The Effect of Cooperatives on Quality‐Enhancing Innovation

This paper develops game‐theoretic models of heterogeneous consumers to analyse the effect of cooperatives on quality‐enhancing product innovation activity, the pricing of food products and the welfare of the groups involved, in the context of a mixed duopoly where an open‐membership consumer co‐op competes with an investor‐owned firm in markets for horizontally differentiated products. Analytical results show that the involvement of the member welfare‐maximising co‐op in innovation activity can change the nature of product differentiation and the structure of the market, and be quality and welfare enhancing by increasing innovation activity and reducing the prices of food products. The effects of co‐operative involvement are shown to depend on the degree of consumer heterogeneity and the size of innovation costs.     

Information Sharing and Oligopoly in Agricultural Markets: The Role of the Cooperative Bargaining Association

We study incentives for information sharing among agricultural intermediaries in imperfectly competitive markets for farm output. Information sharing always increases expected grower and total surplus, but may reduce expected intermediary profits. Even when expected profits increase with information sharing, intermediary firms face a prisoner's dilemma where it is privately rational to withhold information, given that other firms report truthfully. This equilibrium can be avoided if firms' information reports are verifiable, and if firms commit to an ex ante contract that enforces participation in information sharing. We show how agricultural bargaining legislation can implement such a contract with the bargained farm price representing a sufficient statistic of all information held by intermediary firms.     

浙江省农民专业合作社功能影响因素及其优化

从农业发展特性、合作社组织特性和信息化角度出发,认为合作社服务功能的影响因素包括产品特性、成员构成、经营条件、制度环境和信息化程度。通过多元回归模型进一步验证了假设。研究认为合作社应在规模产业的发展、自身机制的建立、营销人才的引进、信息化指导等方面予以优化。     

Selling Together: The Benefits of Cooperatives to Women Honey Producers in Ethiopia

Smallholder farmers in developing countries encounter multiple barriers in access to inputs and technology, which prevent them from reaping the benefits from market participation. Women farmers face additional constraints due to gender norms that further limit their engagement in productive activities. While collective action has been shown to improve access to markets and economic outcomes for farmers overall, the evidence on the effects of cooperative membership for women smallholders remains limited. We investigate empirically the economic benefits of collective action for women farmers in the honey sector in Ethiopia. Relying on a rich data set on women honey producers, both cooperative members and non‐members, we evaluate the effects of belonging to a cooperative on three outcome variables through coarsened exact matching and regression analysis. Our results indicate that cooperative membership significantly increases the market price and the production quantity and, while the average effect on the share of product marketed is statistically insignificant, significant differences emerge for women with given characteristics. These results are shown to be robust to a number of tests that address biases from selection on observables and unobservables. An analysis of the heterogeneous effects of household membership in multiple groups finds that membership of self‐help groups or farmer associations amplifies the positive outcomes from belonging to a formal cooperative. Finally, qualitative findings derived from the same communities indicate self‐reported improvements in agency and self‐esteem among women members, thus reinforcing the importance of the quantitative findings.     

农地股份合作社治理机制对社员收入和满意度的影响研究

研究目的：分析农地股份合作社治理（包括决策、激励和监督）机制对社员收入和满意度的影响。研究方法：微观计量经济方法。研究结果：（1）社员参与决策有利于其增收和提高满意度,而村干部不同参与决策方式的影响不同,如通过理事会参与决策能提高社员收入和满意度,但采用行政手段干预决策会降低社员满意度;（2）政府扶持和“保底租金+二次分红”的收益分配方式均能促进社员增收和满意度提升;（3）有效的监事会及财务公开制度能提高社员收入和满意度;（4）理事会和外部激励有利于村干部户增收,而内部激励和监事会有利于非村干部户增收。研究结论：农地股份合作社的治理机制是影响社员收入和满意度的关键,因此,合作社发展政策重点是规范治理机制。     

The Boundary of Smallholder Producers’ Cooperatives: A Conceptual and Empirical Analysis

In this study we explain the concepts, determinants and imperatives of boundary in smallholder producers’ cooperatives both conceptually and empirically. The conceptual framework indicates the importance of the type of goods (being a club good or not) and range of activities that a cooperative provides to its members in defining a competitive boundary. Using unique organisational and market level data from Ethiopia, we then test empirically whether the observed (weak) performance of producers’ cooperatives in Africa is explained by their organisational boundary – the type and range of goods or services they provide to members. The empirical results confirm that the competitiveness of producers’ cooperatives is significantly correlated with the type and number of services – i.e. cooperatives that provide club goods and a limited range of services are found to be more competitive. The results also suggest that a considerable number of cooperatives in Ethiopia engage in markets where they do not have competitive advantage. Overall, we demonstrate the importance of properly defining a viable boundary – proper selection of services (or markets) and limiting the range of services – for improving the competitiveness of membership‐based producer cooperatives in Africa.     

