ARE COOPERATIVES MORE PRODUCTIVE THAN INVESTOR‐OWNED FIRMS? CROSS‐INDUSTRY EVIDENCE FROM PORTUGAL |
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Authors: | Natália P MONTEIRO Odd Rune STRAUME |
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Institution: | 1. University of Minho, Portugal;2. University of Bergen, NorwayWe thank an anonymous referee and a co‐editor for valuable comments and suggestions. This work was carried out with funding from COMPETE reference no. POCI‐01‐0145‐FEDER‐006683, with the FCT/MEC's financial support through national funding and by the ERDF through the Operational Programme on Competitiveness and Internationalization – COMPETE 2020 under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement. E‐mails: |
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Abstract: | We analyse empirically whether cooperatives and investor‐owned firms differ in terms of productive efficiency. Using rich Portuguese panel data covering a wide range of industries, we apply two different empirical approaches to estimate potential differences in productive efficiency. The results from our benchmark random‐effects model show that cooperatives are significantly less productive, on average, than investor‐owned firms, both at the aggregate level and for most of the industries considered. However, the results derived from a System‐GMM approach, which is our preferred empirical strategy, are much less conclusive, and we cannot conclude that cooperatives are generally less efficient that investor‐owned firms. With either approach, though, we find no evidence that cooperatives are more productive than investor‐owned firms in any industry. |
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Keywords: | Cooperatives investor‐owned firms productive efficiency D24 J54 P12 P13 |
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