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What do cooperative firms maximize, if at all? Evidence from Emilia‐Romagna in the pre‐Covid decade

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  • Guido Caselli
  • Michele Costa
  • Flavio Delbono

Abstract

The Italian region Emilia‐Romagna ranks first among the world's most important cooperative districts. Using a unique dataset covering all firms registered in the region, we investigate the performance of active firms in the period 2010–18. By focusing on added value, employment and profits of cooperative firms as compared to conventional firms, we disentangle the differences between the average performance of the two types of companies and detect the presence of a “size effect” driving much of the difference between them. Moreover, our results strengthen previous empirical evidence about the behavior of cooperative firms: they seem to optimize a mixture of employment and profits, assigning a greater weight to the former during downturns and stagnation. Hence, as a type of firm, they look more resilient than conventional companies, at least as far as employment is concerned. Finally, we examine the regional logistics industry and compare also the productivity per employee in the two segments of the sector.

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  • Guido Caselli & Michele Costa & Flavio Delbono, 2022. "What do cooperative firms maximize, if at all? Evidence from Emilia‐Romagna in the pre‐Covid decade," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 93(4), pages 821-847, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:annpce:v:93:y:2022:i:4:p:821-847
    DOI: 10.1111/apce.12354
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    Cited by:

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    2. Michele Costa & Flavio Delbono, 2021. "The Italian Geography of Regional Resilience: The Role of Cooperative Firms," Working Papers wp1166, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    3. Huma Neupane & Krishna P. Paudel & Qinying He, 2023. "Impact of cooperative membership on market performance of Nepali goat farmers," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 94(3), pages 805-830, September.
    4. Catala, Belen & Savall, Teresa & Chaves-Avila, Rafael, 2023. "From entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystems to the social economy ecosystem," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    5. Flavio Delbono & Diego Lanzi & Carlo Reggiani, 2022. "Beyond Illyria: Workers' Firm in Mixed Oligopoly," Working Papers wp1170, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    6. Michele Costa & Flavio Delbono & Francesco Linguiti, 2021. "Cooperative Movement and Prosperity across Italian Regions," Working Papers wp1161, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • L21 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Business Objectives of the Firm
    • L25 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Performance

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