@article{Leathers:8628,
      recid = {8628},
      author = {Leathers, Howard D.},
      title = {Are Cooperatives Efficient When Membership is Voluntary?},
      journal = {Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics},
      address = {2006-12},
      number = {1835-2016-149224},
      pages = {10},
      year = {2006},
      abstract = {If profit-maximizing farmers are free to join or not to  join a cooperative, it may appear reasonable to assume that  a cooperative will exist only when it has cost advantaged  over non-cooperative marketing. This paper presents a model  in which that result fails. Every individual farmer chooses  either to join or not join a cooperative depending on  whether transactions costs are lower from cooperative  membership or nonmembership. As cooperative membership  increases, transactions costs for members decline, but for  nonmembers these costs increase. Results of this analysis  reveal that an equilibrium exists in which all farmers  voluntarily choose to join the cooperative, but more than  half of the members wish the cooperative had not been  formed, and transactions costs in the aggregate are higher  with the cooperative then without it.},
      url = {http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/8628},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.8628},
}