Impact of Cooperatives on Economic Growth and Employment in Italy

Abstract

The concepts of economic growth and employment evidently have a deep-rooted history in the economics literature. Especially with the effect of the intellectual revolution and enlightenment that took place in parallel with the Industrial Revolution, the developments in science have also found reflection in the field of economy. The modern cooperative movement, which advocates a participatory and democratic management structure, has spread to Europe and to the world starting from England depending on the pace of industrialization. Today, cooperatives operating in developed countries have an important role in supporting economic growth and employment in their economies. In line with the sustainable development goals, it is observed that the importance attributed to cooperatives has increased throughout Europe, especially in the European Union countries. Accordingly, in this study, the effect of cooperatives on economic growth and employment in Italy, which has a long history of cooperative movement, is analyzed econometrically with the models created using the data from Italian National Institute of Statistics regarding Italy’s 21 Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics-2 regions for the period of 2011-2022. According to the findings from the econometric analysis, it is seen that the employment created by the cooperatives has positive and statistically significant effects on economic growth and employment.

Keywords

• cooperatives
• economic growth
• employment
• panel data analysis

İtalya'da Kooperatiflerin Ekonomik Büyüme ve İstihdam Üzerine Etkisi

Öz

Ekonomik büyüme ve istihdam kavramlarının, ekonomi literatüründe köklü bir geçmişe sahip olduğu açıktır. Özellikle Sanayi Devrimi ile paralel olarak gerçekleşen entelektüel devrim ve aydınlanmanın etkisiyle, bilimdeki gelişmeler ekonomi alanında da yansıma bulmuştur. Katılımcı ve demokratik bir yönetim yapısını savunan modern kooperatifçilik hareketi, sanayileşme hızına bağlı olarak İngiltere'den başlayarak Avrupa'ya ve dünyaya yayılmıştır. Günümüzde, gelişmiş ülkelerde faaliyet gösteren kooperatifler, ekonomilerinde büyüme ve istihdamı desteklemede önemli bir rol oynamaktadır. Sürdürülebilir kalkınma hedefleri doğrultusunda, Avrupa genelinde, özellikle Avrupa Birliği ülkelerinde kooperatiflere verilen önemin arttığı görülmektedir. Bu bağlamda, bu çalışmada, uzun bir kooperatif hareketi geçmişine sahip olan İtalya’nın kooperatiflerinin ekonomik büyüme ve istihdam üzerindeki etkisi, 2011-2022 dönemi için İtalya'nın 21 İstatistiki Bölge Birimleri Sınıflandırması-Düzey 2 bölgesine ait İtalya Ulusal İstatistik Enstitüsü verileri kullanılarak oluşturulan modellerle ekonometrik olarak analiz edilmektedir. Ekonometrik analizden elde edilen bulgulara göre, kooperatifler tarafından sağlanan istihdamın, ekonomik büyüme ve toplam istihdam üzerinde olumlu ve istatistiksel olarak anlamlı etkileri olduğu görülmektedir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• kooperatifler
• ekonomik büyüme
• istihdam
• panel veri analizi

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