Reflections on Social Economics in a Diverse and Open Economics

Many economists adopt a critical stance on cooperatives. One example is the claim that larger membership in cooperative banks is detrimental to performance. We re-examine this earlier finding by drawing from a richer and broader conceptual framework than used previously and conclude that in recent years, the relationship between membership and performance may be positive. In our empirical analysis, we use new data for Finnish cooperative banks and, compared to earlier work, develop an alternative measure for membership and employ improved estimation methods. A positive relationship between membership and performance in financial cooperatives is consistently found. We discuss our findings in light of an emerging body of theoretical and empirical work on cooperatives, especially for financial cooperatives, and argue that a new view of cooperatives is warranted.     

Impact of cooperative membership on market performance of Nepali goat farmers

In developing countries, agricultural cooperatives are increasingly used by farmers as a mechanism to gain market power in input and output markets. To assess the impact of cooperative membership on market channel selection and pricing outcomes, we conducted a survey of 661 Nepali goat farmers in 2019–20 and applied an endogenous switching probit model to analyze the data. Our findings indicate that cooperative membership had a significant and positive influence on farmers choosing cooperatives as their market channel. Additionally, farmers who sold their goats through cooperatives received significantly higher prices than those who sold through local markets or to goat collectors. We also observed that farmers who had access to price information were able to obtain better prices for their goats. Overall, our study highlights the potential benefits of promoting cooperative membership and marketing through cooperatives, as these efforts can help farmers improve the returns on their agricultural investments.     

从“家庭农场”到“农民合作”:恰亚诺夫的合作化思想及其对中国现代农业发展的启示

农民经济理论和农民合作社理论是恰亚诺夫农业经济思想的两个重要组成部分。恰亚诺夫以家庭农场研究为基础,关注如何在以小农户为主体的基础上实现农业的大生产,提出了以合作社为载体的纵向一体化,构建了"小农场+合作社+支持型国家"的现代农业发展模式。本文通过介绍和补充恰亚诺夫关于农民合作社的研究论述与主要观点,强调指出了恰亚诺夫农业经济思想对当下促进小农户与现代农业有机衔接的中国农业发展所具有的实践价值与理论意义。     

Does agricultural cooperative membership influence off-farm work decisions of farm couples?

Membership in agricultural cooperatives may influence intra-household decisions regarding the division of household labor. However, the linkages between cooperative membership and labor allocation remain unexplored. To fill this gap, we examine the impact of cooperative membership on off-farm work decisions of couples engaged in farming, using data collected from 595 banana farmers in China. The recursive bivariate probit model and endogenous-treatment Poisson regression model are employed to address the self-selection bias inherent in cooperative membership. The results show that cooperative membership increases the probability of participating in off-farm work by 38% for husbands and 31% for wives. Having large households reduces the probability of husbands but increases that of wives working off-farm. Cooperative membership is also associated with more time spent on off-farm work and higher earnings for both husbands and wives. Our findings point to the potential of agricultural cooperatives to increase farm couples’ off-farm employment, thus increasing household income and quality of life.     

False prosperity: Rethinking government support for farmers’ cooperatives in China

The rapid development of farmers’ cooperatives in rural China cannot be separated from government support. To ensure the growth of farmers’ cooperatives, the Chinese government uses it as a key performance indicator for its local institutions. Superficially, rural China's cooperative population and membership size witnessed rapid growth during the first decade after the Farmers’ Specialized Cooperatives Law was enacted in 2007; however, such government intervention also leads to non-standard phenomena due to market distortion. Using nationally representative survey data from 504 cooperatives in Jiangsu, Jilin, and Sichuan provinces, this paper provides a reliable estimate of the “shell cooperative” rate around 2014. The empirical study sheds further light on the role of government during the period of rapid but chaotic growth by a subset containing 241 marketing cooperatives. Results show that direct administrative intervention leads to the emergence of many shell cooperatives (approximately 37%). Further study also confirms that task-oriented policy support is only positively associated with the nominal coverage ratio but has no significant relationship with cooperatives’ function. This study provides new insights into the formation of shell cooperatives and suggests that direct administrative intervention may not be a good strategy for promoting the sustainable development of farmers’ cooperatives.     

