IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/atlecj/v34y2006i4p435-447.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Nonprofit Organization and the Division of Labor: A Theoretical Perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Vladislav Valentinov

Abstract

This paper asks whether nonprofit organization can have a positive rationale in an economy based on the division of labor, taking into account that the process of the division of labor occurs through profit-motivated economic behavior. By reconsidering existing economic theories of nonprofit organization in the context of the theory of the division of labor, the paper shows nonprofit organization to be an institutional consequence of two limitations on the division of labor: high coordination costs among interdependent agents and the existence of production-related, as opposed to consumption-related, preferences. These limitations prevent the system of the division of labor from fully gratifying the consumption preferences of economic agents and, thereby, create a functional niche for nonprofit organization. Copyright International Atlantic Economic Society 2006

Suggested Citation

  • Vladislav Valentinov, 2006. "Nonprofit Organization and the Division of Labor: A Theoretical Perspective," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 34(4), pages 435-447, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:atlecj:v:34:y:2006:i:4:p:435-447
    DOI: 10.1007/s11293-006-9032-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11293-006-9032-z
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11293-006-9032-z?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alchian, Armen A & Demsetz, Harold, 1972. "Production , Information Costs, and Economic Organization," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 62(5), pages 777-795, December.
    2. Gary S. Becker & Kevin M. Murphy, 1994. "The Division of Labor, Coordination Costs, and Knowledge," NBER Chapters, in: Human Capital: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis with Special Reference to Education, Third Edition, pages 299-322, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Norio Tokumaru, 2003. "The Division of Labor is Limited by the Extent of the Market? The Counter-case of the Okayama Farm-engine Industrial District in Japan," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(2), pages 145-158.
    4. Xiaokai Yang & Jeff Borland, 2005. "A Microeconomic Mechanism For Economic Growth," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: An Inframarginal Approach To Trade Theory, chapter 18, pages 409-436, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    5. Andreoni, James, 1989. "Giving with Impure Altruism: Applications to Charity and Ricardian Equivalence," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(6), pages 1447-1458, December.
    6. Locay, Luis, 1990. "Economic Development and the Division of Production between Households and Markets," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(5), pages 965-982, October.
    7. Furubotn, Eirik G & Pejovich, Svetozar, 1972. "Property Rights and Economic Theory: A Survey of Recent Literature," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 10(4), pages 1137-1162, December.
    8. De Alessi, Louis, 1983. "Property Rights, Transaction Costs, and X-Efficiency: An Essay in Economic Theory," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 73(1), pages 64-81, March.
    9. Eggertsson,Thrainn, 1990. "Economic Behavior and Institutions," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521348911.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sahar Bahmani & Miguel-Ángel Galindo & María Méndez, 2012. "Non-profit organizations, entrepreneurship, social capital and economic growth," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 38(3), pages 271-281, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jongwook Kim & Joseph T. Mahoney, 2002. "Resource-based and property rights perspectives on value creation: the case of oil field unitization," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(4-5), pages 225-245.
    2. Kim, Jongwook & Mahoney, Joseph T., 2008. "A Strategic Theory of the Firm as a Nexus of Incomplete Contracts: A Property Rights Approach," Working Papers 08-0108, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, College of Business.
    3. Tamura, Robert, 2002. "Human capital and the switch from agriculture to industry," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 207-242, December.
    4. Ingmar Geiger & Manuel Kluckert & Michael Kleinaltenkamp, 2017. "Customer acceptance of tradable service contracts," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 87(2), pages 155-183, February.
    5. Harris,Colin & Cai,Meina & Murtazashvili,Ilia & Murtazashvili,Jennifer Brick, 2020. "The Origins and Consequences of Property Rights," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781108969055.
    6. Meinzen-Dick, Ruth, 2014. "Property rights and sustainable irrigation: A developing country perspective," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 23-31.
    7. Guangzhen Sun & Xiaokai Yang & Shuntian Yao, 1999. "Theoretical Foundation of Economic Development Based on Networking Decisions in the Competitive Market," CID Working Papers 16A, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    8. Valentinov, Vladislav, 2009. "Third sector organizations in rural development: a transaction cost perspective," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 18(1), pages 3-15.
    9. Sun, Guang-Zhen & Yang, Xiaokai & Zhou, Lin, 2004. "General equilibria in large economies with endogenous structure of division of labor," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 237-256, October.
    10. Kim, Jongwook & Mahoney, Joseph T., 2005. "Appropriating Economic Rents from Resources: An Integrative Property Rights and Resource-Based Approach," Working Papers 05-0123, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, College of Business.
    11. Jorge Pinilla & Joaquim Vergés, 2007. "Efectos De La Privatización En La Eficiencia De Iberia Líneas Aéreas De España S.A," Revista Economía y Administración, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Administrativas, Universidad de Concepción, vol. 69, pages 7-38, December.
    12. Vladislav Valentinov, 2006. "Nondistribution Constraint and Managerial Discretion: Disentangling the Relationship," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 6(4), pages 305-316, December.
    13. Valentinov, Vladislav, 2010. "The institutionalist legacy of the Gemeinwirtschaftslehre," ZögU - Zeitschrift für öffentliche und gemeinwirtschaftliche Unternehmen, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 33(1), pages 44-53.
    14. Cheng, Wenli & Yang, Xiaokai, 2004. "Inframarginal analysis of division of labor: A survey," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 137-174, October.
    15. Vladislav Valentinov, 2007. "The Property Rights Approach to Nonprofit Organization: The Role of Intrinsic Motivation," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 41-55, March.
    16. Chaddad, Fabio & Valentinov, Vladislav, 2017. "Agency costs and organizational architecture of large corporate farms: evidence from Brazil," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 20(2), pages 201-220.
    17. Mei Wen & Stephen P. King, 2006. "Push Or Pull? The Relationship Between Development, Trade And Primary Resource Endowment," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Christis Tombazos & Xiaokai Yang (ed.), Inframarginal Contributions To Development Economics, chapter 20, pages 497-529, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    18. Gilles, Robert P. & Pesce, Marialaura & Diamantaras, Dimitrios, 2020. "The provision of collective goods through a social division of labour," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 287-312.
    19. Ruffin, Roy J., 2009. "The gains from specialization and population size," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 105(1), pages 76-77, October.
    20. repec:awi:wpaper:0421 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Xavier Ragot, 2003. "Division du travail et progrès technique," Revue économique, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 54(4), pages 725-741.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    D23; division of labor; nonprofit organization; preferences; property rights;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D23 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:atlecj:v:34:y:2006:i:4:p:435-447. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.