The Social Economy as a Factor of Economic Development and Resilience of Population in Rural Areas. A Study of Mediating Effects in Castilla-La Mancha (Spain)

Marcos Carchano, Inmaculada Carrasco, Sebastián Castillo and M. Carmen García-Cortijo
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Marcos Carchano: Faculty of Economics, University of Castilla-La Mancha, 02071 Albacete, Spain
Inmaculada Carrasco: Faculty of Economics, University of Castilla-La Mancha, 02071 Albacete, Spain
Sebastián Castillo: Institute of Regional Development, University of Castilla-La Mancha, 02071 Albacete, Spain
M. Carmen García-Cortijo: Institute of Regional Development, University of Castilla-La Mancha, 02071 Albacete, Spain

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 10, 1-19

Abstract: Depopulation is a serious problem facing developed countries, among them Spain. It is especially severe in rural areas, where some vicious circles emerge, nourished by reduced infrastructures and services, deteriorated quality of life, the low inflow of new inhabitants, low local development and an aged population. In this context, social economy institutions may be a key factor in the fight against population decline, having a leading role in reactivating economic dynamism through the creation of stable, high-quality jobs, promoting the local endogenous development of rural areas, helping enhance income in those spaces, encouraging the arrival of people and impacting positively on social cohesion, and enabling sustainable growth. This paper focuses on Castilla-La Mancha, an eminently rural region, which is among the areas most severely impacted by the loss of population in Spain. The aim is to analyze the factors that affect the settlement of population, and to demonstrate that social economy institutions may be a resilience factor of rural population. A partial least squares model, composed of 8 constructs related to 21 variables extracted from data for 2017 and 2018 on the 613 municipalities, allows us to demonstrate that the existence of social economy entities helps to anchor population and increase the resilience of this territory.

Keywords: population resilience; social economy; local development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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