CO‐OP OPEN MEMBERSHIP: ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL EFFECTS

This paper aims to analyze the objectives pursued by cooperatives upon opening doors to new members and how this affects business activity and financial indicators. Surprisingly, the results show that accepting new partners makes no positive impact on the return on assets, but it does make a variable impact on financial indicators according to the type of cooperative. Distinguishing between agricultural and worker co‐ops, we conduct a cross‐sectional study of a sample of Galician cooperatives to find whether they apply this principle the same way regardless of membership size. Our results corroborate that cooperatives apply the principle differently. This not only allows us to extract other relevant information from accounting for cooperatives, but it also permits other agents like financial entities to obtain indicators that reflect the true company image more adequately.     

The role of farmer cooperatives in promoting environmentally sustainable agricultural development in China: A review

Environmentally sustainable agricultural development is an essential part of the Sustainable Development Goals proposed by the United Nations in 2015. This article systematically reviews studies on the role of farmer cooperatives in promoting environmentally sustainable agricultural development and uses China as a case study to analyze the measures and function mechanisms of farmer cooperatives in promoting the adoption and scaling of sustainable farming practices by farmers. Farmer cooperatives in China influence farmers’ farming practices and benefits by not only serving farmers with various information and technologies but also supervising farmers’ production processes. Nevertheless, farmer cooperatives, both in general and in China in particular, face challenges in effectively promoting the adoption of environmentally sustainable farming practices. A few policy implications are proposed based on these analyses.     

Farmers’ organizations and sustainable development: An introduction

This special issue features 14 new research papers investigating the role of farmers’ organizations (e.g., collective action, self-help groups, producer companies/organizations, and cooperatives) in supporting sustainable development. The key findings include: (1) farmer groups and cooperatives promote farmers’ adoption of good farm management practices, new agricultural technologies and sustainable farming practices, although not substantially improving farm yield; (2) outsourcing services provided by agricultural cooperatives help to increase the technical efficiency of crop production; (3) cooperative membership enhances members’ bargaining power and enables them to sell their products at higher prices; (4) cooperatives motivate rural laborers to work in off-farm sectors, while self-help groups empower rural women in decision-making; (5) internet use improves agricultural cooperatives’ economic, social, and innovative performances; (6) direct administrative intervention supporting cooperative development may lead to the emergence of shell cooperatives; (7) participation in forest farmer organizations enables wood value chain upgrading; (8) increasing the cooperative size in terms of income, equity, and assets increases the profitability of savings and credit cooperatives; and (9) creating cross-border cooperation between cooperatives generates benefits for all parties involved. These findings can inspire the design of policies aimed to support farmers’ organizations in achieving sustainable development goals.     

农民专业合作社收益分配机制及影响因素分析

收益分配制度是确定农民专业合作社和社员关系的关键因素。从决策机制、股权结构、合作社文化等方面分析我国不同地区农民专业合作经济组织收益分配制度,发现多种因素影响我国农民专业合作社分配制度,应从完善合作社社员大会制度、规范合作社的股权结构、完善分配制度等方面建立和完善农民专业合作社盈余分配机制,以实现合作社社会公平和经济效率的双重属性,促进农民专业合作社持续、健康发展。     

我国农民专业合作社国内研究文献综述

在梳理近几年尤其是2007年以后我国农民专业合作社国内相关研究文献的基础上,本文对目前我国农民专业合作研究状况进行了归纳和总结,认为我国农民专业合作社研究视角上从合作社本质、功能等一般理论研究逐步转向我国合作社治理结构、合作社运行绩效、农户合作意愿等的实证研究,更加强调合作社研究的现实意义;在研究方法上,从以理论分析为主的定性研究方法逐步转向问卷调查、因子分析、回归分析、机构方程模型等定量研究方法,整体学术研究水平不断提升。论文最后对我国农民专业合作社研究状况做了简单评价,认为农民专业合作金融问题、农民合作社与政府关系问题、农民专业合作联社问题以及农民专业合作社的股份化和企业化倾向问题需要进一步加紧研究,以解决我国农民专业合作社发展的现实问题。     

Risk aversion,cooperative membership,and path dependences of smallholder farmers in Ethiopia