农村集体资产股份合作社发展过程中政府的角色分析——基于苏州与佛山的案例比较

在快速城市化和工业化进程中,城郊农村地区的集体土地的资产价值逐步显化。为保证集体资产保值增值,这些地区建立了由政府主导的农村集体资产股份合作社。本文以苏州市高新区和佛山市南海区为例,从政府干预的角度剖析政府主导型农村集体资产股份合作社治理的现状,并分析了政府干预其治理的内在逻辑。分析发现,政府通过为集体资产股份合作社提供政策指导、项目倾斜、财政扶持、规则制定等措施逐步实现了合作社效率与公平的双赢。然而,随着政府干预强度的不断提高,政府逐渐介入合作社内部事务,合作社被纳入政府行政体系之中,既削弱了合作社经济效率也加大了政府负担。鉴于此,建议政府把握好干预的强度及边界,逐渐退出对合作社内部经营管理事务的介入,通过激发合作社内部管理层的投资积极性,在维持社会稳定的前提下提高合作社的经营效益。     

Corruption in agricultural processing firms: A comparison of cooperatives and investor-owned firms

This paper examines managerial corruption in cooperatives (co-ops) and investor-owned firms (IOFs), including its impact on prices and farmer welfare. Even when co-op managers have greater incentives to engage in corruption because of the co-op's larger production, the resulting corruption is not sufficient to offset the competitive effect that co-ops exert vis-à-vis IOFs. This conclusion holds regardless of the functional form of the production function, the farm input supply curve, and the demand curve for the processed product. In addition to showing the robustness of the competition effect, the paper provides a highly flexible modeling framework that can be used to examine other co-op behavior questions.     

Deriving a Flexible Mixed Demand System: The Normalized Quadratic Model

This article deals with the specification of a locally flexible and theory-consistent system of mixed demand functions, a framework that allows for a rich set of possibilities about what is assumed as exogenous in a demand model. A coherent mixed demand system is derived by using the restricted expenditure function typically studied in the related area of rationed demands. The method is implemented by a new normalized quadratic (NQ) parameterization of the restricted expenditure function. The resulting NQ mixed demand system is illustrated with an application to a nine-good model of the Italian demand for vegetables.     

科技创新在农产品加工业发展中的支撑作用

本文首先阐述科技创新在农产品加工业中的发展创新作用与推动产业融合作用,并从科技创新方式与行为主体方面分析科技创新的内涵,针对当前农产品加工业科技创新中出现的关键技术设备发展不足等问题,总结出加强基础原始创新、自主研发突破关键技术、构建全国协同创新体系等策略,旨在提高科技创新水平,提升自主研发能力,实现农产品加工业的长足发展。     

Testing for the Presence of Financial Constraints in US Agricultural Cooperatives: An Investment Behaviour Approach

This study examines the presence of financial constraints in US agricultural cooperatives. We test the cooperative capital constraint hypothesis with a panel data econometric analysis of agricultural cooperatives’ investment behaviour. Regression results suggest that agricultural cooperatives’ capital expenditures are significantly affected by the availability of internal funds. Results also indicate that the sensitivity of investment to cash flow is correlated with cooperative structural characteristics.     

The Role of Innovation in Farm Economic Sustainability: Generalised Propensity Score Evidence from Irish Dairy Farms

We assess the impact of innovation on Irish dairy farm economic sustainability by focusing on profitability, productivity of land and market orientation. A generalised propensity score method is applied to a representative sample of 342 Irish dairy farms. Our empirical findings reveal that innovation increases economic sustainability, but not in a linear way. More specifically, economic gains depend on the level of innovation. Small efforts to increase innovation can lead to economic gains of over €200 per hectare. The results also reveal that innovative farmers can achieve higher economic gains by further innovation. Overall, our findings support the current focus of the Irish extension system on fostering the uptake of innovative technologies and practices in order to achieve an economically sustainable expansion of the dairy sector.     

