Abstract Agricultural cooperatives are a prominent economic organization for farmers in agro-food systems. Industrial organization and new institutional economics theories explain the existence of agricultural cooperatives and farmers’ participation in them through their ability to develop ‘countervailing power’ within markets and internalizing transaction costs, respectively. Using a unique dataset that includes community, cooperative, and household level survey data, this study empirically investigates the drivers of agricultural cooperatives formation and farmers’ membership and patronage decisions in Ethiopia. The results indicate that agricultural cooperatives in Ethiopia tend to exist in locations that are connected to major roads with relatively well-developed market structures, supporting the industrial organization argument linked to market power for their formation more than the new institutionalists argument linked to overcoming potential contractual failures. A farm household’s decision to join and use agricultural cooperatives, on the other hand, is strongly related to their location, scale of operation, specialization, and human and relational capital. A household’s membership and patronage decisions are also affected by the size, specialization, and integration of the agricultural cooperative itself.

中文翻译：

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埃塞俄比亚农业合作社形成的驱动因素以及农民的会员资格和赞助决定

摘要农业合作社是农业食品系统中农民的重要经济组织。产业组织和新制度经济学理论分别通过农业合作社和农民在市场中发展“抵消力量”和内部化交易成本的能力来解释农业合作社的存在。本研究使用包括社区，合作社和家庭水平调查数据在内的独特数据集，对埃塞俄比亚农业合作社形成的驱动因素以及农民的会员身份和赞助决定进行了实证研究。结果表明，埃塞俄比亚的农业合作社往往存在于与市场结构相对发达的主要道路相连的地方，与与克服潜在的合同失败有关的新制度主义者的论点相比，对与市场力量形成联系的工业组织论点的支持更多。另一方面，农户决定加入和使用农业合作社，与他们的位置，经营规模，专业化以及人力和关系资本密切相关。农户的成员资格和光顾决定还受到农业合作社本身的规模，专业化和整合的影响。以及人力和关系资本。农户的成员资格和光顾决定还受到农业合作社本身的规模，专业化和整合的影响。以及人力和关系资本。农户的成员资格和光顾决定还受到农业合作社本身的规模，专业化和整合的影响。