The Italian Social Cooperatives in 2008: A Portrait Using Descriptive and Principal Component Analysis

This paper describes the role of social cooperatives in Italy as a type of economic, nonprofit organization that is assuming an increasingly central role in the country, by contributing to its economic and social growth. In the last decade many agencies, institutions and research centres (Istat Italian National Statistic Office, Ministry of Economic Development, Confcooperative Legacoop, Unioncamere) have provided studies on the evolution of the cooperative movement in the Third Sector, in order to monitor the development of these organizations over time and to evaluate their economic and employment impact over the country. Following a similar path, this study analyzes the contribution of social cooperatives in Italy at a regional level, highlighting the differences related to their age and fields of activity. Moreover, the paper evaluates the efficiency and profitability of the social cooperative by conducting further analysis based on a number of economic and financial indexes.