IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/eaa103/9403.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Do Cooperatives Offer High Quality Products?

Author

Listed:
  • Pennerstorfer, Dieter
  • Weiss, Christoph R.

Abstract

The present paper investigates the free-riding problem in determining product quality within cooperatives in a vertically related market. Whereas the individual member has to bear all costs associated with higher quality, the benefits of delivering higher quality have to be shared among all members. On the basis of a Mixed-Oligopoly model, we show that the free-rider problem in the supply of high-quality products, although important for the members of the cooperative, may not be strong enough to ensure that firms will always supply higher quality than cooperatives. Whether the cooperative can overcome the free-riding problem and supply a final product of high quality is shown to depend on the consumer's valuation of quality, the costs of producing high quality, the way in which the quality of the final product is determined from the quality levels of the inputs delivered as well as on the number of members of the cooperative.

Suggested Citation

  • Pennerstorfer, Dieter & Weiss, Christoph R., 2007. "Do Cooperatives Offer High Quality Products?," 103rd Seminar, April 23-25, 2007, Barcelona, Spain 9403, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:eaa103:9403
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.9403
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/9403/files/sp07pe03.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.9403?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bruce A. Babcock & Quinn Weninger, 2004. "Can Quality Revitalize the Alaskan Salmon Industry?," Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) Publications 04-wp359, Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) at Iowa State University.
    2. Murray Fulton, 1995. "The Future of Canadian Agricultural Cooperatives: A Property Rights Approach," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 77(5), pages 1144-1152.
    3. Jean Tirole, 1988. "The Theory of Industrial Organization," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262200716, December.
    4. Hoffmann Ruben, 2005. "Ownership Structure and Endogenous Quality Choice: Cooperatives versus Investor-Owned Firms," Journal of Agricultural & Food Industrial Organization, De Gruyter, vol. 3(2), pages 1-26, December.
    5. George W. J. Hendrikse, 1998. "Screening, Competition and the Choice of the Cooperative as an Organisational Form," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(2), pages 202-217, June.
    6. Albaek, Svend & Schultz, Christian, 1998. "On the relative advantage of cooperatives," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 59(3), pages 397-401, June.
    7. Jaskold Gabszewicz, J. & Thisse, J. -F., 1979. "Price competition, quality and income disparities," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 340-359, June.
    8. Peter Bogetoft, 2005. "An information economic rationale for cooperatives," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 32(2), pages 191-217, June.
    9. Economides, Nicholas, 1999. "Quality choice and vertical integration," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 17(6), pages 903-914, August.
    10. Condon, Andrew M. & Cotterill, Ronald W. & Rhodes, V. James & Shaffer, James D. & Staatz, John M., 1987. "Cooperative Theory: New Approaches," Service Reports (SR) 280614, United States Department of Agriculture, Rural Development.
    11. Dilger Alexander, 2005. "Prinzipal-Agenten-Probleme im deutschen Weinbau," Zeitschrift für das gesamte Genossenschaftswesen, De Gruyter, vol. 55(1), pages 179-189, June.
    12. Claude Ménard & Peter G. Klein, 2004. "Organizational Issues in the Agrifood Sector: Toward a Comparative Approach," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 86(3), pages 750-755.
    13. Bernd Frick, 2004. "Does Ownership Matter? Empirical Evidence from the German Wine Industry," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(3), pages 357-386, August.
    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. Pennerstorfer, Dieter & Weiss, Christoph R., 2012. "On the Relative Disadvantage of Cooperatives: Vertical Product Differentiation in a Mixed Oligopoly," Journal of Rural Cooperation, Hebrew University, Center for Agricultural Economic Research, vol. 40(1), pages 1-32.
    2. Marco Marini & Alberto Zevi, 2011. "‘Just one of us’: consumers playing oligopoly in mixed markets," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 104(3), pages 239-263, November.

