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Research Papers in Economics

 
 
 
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DISSERTATION ABSTRACTS 
ProQuest Digital Dissertations 
Education for rural development in Côte d’Ivoire: School-based cooperatives as a 
vehicle for a successful transition of primary school leavers/dropouts from school 
to real life (in French). 
Order Number AAT 3056229  
Gnagne, Jacqueline A., Ed.D. University Of Massachusetts Amherst, 2002. 249 pp. Adviser: 
Love, Barbara J.  
Students dropping out of school at an early stage represent a problem in developed and poor 
countries. It becomes even more critical when the disappointment and frustration cause par-
ents and their children to question the goal of education, which for them is to find meaningful 
employment. Unemployment among young people in Côte d’Ivoire is reaching staggering 
proportions, and poverty among rural dwellers is at its worst. Meanwhile, rural areas are 
drained of any young substance. Clearly, the battle for development is being lost. This study 
explores the attitudes of students, parents, teachers and school officials toward rural develop-
ment and explores school-based cooperatives as a way to help primary school dropouts make 
a successful transition from school to real life. A qualitative method was used in combination 
with quantitative method to give a voice to ordinary Ivorians through 300 surveys, 12 in-depth 
interviews, one focus group with teachers, school officials, students and parents. Subjects 
took a close look at the education available, reevaluated their attitudes and speculated on how 
they can take advantage of the education that is available to them prepare for a meaningful 
life in the rural areas. The findings and implications are: (1) The attitude toward rural devel-
opment is negative. (2) The occupational aspirations of youth are predominantly prestigious 
white-collar jobs. (3) To be successful, teachers need better training and better salaries. 
(4) The introduction of national languages will facilitate parents’ interaction with schools. 
(5)  Rural areas are not attractive enough for young people to want to make a living. 
(6) Education by itself cannot solve all the problems of underdevelopment. (7) A school to 
work transition program is necessary. (8) Private organizations need to finance new programs 
in education. (9) Development of the rural areas needs to occur alongside the development of 
urban areas. (10) Land reform is needed to facilitate land ownership. (11) A change in mental-
ity and attitude needs to occur. 
 
Essays on farmer behaviour: Co-operative performance and farm risk exposure 
(Sweden). 
Order number not available from UMI 
Hedberg, Anna, Agrdr. Sveriges Lantbruksuniversitet, 2002. 35 pp. 
Articles I-III in the present thesis provide analyses about the behaviour of farmer cooperatives 
in the Swedish dairy market. Three topics are investigated: the exercise of price 
 
 
JOURNAL OF RURAL COOPERATION, 31(2) 2003:175-177 ISSN 0377- 7480 © 176  Dissertation Abstracts 
 
discrimination by co-operatives, co-operative objectives and pricing in the market for the raw 
product, and the cost structure and economies of size in dairy processing. Open membership 
co-operatives are ill suited to the exercise of market power, as they cannot control members’ 
deliveries of the raw product. The co-operative may, however, control the flow of products 
across markets and engage in price discrimination. The results from article I suggest that the 
Swedish dairy industry has exercised some price discrimination, but of limited significance. 
Governmental intervention, through the internal milk regulation system, seems to be respon-
sible for the main part of the price discrimination outcome. Alternative co-operative 
objectives are analysed in article II. The micro-economic analysis defines the derived demand 
for input milk based on marginal revenues and costs as a first-best choice. The results of the 
empirical study support, however, an assumption of dairy co-operatives practising average 
pricing (NARP pricing) towards members. That is, the co-operative pays the maximum pro-
ducer price possible, subject to the break-even requirement. Economies of size are crucial for 
the analysis of price and output equilibria for a marketing co-operative. In article III, I inves-
tigate whether the cost structure can be used as an efficiency argument for a co-operative 
dairy industry in Sweden. The results indicate economies of size in milk processing and ac-
cordingly, marketing co-operatives appear as the preferable business form. In article IV, I 
analyse production decisions by crop farmers, facing risk exposure through alternative policy 
scenarios. Expected utility, risk premiums, and optimal production plans are compared for 
three scenarios: the former Swedish agricultural policy, an internally deregulated domestic 
market, and the Common Agricultural Policy applied in the European Union in the middle of 
the 1990s. A comparison between the expected value-variance (EV) model and an alternative 
non-parametric approach suggests that the EV model yields a reasonable approximation of 
expected utility.  
 
 
Community-based cooperatives and networks: Participatory social movement 
assessment of four organizations. 
Order Number AAT 3060099  
Green, John Jason, Ph.D., University of Missouri – Columbia, 2002. 347 pp. Adviser: Rikoon, J. 
Sanford.  
Community-based cooperatives (CBCs) represent a synthesis of community organizations and 
cooperative businesses. They combine advocacy, marketing and other services with democ-
ratic structures and participatory processes. Originating from the poor people’s cooperatives 
of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and struggles for civil and economic rights, CBCs 
developed local, regional, national and international networks in a movement for livelihood 
security among small, limited resource and minority agricultural producers. This study fo-
cuses attention on four organizations, analyzing them from the micro to macro level: Beat 
Four Farm Cooperative, Mississippi Association of Cooperatives, Federation of Southern 
Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund and Rural Coalition. Utilizing a participatory social 
movement assessment framework, specific research methods included participant observation, 
individual and group key-informant interviews, focus groups and document review. Findings 
illustrate the historical development of CBCs and their network organizations, emphasizing 
their foundation in broader social movements. Focusing attention on a collaborative advocacy 
campaign, results suggest micro level concern with issues of production, marketing, financ-   Dissertation Abstracts  177 
 
ing, community structure and the applicability of government programs. Network organiza-
tions advocate for more targeted services for small, limited resource and minority producers 
and greater attention to power relations. These organizations also engage in marketing efforts 
including farmers markets, community food security and fair trade programs. To conclude, it 
is argued that in response to the challenges posed by dominant structures and processes, CBCs 
and their networks have developed counter-hegemonic institutions that illustrate the potential 
for an alternative organization of the agri-food system.  
 

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