This report summarizes the main findings of the conference ‘Promoting the Understanding of Cooperatives for a Better World’, which was co-organized by Euricse and the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) on 15 and 16 March 2012 in Venice, Italy. The report draws mainly, but not exclusively, on the papers and presentations delivered by the invited speakers. Read More
This report presents the results of a survey conducted in 2011 among a representative sample of consumer cooperatives participating in the ANCC-Coop system. Read More
The study analyzes the evolution of the cooperative credit system in the province of Trento over the last decade, focusing in particular on the conditions of competition, both between cooperative credit banks and other types of banks, and within the cooperative credit system itself. Read More
This paper analyzes the situation of social enterprises in Ireland. The first part provides an updated representation of the Irish social enterprise sector, while the second part presents Camara Education as a specific case of a successful Irish social enterprise. Read More
Mancur Olson and Robert Putnam provide two contrasting views on the effect of involvement in voluntary associations on their members. This paper aims to examine the different models by involving a sample of members of different types of associations, from different age groups and educational levels, and a demographically comparable sample of non-members. Read More
In the first part of the paper we study the pricing policies of a customer-owned firm in the absence of external regulation. The main result is that the effect of self-regulation generally ensures the dominance of customer ownership over investor ownership in terms of welfare, although in neither rule is sufficient to achieve first-best in equilibrium. Read More
The implementation of projects producing external effects is often a source of disagreement and conflict between hosting and non-hosting communities. The paper focuses on the impact of participatory ownership on conflict resolution and social welfare in the presence of asymmetric information and imperfect quality monitoring. Read More
Using disaggregated data on microfinance lenders in Ethiopia, this paper compares financial cooperatives and specialized or unbanked microfinance institutions based on their scale, financial performance, and ability to achieve financial self-sufficiency and target the poor. Read More
The book "Banche di Credito Cooperativo e sviluppo locale", is part of the collection "I Quaderni di CoperniCo" a book series deriving from the project Formazione Identitaria. Read More
This book examines the opportunities opened up for financial cooperatives by the recent financial crisis, and explores the role of these institutions in promoting and sustaining local development. Read More
This paper argues that pluralism of forms of enterprise is the way forward in addressing the deep crisis in the global economy, and cooperatives are a fundamental part of this pluralism. Read More
In this paper, we investigate whether capital structure differs between for-profit and nonprofit sectors by focusing on two key aspects of the latter: the non-distribution constraint and the stakeholder oriented governance system. We develop a theoretical model and show that the former negatively affects leverage, defined as the amount borrowed over the total investment, whilst the latter has a positive effect. Read More