A proposito di un libro di testo sul settore "non profit"; in particolare, sulla questione della reciprocità

<i> A proposito di un libro di testo sul settore "non profit"; in particolare, sulla questione della reciprocità </i> (di Ferruccio Marzano) - ABSTRACT: The paper is a review-article of a recent textbook by M. Musella and S. D’Acunto on The Political Economy of the Non Profit Sector (Turin, 2000). The article contains a critical assessment of the main thesis of the book according to which the Non Profit Sector is seen as a productive sector with prevailing voluntary labour force and "unilateral transfers" of goods and services to people who need them. Then, the necessary resources for the financing of the productive activity and all costs of production would be derived from public funds and/or private donations. In the author’s view, though, this should be seen as only part of the story, since one cannot say that the entire world of the Non Profit Sector is to be classified on the basis of such a model. In addition, an increasing section of it is a sector with prevailing wage-earning workers and "bilateral transfers", so that goods and services may be assigned by one productive activity (or social group) to another and viceversa. Then, it seems that the Non Profit Sector may be increasingly seen as a properly "competing sector" vis-à-vis both the private (for profit) and the public sectors. JEL Classification: D64; L30