WP 112 | 20 The economic significance of the Third Sector: the situation and impact of reform

The Italian Third Sector has in a short period of time achieved a significant economic and employment dimension and social relevance, contributing to the development of a wide range of social and general interest services and to countering the employment effects of the crisis that has affected the country since 2008. This is one of the reasons that led the government and parliament to start a process of recognizing the sector and comprehensively reviewing the uncoordinated and not always coherent legislation that had been developing since the last decade of the last century. In the essay, after identifying the reasons explaining the growth of the sector, its economic dimension is reconstructed and an analysis is made of whether and to what extent the reform has grasped its specificities and succeeded in laying the groundwork for its further strengthening.