要性主要在于 ,它们若不改革 ,就还要占用大量资源 ,而且是要从非国有经济转移资源作为事实上对国有经济的补贴。这种补贴在过去一个时期主要体现在银行坏债、资本市场上的“坏股”、非国有经济的“综合税赋”事实的不断提高 ,等等 ,现在也体现在政府债务增大。正因如此 ,尽管中国目前并不面临金融危机 ,但必须加快国有企业和国有银行控制的金融体制的改革进度 ,以保证非国有经济能持续发展下去 ,保证整个体制转轨过程的持续进行而不被某种危机所打断。     

THE GOVERNANCE CHALLENGES OF SOCIAL ENTERPRISES: EVIDENCE FROM A UK EMPIRICAL STUDY

ABSTRACT:  The social enterprise sector in the UK is going through a period of rapid growth, and is being seen by government as another important vehicle for delivering public services. As a result the issue of public trust in social enterprise is of growing importance. While there is a growing literature on the governance of voluntary and non-profit organizations, with some exceptions (e.g. co-operatives) there has been little research on the governance challenges and support needs of social enterprises. The research reported here aimed to help fill that gap. Based on interviews and focus groups with governance advisers, board members and chief executives it explores the typical governance challenges faced by social enterprises. Based on the research the paper develops a new, empirically-grounded typology of social enterprises based on their origins and development path, and presents findings about some of the governance challenges that are common across the sector and some that are more distinctive to the different types of social enterprise.     

我国国有企业性质的重新审视——由“国进民退”或“民进国退”引发的思考

我国未来五年经济社会发展的一个非常重要的任务,就是推进国有经济战略性调整,健全国有资本有进有退、合理流动机制。用马克思、恩格斯关于国家所有制的观点,重新审视我国国有企业的性质,可以看到社会主义国有企业改革与社会主义所有制改革的正向相关性,进而为有进有退正名。进与退以国有经济布局的战略性调整为背景,是指国有经济在命脉领域的进与退;进退的主体是国有企业;进退的结果是实现产业结构的优化和升级,以及所有制结构的调整完善;进退的机制是市场机制或价值规律的作用机制。不能用国进民退或民进国退来解释有进有退。     

中国信贷歧视的福利成本*

国有企业与民营企业之间的信贷歧视是中国经济转型过程中所特有的现象。本文构建了一个具有信贷歧视的动态随机一般均衡模型,以计算中国信贷歧视的福利成本。计算结果表明,信贷歧视大约会使整体社会的福利损失增加62%,其原因在于信贷歧视加剧了民营企业的产出波动并进而放大了通胀波动。本文进一步对比了不同货币政策下的福利损失,发现信贷歧视均会产生福利成本。据此,本文认为信贷歧视必须予以破除,从而消除信贷歧视带来的福利成本。     

CHINA'S ECONOMIC REFORM: THE NEXT STEP

China's economic reforms succeeded in decentralizing decision making power down to the local and enterprise level. This decentralization has permitted a vibrant non-state sector to emerge alongside the state sector. Growing out of the state plan accounts for much of China's spectacular economic growth. However, productivity in the state sector has experienced little improvement. One can trace recurrent macroeconomic imbalances and inflation to the state policy to provide cheap credit to cover the huge losses sustained by state-owned enterprises. Attempts to reimpose controls to cool down an overheated economy repeatedly have halted the momentum for economic reform. Failure to introduce banking and financial reforms threatens future growth of the non-state sector. The success of such reforms depends critically on efforts to restructure and privatize state-owned enterprises. Growing out of the state plan requires officials to adopt an explicit policy to stop supporting the losses in the state owned enterprises.     

NON-CORPORATE SECTOR FINANCE AND FINANCING OF SMALL INDUSTRIES IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: THE NIGERIAN EXPERIENCE

This paper attempts to report the author's findings regarding the role of the non-corporate sector in providing investment finance for small-scale industries in Nigeria, through co-operative efforts. It specially underlines the role of indigenous social organizations and group relations in solving the economic problems of a developing economy which places emphasis on industrial development. Though these sources provide short-term consumption finance, they certainly constitute an inadequate source of long-term finance for industry in a situation where the importance of small-scale industry development is officially greatly emphasized, and existing financial institutions are designed to serve only the financial needs of large industrial enterprises. The role of government in the context of the dilemma of the small-scale entrepreneur is examined and suggestions made for improvements. The paper reflects what is probably the experience of many developing countries trying to industrialize.     

