Premium
EFFICIENCY AND SURVIVAL: THE IMPACT OF THE INTERNATIONAL COFFEE AGREEMENT'S DEMISE ON COSTA RICA'S COOPERATIVE COFFEE PROCESSING, 1988–2005
Author(s) -
MOSHEIM Roberto
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
annals of public and cooperative economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.526
H-Index - 37
eISSN - 1467-8292
pISSN - 1370-4788
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8292.2007.00353.x
Subject(s) - demise , incentive , dividend , frontier , business , profit (economics) , economics , agricultural economics , market economy , finance , geography , microeconomics , political science , archaeology , law
** : This paper uses a profit per member (or dividend) frontier model to analyze the impact of the 1989 demise of the International Coffee Agreement on a group of Costa Rican coffee processing cooperatives. Firm‐level data on costs span the period from 1988/89 to 1992/93 and information on cooperative survival covers 1988/89 to 2004/05. The more efficient member‐owned enterprises survived the crisis. An increasing cost of servicing the smallest farmers may constitute an incentive to restrict membership, however. Dividends fall as investor‐owned firms compete to buy farmers' raw coffee. Still, member loyalty does enable cooperative processors to maintain scale economies and market share. Despite several bankruptcies, cooperative firms in Costa Rica processed 40 percent of the national crop in 2004/05, the same proportion as in 1988/89.