Conflicting theories of the nonprofit firm have existed for several decades yet empirical research has not resolved these debates, partly because the theories are not easily testable but also because empirical research generally considers organizations in isolation rather than in markets. Here...

This work presents a Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) for Italy including, for the first time, an economic account of the non-profit sector. The year it refers to is 1999. Once provided a statistical definition of the non-profit sector and how I include it in the framework, I then go on to set out...

The Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) aims at the assessment of people's willingness to pay (WTP) for a public project. The sum of the individual WTPs is interpreted as the social benefits of the project under consideration and compared to the project costs. If the benefits exceed the costs the...

Civil servants have a reputation for being lazy. However, people's personal experiences with civil servants frequently run counter to this stereotype. We develop a model of an economy in which workers differ in laziness and in public service motivation, and characterise optimal incentive...

Based upon the results of a national survey conducted in Taiwan, this study investigates the effects of volunteering on life satisfaction. We used a univariate ordered probit model and a simultaneous bivariate ordered probit model to compare the potential endogeneity between volunteering and...

The growth of the specialty hospital industry has been one of the most important changes to the hospital industry in recent years. Specialty hospitals focus on three specific types of care: cardiac surgery, orthopedic surgery and general surgery. Proponents argue that specialty hospitals are...