社会创业导向、跨界搜索与社会企业绩效：市场环境的调节作用

作为社会企业重要战略选择,社会创业导向能够促进跨界搜索以获取灵感和动力,从而推动社会企业双元绩效提升。因此,基于组织搜索理论,遵循“态度—行为—结果”研究范式,将市场环境引入社会企业创业导向、跨界搜索与社会企业双元绩效关系模型,基于问卷数据验证社会创业导向对社会企业双元绩效的作用机制及外部影响。结果表明：①社会创业导向对社会企业经济和社会绩效具有积极影响;②跨界搜索在社会创业导向与社会企业经济和社会绩效间起部分中介作用;③市场环境作为关键外部环境因素,正向调节社会创业导向与跨界搜索的关系以及跨界搜索与社会企业经济绩效的关系,负向调节跨界搜索与社会企业社会绩效的关系。因此,整个模型能够回答社会创业导向如何推动社会企业双元绩效增长问题。此外,市场环境的技术动态性和需求不确定性促使市场逻辑在社会企业跨界搜索行为中占据主导地位,因而社会企业需要高度重视自身使命和价值共创,促进经济效益和社会价值实现。     

企业社会责任与可持续发展

在全球化进程中,经济、社会、环境问题之间存在着一种强烈的互动性,企业不仅是区域经济的基本组织,也是区域社会的基本组织,更是一个可以直接贡献或破坏自己生存发展环境的一个重要角色。所以,企业不仅要追求自身的＂利润最大化＂,而且要为创造实现＂利润最大化＂的经济、社会和资源环境作出努力和贡献。     

Environmental resilience and economic growth: Command economy's optimization and environmental Kuznets curve

This paper constructs a two-sector environmental growth model with explicit mathematical derivation and economic intuition in a social planning economy. Through the optimal allocation of man-made capital between the production sector and the environmental sector, this paper shows that the trade-off between economic growth and environmental protection exists only when an economy deviates from its steady state. We also provide short-run transitions for both the whole economic system and individual control and state variables. In addition, technological progress in the production sector benefits economic growth rate while the improvement of technology in the environmental sector has only level effects on economic variables. This paper ends with a link between the theory and a hot empirical issue — the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis.     

经济外部性与企业履行社会责任评价标准

根据经济外部性与交易公平理论,企业履行社会责任的行为可以划分为必须履行之社会责任、应当履行之社会责任与自愿履行之社会责任三个层次。对企业而言,最重要的社会责任为前者,二者次之,三者再次。这种层次的划分为评价企业履行社会责任行为的重要程度提供一个新标准,有助于更合理地评价企业履行社会责任的程度。     

Environmental efficiency and labour productivity: Trade-off or joint dynamics? A theoretical investigation and empirical evidence from Italy using NAMEA

In this paper we test an adapted EKC hypothesis to verify the relationship between ‘environmental efficiency’ (namely emissions per unit of value added) and labour productivity (value added per employee). We exploit NAMEA data on Italy for 29 sector branches and 6 categories of air emissions for the period 1991-2001. We employ data on capital stock and trade openness to test the robustness of our results.On the basis of the theoretical and empirical analyses focusing on innovation, firm performances and environmental externalities, we would expect a positive correlation between environmental efficiency and labour productivity — a negative correlation between the emissions intensity of value added and labour productivity — which departs from the conventional mainstream view. The hypothesis tested is a critical one within the longstanding debate on the potential trade-off or complementarity between environmental preservation and economic performance, which is strictly associated with the role of technological innovation. We find that for most air emission categories there is a positive relationship between labour productivity and environmental efficiency. Labour productivity dynamics, then, seem to be complementary to a decreasing emissions intensity in the production process. Taking a disaggregate sector perspective, we show that the macro-aggregate evidence is driven by sector dynamics in a non-homogenous way across pollutants. Services tend always to show a ‘complementary’ relationship, while industry seems to be associated with inverted U-shape dynamics for greenhouse gases and nitrogen oxides. This is in line with our expectations. In any case, EKC shapes appear to drive such productivity links towards complementarity. The extent to which this evidence derives from endogenous market forces, industrial and structural change, and policy effects is discussed by taking an evolutionary perspective to innovation and by referring to impure public goods arguments.     