    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. Pennerstorfer, Dieter & Weiss, Christoph R., 2011. "Do Cooperatives Offer High Quality Products? Theory and Empirical Evidence from the Wine Market," 2011 International Congress, August 30-September 2, 2011, Zurich, Switzerland 115741, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    2. Pennerstorfer, Dieter & Weiss, Christoph R., 2012. "On the Relative Disadvantage of Cooperatives: Vertical Product Differentiation in a Mixed Oligopoly," Journal of Rural Cooperation, Hebrew University, Center for Agricultural Economic Research, vol. 40(1), pages 1-32.
    3. Pennerstorfer, Dieter & Weiss, Christoph R., 2006. "On the relative disadvantage of cooperatives," 2006 Annual meeting, July 23-26, Long Beach, CA 21308, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    4. Susana López‐Bayón & Marta Fernández‐Barcala & Manuel González‐Díaz, 2020. "In search of agri‐food quality for wine: Is it enough to join a geographical indication?," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(4), pages 568-590, October.
    5. Nicholas Economides, 1997. "The Economics of Networks," Brazilian Electronic Journal of Economics, Department of Economics, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, vol. 1(0), December.
    6. Li, Kai & Zhou, Jie-hong & Liang, Qiao & Huang, Zuhui, 2015. "Food safety controls and governance structure varieties in China's vegetable and fruit sector," 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy 212046, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    7. Iselborn, M. & Jungbluth, L. & Hanf, J.H., 2015. "Probleme des Qualitätsmanagements bei Winzergenossenschaften," Proceedings “Schriften der Gesellschaft für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften des Landbaues e.V.”, German Association of Agricultural Economists (GEWISOLA), vol. 50, March.
    8. Stefano Castriota, 2018. "Does Excellence Pay Off? Evidence from the Wine Market," BEMPS - Bozen Economics & Management Paper Series BEMPS49, Faculty of Economics and Management at the Free University of Bozen.
    9. Schamel, G., 2018. "Grape Supply and Implicit Prices for Wine Quality Attributes," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277043, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    10. Ahmet Candemir & Sabine Duvaleix & Laure Latruffe, 2021. "Agricultural Cooperatives And Farm Sustainability – A Literature Review," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(4), pages 1118-1144, September.
    11. Michael Higl, 2003. "Vertikale Kooperation im Oligopol Die Gestaltung der Genossenschaftsorganisation als strategischer Zug," Discussion Paper Series 243, Universitaet Augsburg, Institute for Economics.
    12. López-Bayón, Susana & González-Díaz, Manuel & Solís-Rodríguez, Vanesa & Fernández-Barcala, Marta, 2018. "Governance decisions in the supply chain and quality performance: The synergistic effect of geographical indications and ownership structure," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 1-12.
    13. Asano, Takao & Shibata, Akihisa, 2011. "Optimal pricing and quality choice of a monopolist under Knightian uncertainty," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 746-754.
    14. George Deltas & Thanasis Stengos & Eleftherios Zacharias, 2011. "Product line pricing in a vertically differentiated oligopoly," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 44(3), pages 907-929, August.
    15. Jun Li & Serguei Netessine & Sergei Koulayev, 2018. "Price to Compete … with Many: How to Identify Price Competition in High-Dimensional Space," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(9), pages 4118-4136, September.
    16. Höhler, Julia & Hildenbrand, Andreas, 2015. "Weinqualität in unterschiedlichen Organisationsformen: Warum schneiden Genossenschaften oft schlechter ab?," 55th Annual Conference, Giessen, Germany, September 23-25, 2015 209256, German Association of Agricultural Economists (GEWISOLA).
    17. Bos, Iwan & Marini, Marco A., 2019. "Cartel stability under quality differentiation," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 174(C), pages 70-73.
    18. Maccarrone, Giovanni & Marini, Marco A. & Tarola, Ornella, 2023. "Shop Until You Drop: the Unexpected Effects of Anticonsumerism and Environmentalism," FEEM Working Papers 330384, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    19. Esteve-Perez, Silviano, 2005. "Exit with vertical product differentiation," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 23(3-4), pages 227-247, April.
    20. Corchón Luis Carlos & Zudenkova Galina, 2013. "The Welfare Effects of Location and Quality in Oligopoly," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 13(2), pages 1143-1178, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Agribusiness;

    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:ags:eaa103:9403. 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: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/eaaeeea.html .

    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.