Italy’s Worker Buyouts in Times of Crisis

This report focuses on Italy’s experiences with worker-recuperated enterprises as worker buyouts (WBOs). They have been facilitated by Italy’s extensive cooperative, business, and labour legislation and enabling environment, spearheaded by its Legge Marcora (Marcora Law) policy and funding framework - a unique collaboration for business rescues and saving jobs between workers, the state, and the cooperative movement. Read More

WP 43 | 12 Do cooperative enterprises create social trust?

This paper contributes to the literature by carrying out the first empirical investigation into the role of different types of enterprises in the creation of social trust. Drawing on a unique dataset collected through the administration of a questionnaire to a representative sample of the population of the Italian Province of Trento in March 2011, we find that cooperatives are the only type of enterprise where the work environment fosters the social trust of workers. Read More

WP 04 | 10 Employment protection in worker cooperatives: tools and motivations. Analysis of a group of cooperatives in Ravenna

Italian worker cooperatives tend to accumulate a high share of profits in indivisible reserves, a fund that is unavailable and cannot be appropriated by members. The research investigates the reasons for this practice, after discussing the most frequently used interpretations. The hypothesis that is formulated is that indivisible reserves play an important role in protecting the stability of employment in cooperatives. Read More