Can agricultural cooperatives reduce poverty? Heterogeneous impact of cooperative membership on farmers’ welfare in Rwanda

Ellen Verhofstadt and Miet Maertens

No 164803, Working Papers from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Centre for Agricultural and Food Economics

Abstract: We analyze the inclusiveness and effectiveness of agricultural cooperatives in Rwanda. We estimate mean income and poverty effects of cooperative membership using propensity score matching techniques. We analyze heterogeneous treatment effects across farmers by analyzing how estimated treatment effects vary over farm and farmer characteristics and over the estimated propensity score. We find that cooperative membership in general increases income and reduces poverty and that these effects are largest for larger farms and in more remote areas. We find evidence of a negative selection as impact is largest for farmers with the lowest propensity to be a cooperative member.

Keywords: Agricultural and Food Policy; Community/Rural/Urban Development; Food Security and Poverty (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 25
Date: 2014
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (20)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Can Agricultural Cooperatives Reduce Poverty? Heterogeneous Impact of Cooperative Membership on Farmers' Welfare in Rwanda (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:kucawp:164803

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.164803

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