Smallholder farmers in Sub‐Saharan Africa often mitigate production risks through cooperative membership: institutionalized arrangements where they pool resources and collectively manage production and marketing chains. Cooperative membership has a significant advantage: it cushions detrimental effects of external forces, placing a premium on a risk‐seeking attitude (experimenting and innovating), which can yield greater accumulation. However, cooperatives are self‐selective institutions: relatively better‐endowed farmers, who are usually less risk‐avoidant than poorer ones (a consequence of their broader material bases), tend to be overrepresented. These two realities complicate the causal assessment of the relationships between risk attitudes, farmers’ socioeconomic status, and cooperative membership that is essential to comprehend the role of cooperatives in local capital accumulation. To help resolve this thorny analytical problem, an experimental study was carried out in eastern Ethiopia—a risky production environment where cooperatives feature prominently and relatively affluent farmers exist alongside poorer ones. It unveils the working of specific path dependences: poorer cooperative members are less risk seeking than nonmembers, but at an interval much less than that observed for affluent farmers. For development policies, this suggests that a greater payoff can be expected from investing in farmers’ material bases than from further improving cooperative membership.     

A model of the free-entry producer cooperative

One of the most frequent criticisms of the Illyrian model of the labour-managed firm is that it does not take into account key institutional factors which are likely in practice to eliminate the perverse short-run supply and degeneration results well known in the literature. This paper presents a new model of the labour-managed firm, incorporating several of the most significant institutional factors actually in evidence in Western cooperative sectors. The free-entry producer cooperative model includes differing member and nonmember compensation methods, free access to membership, and special capital financing and shutdown rules. The new model's results differ from Ward's Illyrian firm model in a number of ways: first, capital is always variable for these firms, so the perverse short-run supply response does not apply; second, free-entry producer cooperatives do not degenerate into capitalist firms as Illyrian firms do; and third, such cooperatives will always have higher survival rates than both Illyrian and conventional firms.     

BUILDING THE MANAGERIAL CAPITAL OF AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVES IN AFRICA

Agricultural cooperatives in Africa tend to be community‐based organizations defined by principles of inclusion, voluntarism, democracy, equity, autonomy, mutuality and solidarity. This means that they generally operate in accordance with the principles endorsed by the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA). However, only a few of these organizations are successful in commercializing the agricultural produce of their members. In this study, we argue that growth‐problems leading to commercial failure and organizational degeneration in these cooperatives can be attributed to a lack of managerial capital. Drawing on the literature and evidence from the field we set out key management solutions for counterbalancing cooperative principles in the context of rural Africa. These solutions were taught to the leaders and managers of 362 cooperatives at four training events held in Madagascar, Malawi and twice in Uganda. Using a production function for cognitive achievement and key informant interviews, we find that our training contributed to the adoption of the proposed solutions by some of the cooperatives. Using the Ugandan sub‐ sample, we estimate an OLS regression and a PSM model to show that the training translated into higher revenues per member generated through collective commercialization.     

AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVES AND RURAL LIVELIHOODS: EVIDENCE FROM ETHIOPIA

ABSTRACT: Agricultural cooperatives are important rural organizations supporting livelihood development and poverty reduction. In recognition of such roles of cooperatives, Ethiopia showed a renewed interest in recent years in promoting cooperative sector development. However, there is lack of a wider and systematic analysis to produce sufficient empirical evidence on the livelihood development and poverty reduction impacts of cooperatives in the country. Using a matching technique on rural household income, saving, agricultural input expenditure and asset accumulation as indicator variables, this paper evaluates the livelihood impact of agricultural cooperatives in Sidama zone, Ethiopia. The finding shows that cooperatives improved the livelihoods of service user farmers through impacting better income, more savings and reduced input costs. In view of such evidence, further promotion, deepening and supporting of agricultural cooperatives is recommended.     

