Replicating Walrasian equilibria using markets for membership in labor-managed firms

D51, J54, P13, P32, Labor-managed firm, Walrasian equilibria, LMF membership markets,

Banking market structure, creation and activity of firms : Early evidence for co-operatives in the Italian case

‘The definitive version is available at www3.interscience.wiley.com '. Copyright International Centre of Research and Information on the Public, Social and Cooperative Economy (CIRIEC)This paper investigates whether local differences in banking competition impact on the creation and activity of firms, with a special focus on cooperatives. The empirical analysis, implemented on a sample of Italian firms, reveals non-monotonic effects of bank market power on firm creation and activity. In regard to the former, a bell-shaped relationship is found for both cooperative and non-cooperative firms, suggesting that a moderately concentrated banking market favors firms’ creation. A less homogeneous pattern characterizes firms’ activity: a bell-shaped parabola is still found for non-cooperative firms, while a U-shaped relationship emerges for cooperatives, showing that active coops benefit from a relatively more intense banking competition.Peer reviewe

Financial development and the growth of cooperative firms

“The original publication is available at www.springerlink.com”. Copyright Springer.The purpose of this article is to empirically assess the relationship existing between local financial development and the growth of firms, with a special focus on cooperatives. Using Italian data, a multiplicative interaction model is specified, so as to allow the impact of local banking development to differ between cooperative and non-cooperative firms. The main finding is that although local banking development represents a determinant of firms’ growth, regardless of their legal structure, it plays a special role in boosting the growth of cooperatives. This result provides evidence in favor to the existence of an institutional complementarity relationship between the development of local banking institutions and cooperative firms.Peer reviewe