The independent operators (IOs) are small forest operators with timber allocation volumes in Saskatchewan under 20,000 m³. Due to their scale, this group is characterized by above- average industry wood procurement and transaction costs. In the past, IO’s above average costs were compensated by above average market prices for the products they produce and limited competition. In recent years, increased competition confounded by low demand and low prices, as well as rapidly increasing operating costs have made it necessary for IOs to restructure operations to reduce costs and increase competitiveness. This thesis investigates the benefits of restructuring IOs using a cooperative business model to help reduce costs, eliminate competitive inefficiencies within the industry, and create economies of scope in IO fibre procurement activities and fibre utilization. Within the literature review, numerous cooperative models used in the forest and agriculture industries and the advantages and disadvantages associated with each cooperative type are explored. Next, the potential economic benefits of restructuring IOs under the new generation cooperative model are examined using a comparative economic analysis of the business as usual fibre procurement cost model and IO NGC fibre procurement cost model derived within this study. Data obtained from an IO case study and interviews with IO industry representatives is fitted to the models to generate fibre procurement cost data for each model. The resulting fibre procurement cost values for each model are then compared and further examined using sensitivity and breakeven analysis. The results of this analysis reveal that the new generation cooperative model has the potential to provide significant economic benefits to IOs through the creation of economies of scope in harvesting costs, but has little effect on the six other costs that make are included in fibre procurement costs. The analysis also reveals that so long as the NGC consist of IOs that require both large and small diameter fibre, the IO NGC has the potential to provide significant economies of scope in fibre utilization.

The Rwandan countryside is currently undergoing a process of rapid reform under ambitious government programs to modernize agriculture for participation in national and international markets. While the government asserts that it is pursuing pro-poor growth, many critics present significant evidence to the contrary. This thesis examines the use of farmers cooperatives within the ongoing government campaign of agricultural modernization, and it asks whether the co-ops themselves are sources of personal empowerment and material gain for the small producers. Adopting the “sceptical” post-development position advanced by Aram Ziai, the present research attempts to take a pragmatic look at the ways in which the co-ops meet or fail to meet the material and non-material needs of their members while appreciating that cultural preferences are heterogeneous and dynamic. While the use of farmers cooperatives appears appropriate for the Rwandan marshland, the co-ops examined very much fall short of the post-development social movement model.

Mémoire (M.B.A.)---Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, 1985. / Bibliographie: f. 183-192. Document électronique également accessible en format PDF. CaQCU

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1963. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 196-201).

Thesis (Licenciado)--Universidad Nacional de Colombia, 1970. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Diplôme)--École des hautes études en sciences sociales, 1975/76. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 276-286).

Thesis (M.A.)--Acadia University, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 169-172). Also available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (doctoral) -- Vereinigte Friedrichs-Universität Halle-Wittenberg. / Vita. Bibliography: p. [9]-11.

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Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Agricultural Economics / Allen M. Featherstone / This dissertation focuses on measuring the efficiency and productivity for agricultural cooperatives in the United States using the data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach. Economic measures such as cost efficiency, economies of scale, and economies of scope are measured by estimating a cost frontier in a multiproduct framework. Productivity growth is measured using the biennial Malmquist index approach. The cost frontier is the basis for calculating cost efficiency, economies of scale, and economies of scope as the cost frontier estimation in a multiproduct approach describes how cost changes as output changes. The estimates of economies of scale and scope have important implications for agricultural cooperatives because most of the cooperatives sell more than one product. Understanding the impact of changing output levels or mixes on the cost structure is helpful to improve the performance of cooperatives. Further, scope economies estimate the percentage of cost savings through product diversification in a multiproduct firm. The trade-off between cost efficiency and multiproduct scale economies allows the estimation of whether a higher percentage of cost can be eliminated by becoming cost efficient or changing the scale of operations. The economic measures are estimated using a single cost frontier (multi-year frontier) and annual cost frontiers. Multiproduct economies of scale and economies of scope exist indicating that increasing scale and product diversification can reduce cost for agricultural cooperatives. The mean values of product-specific economies of scale for all outputs are close to one indicating that cooperatives are operating close to constant returns to scale. The comparison between cost efficiency and scale economies suggests that smaller cooperatives can save a higher percentage of cost by increasing the scale of operations rather than just becoming cost efficient. Because larger incentives exist for small cooperatives to increase scale, mergers will likely continue until economies of scale are exhausted in the industry. Annual estimates show that agricultural cooperatives have become less cost efficient over time, but economies of scale and economies of scope remain consistent across years. Many agricultural cooperatives face economies of scale indicating that variable returns to scale as opposed to constant returns to scale is the appropriate technology for modeling agricultural farm marketing and supply cooperatives. Further, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov (KS) test and two sample t-test are used to examine whether economic measures estimated from a single frontier and annual frontiers are statistically different. The KS test and t-test indicate that economic measures obtained from the single frontier are statistically different from those measures calculated from annual frontiers. This indicates that the cost frontier has shifted over time. Productivity growth of agricultural cooperatives is estimated using the biennial Malmquist productivity index (BMI) under variable returns to scale over the period 2005 to 2014. The BMI avoids numerical infeasibilities under variable returns to scale compared to traditional methods. The BMI is decomposed into efficiency change and technical change to evaluate the sources of productivity growth. Overall, agricultural cooperatives gained 34% cumulative productivity growth during the decade allocated by -2% and 37% cumulative technical efficiency change and technical change over the study period. Technical change was the major source of productivity growth rather than efficiency change. Cooperatives can achieve higher productivity by increasing managerial efficiency and by investing in technology.