The Economics of Social Responsibility

This book offers a rethinking of the burgeoning research on not-for-profit organizations and socially responsible economics. Adopting a comparative approach, the chapters explore and reinterpret the impact of social enterprises on the provision of general-interest services, work integration, microfinance, and fair trade, and show how these enterprises form the hub of an emerging economy of social responsibility. The book provides a new interpretation of social enterprises as entrepreneurial organizations that pursue social objectives and are successful due to the non-self-seeking motives of their members. This book will be of interest to postgraduate students, professionals working in the not-for-profit sector, and scholars interested in socially responsible economics. It is particularly suitable for seminars and workshops focusing on the management of not-for-profit organizations, sustainable development, and globalization.

Leonardo Becchetti is a Professor of Economics at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy. Carlo Borzaga is a Professor of Economics in the Faculty of Economics at the University of Trento, Italy.

Introduction Leonardo Becchetti and Carlo and Carlo Borzaga 1. The economics of social enterprises: an interpretive framework Carlo Borzaga and Ermanno Tortia 2. The competitive advantages of social enterprises Sara Depedri 3. The impact of social enterprises on output, employment, and welfare Ermanno Tortia 4. From economic growth to sustainable development Leonardo Becchetti and Giuseppe Mastromatteo 5. The provision of welfare and general-interest services Luca Fazzi 6. Social enterprises and the integration of disadvantaged workers Giulia Galera 7. The fair-trade debate and its underpinnings Leonardo Becchetti 8. An empirical test of fair trade Leonardo Becchetti and Marco Costantino 9. Microfinance: a frontier social enterprise Leonardo Becchetti 10. Only the fittest survive? A test of the sustainability of corporate social responsibility Leonardo Becchetti and Rocco Ciciretti