REINVENTING THE WHEEL? AFRICAN COOPERATIVES IN A LIBERALIZED ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT

ABSTRACT ** :  Cooperative development in Africa can be said to have traversed two main eras: the era of state control and that of liberalization. The first era lasted up to the early 1990s and saw the origin and substantial growth of cooperatives on the continent. During that period, different models of cooperative development were introduced on the continent. We distinguish a unified cooperative model, a social economy model, a social movement model, a producers' model and an indigenous model. But in all cases, cooperatives were engulfed into state politics. However, little is known about the impact of liberalization measures on these models. Our research in 11 African countries reveals that cooperatives in Africa have survived the market forces and continued to grow in number and membership. We see a slow but sure erosion of the unified model and the adoption of a social economy model. Cooperatives in Africa are re-examining their organizational forms and diversifying their activities in response to members' interests and needs.     

REACHING THE RURAL POOR THROUGH AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVES IN MONGOLIA

This paper focuses on the cooperative sector in central Mongolia. Its aim is to provide new insights into the role and importance of cooperatives among poor rural populations. We analyse cooperatives’ inclusiveness of smaller herders and farmers and cooperatives’ governance structures. The research is based on data collected in selected provinces of the central Töv region. The data were collected for three distinctive target groups – cooperative board members, cooperative members and non‐members. We found that the cooperative sector in Mongolia is strongly affected by the governmental policy regarding wool subsidies, which provides subsidies only to cooperative members and has consequently caused rapid growth in the number of new, free‐riding cooperative members and led to very low levels of members’ self‐identification with their cooperatives. This policy also affects the inner organizational structures of cooperatives. Further, we found indications that poorer farmers tend not to be members of cooperatives and that the overall benefits for non‐members and the general community arising from local cooperatives are rather low.     

Impacts of natural resource management technologies on agricultural yield and household income: The system of rice intensification in Timor Leste

Natural resource management (NRM) technologies, such as the system of rice intensification (SRI), have been proposed to tackle agricultural challenges such as decreasing productivity growth and environmental degradation. Yet, the benefits of NRM technologies for farmers are often debated. Impacts seem to be context-specific, which are especially relevant in the small farm sector with its large degree of agroecological and socioeconomic heterogeneity. This was not always considered in previous research. We analyze the impacts of SRI adoption on rice yield and household income among smallholder farmers in Timor Leste. Heterogeneity is accounted for in an endogenous switching regression framework. Comparing mean yield and income levels, we find no significant differences between SRI adopters and non-adopters. This is due to negative selection bias; SRI seems to be adopted more on plots and by farmers with less than average yields. Controlling for this bias reveals significant yield and income gains. Poor and non-poor households benefit from SRI adoption; small farms benefit more than larger farms. The results also suggest that in the context of Timor Leste SRI may not be beneficial when compared to conventional rice grown under favorable conditions. Some implications for future research are discussed.     

试论我国农民专业合作社成员权救济制度的构建

农民专业合作社是我国目前提高农民收入,实现农业专业化、产业化、规模化生产经营,解决"三农"问题,建设社会主义新农村的重要途径。2005年通过的《中华人民共和国农民专业合作社法》为我国农民专业合作社的发展提供了重要的法律保障。但合作社成员权救济制度的缺失,使得不能实质实现对合作社成员权利的保障,同时也制约了农民专业合作社的发展。我国应逐步建立健全农民专业合作社成员权救济制度,保护农民合作社成员合法权益,为我国农民专业合作社的健康发展保驾护航。     

RAISING CAPITAL BY ISSUING TRANSFERABLE MEMBERSHIP IN A WORKER COOPERATIVE

It is generally recognized that worker cooperatives have a disadvantage in raising capital compared with conventional capitalist firms. In this paper, we explore a method for a worker cooperative to raise non‐redeemable equity by issuing transferable membership shares as financial securities.     

COLLECTIVE ACTION AND ASPIRATIONS: THE IMPACT OF COOPERATIVES ON ETHIOPIAN COFFEE FARMERS’ ASPIRATIONS

Aspirations motivate behaviours, serve to mobilize and direct energy into actions, and are regarded as important determinants of success. Given the importance of aspirations and their formation in social interaction, the objective of this article is to evaluate if cooperative membership can have effects on members' aspiration levels. Face‐to‐face interviews were conducted with 305 Ethiopian coffee farmers on their aspired levels in five dimensions of their lives. Results, using a propensity score matching technique, show that membership in cooperatives significantly improves the aspiration levels of the members. The article emphasizes the utilization of this hidden but important benefit of cooperatives.