Author: Hansmann, Henry B.

Publication Year: 1979

Media Type: Report

Summary:

Abstract:

The author aims to develop a broad perspective on economic role that nonprofit organizations perform. His purpose in the article is to fill some of the gaps in our positive theories of institutions and to provide a basis for informed policymaking. The article discusses the entire spectrum of nonprofit organizations, though it focuses primarily upon nonprofit corporations that produce goods and services. This class of institutions, sometimes referred to as operating nonprofits, includes, for example, colleges, hospitals, day care centers, nursing homes, research institutes, publications, symphony orchestras, social clubs, trade associations, labor unions churches, and organizations for the relief of the needy and distressed. The author's concern is with private nonprofit organizations, not with governmental enterprises; one of the objectives of this article is, in fact, to explore the factors that distinguish the role of private nonprofits from that of government.

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