WP 85 | 16 The Role of Nonprofit Institutions in Provinces with Greater Employment Fragility

Nonprofit institutions represent the productive sector that has grown the most in the last intercensary decade (+28 percent between 2001 and 2011 compared to +8.4 percent for businesses and -21.8 percent for public institutions); in particular, more than 14,000 institutions were born in 2011, a year that is not considered among the worst within the broader international economic crisis phase, but which is nonetheless described as a period of uncertainty and a brake on business investment decisions (Istat, Annual Report 2015). This paper, through data from the Census of Industry and Services and key employment statistics, will attempt to identify the territorial and/or sectoral areas most exposed to the fragilities that the crisis has highlighted, in order to analyze, precisely in these areas, the role and innovati va capacity of the nonprofit sector.