State Cooperative Councils: What are the Local Member Cooperatives Looking For?

State cooperative councils serve a valuable role for local cooperatives by providing services including education, legislative monitoring and lobbying, and promotion of the cooperative form of business. This paper outlines the specific challenges that state councils are experiencing in today's changing agribusiness environment. The results of a survey of members of the Colorado Cooperative Council are reported. Logit analysis is performed to identify the factors contributing to the cooperatives' satisfaction with the state council and the cooperatives' use of the council's services. The paper concludes with suggestions for action by state councils.Agribusiness,

CENTRALIZATION VERSUS DECENTRALIZATION OF DECISION MAKING AUTHORITY: EFFECTS ON INFORMATION ACQUISITION AND ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY

Agribusiness,

THE CAPSTONE EXPERIENCE COURSE IN AGRICULTURAL CURRICULUM

Capstone courses are being developed in colleges of agriculture in response to demands from agribusiness firms, students, and other university stakeholders. With data from a faculty survey, the factors affecting the success of capstone courses in agricultural economics as well as other agricultural disciplines are identified.Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

COOPERATIVES AND INVESTOR OWNED FIRMS: DO THEY MARCH TO THE SAME DRUMMER?

Agribusiness,

Potential Demand for a New Value-Added Cowpea Product as Measured by the Willingness-to-Pay for Cowpea Flour in West Africa

The objective of this paper is to assess the potential demand for a new value-added cowpea product – cowpea flour for purchase by women street food vendors. We use a non-hypothetical real purchase decision mechanism that involves real purchase exchanges of 1 kg packages of cowpea flour in a real market environment in Niamey, Niger. Completed market transactions were bounded between an upper and lower limit price. Our results indicate that kossai vendors’ willingness-to-pay (WTP) for 1kg of cowpea flour exceeds the costs of production including a retail margin. Differences in WTP averages for different groups of vendors (economic status, vendor processor type and scale of production) were found to be statistically significant. Potential exists for profitable entrepreneurial activity in the cowpea flour business targeting women street vendors from more affluent neighborhoods; those using the wet milling process and those who are medium and large scale vendors.Agribusiness, Demand and Price Analysis, Food Security and Poverty, International Development, Willingness-to-Pay, Real Purchase decision mechanism, Cowpea-based street foods,

Performance of Cooperatives and Investor-Owned Firms in the Dairy Industry

A comparison of regional dairy cooperatives with investor-owned dairy firms from the period 1976-87 produced empirical findings that are at variance with the hypotheses suggested by the theory of cooperatives. The cooperatives in the sample performed significantly better than the IOFs when compared by leverage, liquidity, asset turnover, and coverage ratios, while the rate of return to equity was not found to be significantly different. Techniques are also proposed for valuing the nonmarket aspects of cooperatives that are not captured by financial ratio analysis.Agribusiness, Livestock Production/Industries,

HOG PRODUCER INVESTMENT IN VALUE-ADDED AGRIBUSINESS: RISK AND RETURN IMPLICATIONS

Although producers have been enticed into investment in value-added agribusiness the risk and return impacts have not been quantified. A spreadsheet simulation model is used to evaluate how investments by hog farmers in slaughter plants and other alternatives affect returns and risk. Results suggest that hog producer investment in value-added agribusiness is efficient.Value-Added, Producer Investment, Financial Economics, Livestock Production/Industries,

The Economic Impacts Associated with Locally Owned Agricultural Cooperatives: A Comparison of the Great Plains and the Eastern Cornbelt

Agribusiness,

MODELING COUPON VALUES FOR READY-TO-EAT BREAKFAST CEREALS

A theoretical framework is developed to highlight the significant determinants of coupon values. A fixed effects panel data model is fitted with data from the breakfast cereal industry. The explanatory variables include own retail price, brand loyalty, brand market share, rival coupon redemptions, and firm and product type indicators.coupons, ready-to-eat breakfast cereals, panel data model, Consumer/Household Economics, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

Business Dynamics and Informal Contracts: Experimental Evidence from the Cowpea Street Food Sector in West Africa

We use field experiments in Niger to investigate the nature and efficiency of contractual structures in market transactions between kossai vendors and cowpea grinders (key input suppliers). Three contractual structures were employed: gift contract, standard price contract and discretionary bonus contract (most incomplete). Gift contracts and standard price contracts involve an upfront payment of grinding fees where discretionary bonus contracts involve payment after the quality of service is observed. Gift contracts were found to be the most ex-ante efficient with the highest acceptance rates. Discretionary bonus contracts (most incomplete) were the most ex-post efficient that is, resulted in the highest quality. Our results suggest that the degree of incompleteness of different contractual structures influences the outcome of market transactions in the cowpea street food sector in West Africa.Incomplete contracts, Street food vendors, Experimental economics, International Development,