The Contribution of the Social and Solidarity Economy to Economic Growth

Andrea Salustri, Sara Caria, Silvia Sacchetti, Eugenio Montefusco and Francesco De Pretis

Metroeconomica, 2025, vol. 76, issue 4, 513-526

Abstract: This work extends the basic analytical framework of macroeconomic growth to encompass the notion of social inclusion and to reduce the inconsistencies between growth and development. Specifically, we introduce the social and solidarity economy (SSE) into the macroeconomic debate on economic growth to acknowledge and making visible its contribution to total output increase, while working towards greater inclusion. Our analytical strategy relies on the discussion of four theoretical models. First, we illustrate a modified version of the Solow model; second, we introduce social inclusion as a labour‐augmenting factor, and we illustrate how it triggers endogenous growth. Third, we modify a simplified model of endogenous growth by introducing among the arguments of the production function social inclusion as a labour‐augmenting factor and by replacing the R&D with the SSE production function. Fourth, we introduce an encompassing growth model to identify the optimal mix of social inclusion and technological progress that may support endogenous growth. The added value of our research is twofold: (1) we lay the foundations for an alternative pattern of development that may fit well the initial conditions of a low resource economy lacking endogenous technological progress, and (2) we propose a logical framework to identify a continuum of trajectories of development, that is coherent with the diversity of initial conditions observed at country level.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/meca.12501

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:metroe:v:76:y:2025:i:4:p:513-526

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0026-1386

Access Statistics for this article

Metroeconomica is currently edited by Heinz D. Kurz and Neri Salvadori

More articles in Metroeconomica from Wiley Blackwell
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().