Structure and Performance of Italian Cooperatives: A Quantitative Analysis Based on Combined Use of Official Data

Researchers and policymakers have identified the need to accurately and quantitatively evaluate cooperatives and their economic, social and employment effects, as well as their evolution over time, in a way that is as reliable as possible and not subject to interpretation. This need was also manifested in the adoption by the 20th International Conference of Labour Statisticians of the Guidelines Concerning Statistics of Cooperatives, which aim to facilitate the development of a set of statistics on cooperatives that can be compared at the international level. This study provides informative insights and analyses based on a unified statistical representation of the structure, economic performance and profiles of cooperatives — including cooperative groups — within the Italian economy. Through the integration of several official statistical data sources released by the Italian National Institute of Statistics with the Cooperative Register managed by the Ministry of Economic Development, on the one hand, the paper highlights the peculiarities of cooperatives compared to other companies; on the other, it deeply analyses the composition of the cooperative sector with respect to both economic and structural variables.