Work

The Competitive Conduct of Consumer Cooperatives

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: ABSTRACT Consumer cooperatives are firms owned by their customers. Although their organizational form should commit these firms not to exploit their market power, in practice, weak governance may allow managers to pursue other objectives. Using data and a structural model, we test whether consumer cooperatives in the Italian supermarket industry act as profit‐maximizing firms. We find no significant deviations from profit maximization. Based on a counterfactual exercise, even a mild degree of internalization of consumer welfare by the cooperatives that we study would yield consumer welfare gains comparable to the regulatory advantages they enjoy.

Source: The RAND Journal of Economics

DOI: 10.1111/1756-2171.12496

Authors: Marco Duarte, Lorenzo Magnolfi, Camilla Roncoroni

Institutions: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Wisconsin–Madison, University of Warwick

Language: English

Topic: Cooperative Studies and Economics

Subfield: Strategy and Management

Field: Business, Management and Accounting

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,400

Funders: Yale University, University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Rochester, Division of Graduate Education