Member deliveries in collective marketing relationships: evidence from coffee cooperatives in Costa Rica
研究了农业营销合作社中成员交付行为，发现农场规模与交付给合作社的产量份额呈U形关系，即份额随规模先减后增。
This article investigates member deliveries in agricultural marketing cooperatives. Since cooperatives depend on members’ contributions to achieve efficiency in processing and marketing, side-selling by members poses a threat to the economic viability of cooperatives in the long run. We develop a model for the farmers’ marketing decision that relates farm size to the share of produce delivered to the cooperative. Based on survey data from cooperatively organised coffee farmers in Costa Rica, we find that the share delivered to cooperatives decreases with farm size, albeit at a decreasing rate. The empirical results thus confirm the theoretical model prediction of a u-shaped relationship between farm size and member deliveries.