Agric. cooperatives

Comportamento ideológico e formas associativas de organização e gestão do trabalho em assentamentos de reforma agrária

by Pedro Christoffoli

Cooperative membership as a signal of trust and trustworthiness: results from a field experiment

by Pierluigi Conzo

Co-authored with Becchetti, L. & Castriota, S.

We test the hypothesis that cooperative membership is a trust and trustworthiness reinforcing device and, as such, it... more We test the hypothesis that cooperative membership is a trust and trustworthiness reinforcing device and, as such, it affects (in a trust game) both trustors' and trustees' contributions and beliefs. Through trust games played by sugar farmers in the Philippines we find that i) cooperative membership is a signal of (and induces higher levels of) trust and trustworthiness since players' behaviour is largely influenced by the information on their counterparts' cooperative membership status ii) this signalling effect is superior in magnitude and robustness to the direct membership effect (for which causality is often difficult to isolate) iii) an in group bias is at work since, contrary to non members' expectations, the positive affiliation-trustworthiness link works only between coop members.

Virtuous Interactions In Removing Exclusion: The Link Between Foreign Market Access and Access to Education

by Pierluigi Conzo

Forthcoming on the "Journal of Development Studies"
Co-authored with Becchetti, L. & Pisani, F.

We outline a methodology which aims to give an answer to the widespread demand of impact methodologies by regulators... more We outline a methodology which aims to give an answer to the widespread demand of impact methodologies by regulators or by funding agencies which need to evaluate the current and past performance of development projects and may lack time series evidence. We devise a retros- pective panel data approach to evaluate the dynamics of the effects of fair trade affiliation on the schooling decisions of a sample of Thai organic rice producers across the past 20 years. We find that the probability of school enrolment in families with more than two children is significantly affected by fair trade affiliation years. We try to ascertain whether our finding is robust to endogeneity of producers’ choices of local cooperative affiliation and adoption of organic techniques. The significant difference between pre- and post- fair trade affiliation performance documents that fair trade participation generates a significant break in the schooling decisions of affiliated households.