Honors Theses

Date of Award

2017

Document Type

Undergraduate Thesis

Department

Croft Institute for International Studies

First Advisor

John Green

Relational Format

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

This thesis examines variations in the development of cooperative businesses across member states in the European Union to identify and explain patterns in cooperative participation. Through a comparative analysis of statistical indicators coupled with regional analyses of historical determinants that may have incentivized cooperative participation, the current state of cooperatives in each region is highlighted and the relevance of each cooperative development indicator is discussed. This thesis uses literature on the early European cooperative movement, the development of the Common Agricultural Policy, and the current state of cooperative agricultural production to present a historically contextualized look at the European model of agricultural production and to highlight the patterns in cooperative development across regional groupings. The findings show that there is a strong association between regional groupings and average members per agricultural producers' cooperative (APC) and a moderate association between average agricultural output and average members per APC. When knowledge of region and average agricultural output is present, there are reductions in error in predicting average members per APC. The findings indicate that cooperative development expectations among the different regional groupings might be changing as regions succeed in unexpected ways.

Comments

A thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for completion of the Bachelor of Arts degree in International Studies from the Croft Institute for International Studies and the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College.

Accessibility Status

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