The (Ir)Relevance of the Cooperative Form

Jean Tirole, Paul-Henri Moisson and Pierre Dubois

No 23-1453, TSE Working Papers from Toulouse School of Economics (TSE)

Abstract: It is puzzling that cooperatives, which stand for the interests of their users, do not occupy more space in the market for corporate forms. This paper unveils a new impediment to their formation. It shows that equilibrium free-riding handicaps cooperatives in their competition with alternative institutions, notably the for-profits. The irrelevance of cooperatives is a remarkably robust result. The paper then analyzes desirable government interventions in the corporate market.

Keywords: Cooperatives; free-riding; competing corporate forms (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D23 D71 D8 L22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023-07-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-com, nep-gth, nep-hme, nep-mic and nep-reg
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Working Paper: The (Ir)Relevance of the Cooperative Form (2023)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:tse:wpaper:128186

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