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Abstract
Support for the cooperative yardstick hypothesis was found using a standard
structure-performance model that was extended to include a cooperative market
share variable and was estimated with a large cross-section of food manufacturing
markets. Market concentration and advertising intensity were positively related
to price-cost margins. In addition, the aggregate market share of the one hundred
largest agricultural marketing cooperatives was inversely related to price-cost
margins. The magnitude of the effect was largest in the more concentrated markets.
This suggests that. where cooperatives have vertically extended themselves into
food processing. more competitive outcomes are found even in highly concentrated
markets.