Technical Efficiency of Producer Cooperatives versus Private Firms: A Longitudinal Empirical Study

In this paper, we hypothesize that producer cooperatives are more efficient than private firms, even when the impact of the political and economic environment is controlled for, and irrespective of the orientation with which efficiency is assessed; that is, whether firms target the reduction of inputs or the expansion of outputs. The empirical application focuses on a longitudinal population of olive oil manufacturing firms operating in the south of Spain from 1944 to 1998. The analyses clearly show that producer cooperatives are more efficient than private firms.