Abstract Agricultural cooperatives in the United States are increasing in size while decreasing in number due to consolidation. This study examines the impact of size and specialization on the mean and variance of financial performance of agricultural cooperatives using a system of equations (3SLS) approach. Return on equity is a measure of financial performance and the variance of return on equity is a measure of risk. Risk had a positive impact on the mean financial performance of the cooperatives. The impact of risk is estimated to vary based on the diversity of products handled by the cooperatives as most cooperatives received the majority of incomes from grain and farm-input sales. In addition, profitability, the debt to asset ratio, and size had positive impacts on mean financial performance. Size had a positive impact on financial performance indicating that larger agricultural cooperatives benefit from economies of scale. Diversified cooperatives, particularly small-sized cooperatives, tended to have less variability in financial performance over the 2005-2014 period.

中文翻译：

---

规模和专业化对农业合作社财务绩效的影响

摘要由于合并，美国的农业合作社规模不断扩大，数量却有所减少。这项研究使用方程系统（3SLS）方法研究了规模和专业化对农业合作社财务绩效均值和方差的影响。股本回报率是衡量财务绩效的指标，而股本收益率的差异则是衡量风险的指标。风险对合作社的平均财务绩效产生了积极影响。由于大多数合作社从谷物和农场投入品销售中获得大部分收入，因此根据合作社所处理产品的多样性，估计风险的影响会有所不同。此外，盈利能力，债务资产比率和规模对平均财务绩效也有积极影响。规模对财务业绩产生积极影响，表明较大的农业合作社受益于规模经济。多元化的合作社，特别是小型合作社，在2005年至2014年期间的财务业绩波动较小。