Asymmetric effects on the development of social enterprises. Factors and effects

The purpose in this paper is to empirically examine the factors that affect the development of social enterprises. Our research focus on a group of 16 EU countries in which the social economy sector is considered developed. Using a less homogeneous group of countries with respect to a more homogeneous group of areas from the same country will offer a different view regarding the significant factors. Our methodology is based on advanced econometric tests as bootstrap test and Bayesian bootstrap that attain better statistical properties in presence of low size sample with respects to classical correlation test. The results exhibit asymmetric effects of social entrepreneurship that differentiate the factors contributing to their development. In countries of South of Europe all the factors that theory proposes affect the development of social enterprises whereas in countries of North of Europe the impact is confined on the unemployment in vulnerable groups (as women and young people) and low expenditure on care for elderly. These results provide strong evidence that countries of South of Europe should turn the model of their macroeconomic policy.