自然保护区管理体制创新:两个维度的思考

自然保护区是典型的生态型公共产品。经过多年的发展,自然保护区在保护生态环境,促进生物多样性的作用日益突出。当前需要从宏观及微观两个维度完善自然保护区管理体制。宏观层面需要调整不同级次政府自然保护的职能,加强和完善环境保护行政主管部门的综合管理职能,同时明确自然保护区主管部门的管理职能。微观层面需要发挥管理机构、当地居民、市场主体及社会组织的协同作用,提升自然保护区管理的有效性。     

中小企业技术创新模式与创新绩效的关系——以四川省中小企业为例

针对中小企业对技术创新模式选择的困境,考察了中小企业技术创新模式,在对技术创新模式与创新绩效之相关性进行理论分析的基础上提出研究假设,以四川省338家中小企业为样本进行实证分析。结果表明:合作创新的积极性、模仿创新的积极性和重视性与中小企业技术创新绩效正相关;相比模仿创新模式,合作创新模式对技术创新绩效的影响程度更显著。最后,根据研究结论,探讨了中小企业技术创新模式选择的相关启示。     

绩效与不足:建国初期农村信用合作社的借贷活动的历史考察——以鄂湘赣三省为中心

农村信用合作社是建国初期农村金融体系的重要组成部分，它的产生是新中国乡村借贷关系转型和现代化的标志之一。信用社借贷有利于农户的生产生活经营，推动了农村经济的恢复与发展，但其也存在一定的缺陷。     

Neoliberalism and the revival of agricultural cooperatives: The case of the coffee sector in Uganda

Agricultural cooperatives have seen a comeback in sub‐Saharan Africa. After the collapse of many weakly performing monopolist organizations during the 1980s and 1990s, strengthened cooperatives have emerged since the 2000s. Scholarly knowledge about the state–cooperative relations in which this “revival” takes place remains poor. Based on new evidence from Uganda's coffee sector, this paper discusses the political economy of Africa's cooperative revival. The authors argue that donors' and African governments' renewed support is framed in largely apolitical terms, which obscures the contested political and economic nature of the revival. In the context of neoliberal restructuring processes, state and non‐state institutional support to democratic economic organizations with substantial redistributional agendas remains insufficient. The political–economic context in Uganda—and potentially elsewhere in Africa—contributes to poor terms of trade for agricultural cooperatives while maintaining significant state control over some cooperative activities to protect the status quo interests of big capital and state elites. These conditions are unlikely to produce a conflict‐free, substantial, and sustained revival of cooperatives, which the new promoters of cooperatives suggest is under way.     

Nitrogen Management for Profitable Farming with Minimal Environmental Impact: The Challenge for Mixed Farms in the Cotswold Hills,England

A detailed nitrogen (N) budget was constructed for a mixed farm in the Cotswold Hills, England, situated on thin, well drained soils prone to leaching. The study covered all stages of the farm's seven-year rotation and included the removal of the dairy herd. All inputs and outputs of N were measured or estimated and a balanced budget achieved, but only by including relatively expensive measurements of soluble organic nitrogen (SON) leached. Leaching was the main loss process. Given the nature of the soil and the influence of the weather, it would be difficult to reduce losses without drastic reductions in fertiliser inputs or stocking rates. Nitrogen use efficiency averaged 46%. The mean N surplus declined from 141 kg N ha^?1 to 117 kg N ha^?1 with the removal of the dairy herd. However, the farm to which the herd moved had an N surplus of 392 kg N ha^?1. Simple farm gate N budgets were constructed for neighbouring Cotswold farms to encourage farmers to consider ways to improve N use. Implications for policy to reduce losses of N while maintaining farm profitability are discussed.     

县域城乡融合发展：从边缘空间到创新空间 ——以杭州城西科创大走廊为例

研究目的：解析杭州城西科创大走廊从边缘空间到创新空间的理论逻辑与实践路径，为县域城乡融合发展提供理论支撑和实践参考。研究方法：文献研究法，归纳分析法，案例研究法。研究结果：（1）大走廊城乡融合发展经历了“组织制度建设与要素重组阶段”“制度体系完善与空间格局优化阶段”“从规划建设迈向全面优化发展新阶段”三个阶段；（2）大走廊从城乡边缘空间到创新空间的演变实现了经济空间、制度空间和社会空间相互关联、协作共存的迭代过程。研究结论：（1）构建的耦合空间生产理论与系统科学理论的分析框架有助于解析大走廊从边缘空间到创新空间的演化过程与路径；（2）未来大走廊发展应高效推动传统要素与创新要素的有机融合，提升国土空间规划、数字经济、人才生态等方面在空间生产过程中的功能耦合，推动城乡边缘空间高质量发展。     

我国地方政府创新研究:现状、热点与展望

随着中国地方政府创新奖的设立,地方政府创新逐渐成为政治学、公共管理学的热门研究内容,研究成果丰硕。基于文献计量分析,文章对近二十年来中国地方政府创新的研究成果进行分析、归纳,试图准确把握当前我国地方政府创新研究的热点及其未来趋势。在对我国地方政府创新研究现状进行分析的基础上,对地方政府创新动因、扩散及可持续性等热点主题予以总结,进而发现当前我国地方政府创新研究存在研究深度不够、理论体系缺乏等薄弱之处,并对地方政府创新研究的未来进行了展望。