Nonprofits are Not Alike: The Role of Catholic and Protestant Affiliation

38 Pages Posted: 2 May 2013

See all articles by Lapo Filistrucchi

Lapo Filistrucchi

Tilburg University, TILEC; University of Florence, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche

Jens Prufer

Tilburg University; Tilburg University - Department of Economics; Tilburg University - Law and Economics Center (TILEC)

Date Written: April 26, 2013

Abstract

There are no generally accepted results regarding the objectives, decisions, and economic outcomes of nonprofit organizations, as compared to forprodit or public firms. We posit that this inconclusiveness is due to a too broad definition of nonprofits and that different types of nonprofits exist. This conjecture is investigated by constructing a model in which nonprofits differ by religious affiliation and testing the resulting hypotheses on the observed behavior of German nonprofit hospitals. We find that Catholic and Protestant nonprofits adopt significantly different strategies in the market. This confirms our conjecture and the importance of religion for economic outcomes.

Keywords: Nonprofits, Governance, Owner Objectives, Religious Organizations

JEL Classification: L31, L21, Z12, D64, I11

Suggested Citation

Filistrucchi, Lapo and Filistrucchi, Lapo and Prufer, Jens, Nonprofits are Not Alike: The Role of Catholic and Protestant Affiliation (April 26, 2013). TILEC Discussion Paper No. 2013-013, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2259051 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2259051

Lapo Filistrucchi (Contact Author)

Tilburg University, TILEC ( email )

P.O. Box 90153
Tilburg, Noord-Brabant NL-5000 LE
Netherlands
+31 13 466 3360 (Phone)
+31 13 466 3042 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.lapofilistrucchi.com

University of Florence, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche ( email )

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Florence, Florence IT-50127
Italy
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+39 055 2759910 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.lapofilistrucchi.com

Jens Prufer

Tilburg University ( email )

P.O. Box 90153
Tilburg, DC Noord-Brabant 5000 LE
Netherlands

Tilburg University - Department of Economics ( email )

P.O. Box 90153
Tilburg, 5000 LE
Netherlands

Tilburg University - Law and Economics Center (TILEC) ( email )

Warandelaan 2
Tilburg, 5000 LE
Netherlands

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