经济政策有效性的理论分析* ——以货币政策为例

本文在更一般的不完全信息情形下，以货币政策为例，分析了经济政策的时间不一致问题。结果表明，当私人部门与政府部门存在不对称信息，政府部门具有信息优势时，最优经济政策与私人部门所持有的关于经济状态的信念有关。从福利的角度看，当现实经济状态对经济政策灵敏时，政府部门有公开经济状态信息的激励；反之，政府部门则有隐瞒经济状态信息的激励。因此，在市场经济的顶层设计中，除政府部门需要建立相关经济决策咨询机构外，还要推动独立的民间智库发展，使公众逐步摆脱信息劣势。     

WHAT DO CITIZENS THINK ABOUT PUBLIC ENTERPRISES? SUBJECTIVE SURVEY DATA ON THE LEGITIMACY OF THE ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES OF THE GERMAN PUBLIC SECTOR

We analyse the legitimacy of public enterprises that perform economic activities by focusing on the citizens’ subjective preferences, i.e. determining their political legitimacy. Using data from a representative survey conducted among 318 citizens of the German state of Rhineland‐Palatine, we explore determinants for the support of either privatisation efforts or the instrumental thesis, a widespread principle in German‐speaking countries, which considers public enterprises solely as instruments to fulfil economic policy objectives. Our results indicate that the respondents’ perception of the efficiency of public enterprises as well as their personal economic situation are important factors for the support of privatisation. The influential factors for the use of public enterprises as policy instruments are political ideology, the perception of a higher security of supplying goods and services as well as opinions regarding corporate social responsibility. The subjective preferences of a (democratic) country's citizens are thus an important reason why the public sector should or should not play an active part in providing goods and services. This can play an important role when decision makers from the public sector are keen to take into account the citizens’ approval or disapproval of privatisation measures.     

The exchange paradigm of constitutional economics: implications for understanding the third sector

This paper reconsiders the exchange paradigm of constitutional economics from the perspective of the theory of the division of labor. According to this theory, human wants can be satisfied by two basic mechanisms—exchange and self-sufficiency. The exchange paradigm of constitutional economics emphasizes the former mechanism while neglecting the latter. Building on major economic theories of the third sector, it is argued that the latter mechanism is more helpful than the former in explaining the existence of third sector organizations. The paper concludes by discussing implications of this argument for the further development of constitutional economics.      

TOWARDS A PARADIGM OF DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION: CITIZEN PARTICIPATION AND CO-PRODUCTION OF PERSONAL SOCIAL SERVICES IN SWEDEN

ABSTRACT:  Many countries in Europe are now searching for new ways to engage citizens and involve the third sector in the provision and governance of social services in order to meet major demographical, political and economic challenges facing the welfare state in the 21st Century. Co-production provides a model for the mix of both public service agents and citizens who contribute to the provision of a public service. Citizen participation involves several different dimensions: economic, social, political and service specific. The extent of citizen participation varies between different providers of welfare services, as too does user and staff influence. Empirical materials from a recent study of childcare in Sweden will be used to illustrate these points. However, the role of citizens and the third sector also varies between countries and social sectors. Third sector providers facilitate citizen participation, while a glass ceiling for participation exists in municipal and for-profit providers. Moreover, co-production takes place in a political context, and can be crowded-in or crowded-out by public policy. These findings can contribute to the development of a new paradigm of participative democracy.     

South Korean social enterprises and their networks: On their organizational linkages at the interstice between the third,public, and corporate sectors

Social enterprise and government interactions have become an increasingly prominent theme in the literature on social entrepreneurship, due in part to the pressures confronting the welfare state and the rise of precarious work. This analysis is motivated by the efforts of the government of South Korea to incubate social enterprises since 2007. The constant scaling of the South Korean government's monitored social enterprise certification scheme had led to the registration of approximately 3440 social enterprises as of May 2021. This study documents the interorganizational network behaviour of these enterprises relative to the public sector, corporate sector, and civil society and the social economy. A cluster analysis approach is utilized to analyse network data obtained from a self-administered survey of 103 government-certified social enterprises operating in South Korea. We find that a sizeable number of government-certified social enterprises have diversified networks, as opposed to public sector-centric networks, although such social enterprises are in the minority. This study references social innovation cluster theory to argue that the aforementioned scheme has attained a partial degree of success in facilitating the emergence of social enterprises with diversified networks.However, the majority remain quasi-governmental implementers of government contracts and, generally, do not engage in networking.     

我国社会中介组织发展中存在的问题及解决思路

在中央大力倡导政企、政资、政社分开的过程中,加大中介组织的发展力度对于促进了经济的健康发展和社会的稳定尤为重要。本文就我国社会中介组织的现状进行分析,指出了在发展中存在的问题并提出了相应的解决思路。