Cooperatives and economic growth in a developing country: The case of Nepal

Abstract

Cooperatives play important role in economic development via multiple channels, particularly, in developing countries' cases. Considering this fact, Nepal's constitution 2017 has incorporated the cooperative as one of the three pillars of her economy. This paper aims to analyze the role of cooperatives in the economic development of Nepal. For this, first, this paper documents the trend and pattern of Nepalese cooperatives' evolving structure, then moves to the econometric estimation to analyze the role of cooperatives in economic growth employing an advanced methodology. Looking at the properties of time series data for the period of 49 years from 1970 to 2018, the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach of cointegration is employed. The major finding is that the development of the cooperatives has a long-run relationship with economic growth. However, the focus should be seen as on the involvement of many people in the cooperatives' activities rather than just on amassing the cooperatives' capital. The results also suggest that there is a need for the attention of policymakers so ensure that share capital contributes to economic growth. Therefore, the areas of priorities and scope of work of cooperatives need to be reconsidered when formulating new policies related to cooperatives.

Eco‐innovation and environmental performance: Insights from Spanish wine companies

“…Thus, members of cooperatives are both users and owners (Birchall, 2011), that is, buyers or suppliers are also owners and members of the community (Mamouni-Limnios et al 2018;Ghauri et al 2022), which strengthens the ties between the members and the organization (Núñez-Nickel & Moyano-Fuentes, 2004). In this sense, cooperatives, which emphasize the importance of the community and the environment, can provide market services to their members, which reduces transaction costs and improves production and marketing performance (Neupane et al 2022), becoming an important vehicle for economic development (Paudel & Acharya, 2022).…”

“…In this sense, cooperatives, which emphasize the importance of the community and the environment, can provide market services to their members, which reduces transaction costs and improves production and marketing performance (Neupane et al. 2022), becoming an important vehicle for economic development (Paudel & Acharya, 2022).…”

Impact of cooperative membership on market performance of Nepali goat farmers

“…Several studies have been conducted to assess the impact of agricultural cooperatives in Nepal (Paudel and Acharya, 2022, Risal, 2020; Dhakal, 2021). Some studies have specifically focused on evaluating the impact of savings and credit activities of cooperatives (Sharma, 2012; Paudel and Khanal, 2015; Puri and Walsh, 2017; Risal, 2020; Simkhada, 2013).…”

“…Nepal boasts a rich history of informal cooperation among farmers, with examples such as supporting socio‐cultural practices (Guthi), borrowing funds via bidding systems (Dhukuti), pooling excess grains to aid those in need (Dharmabhakari), and collaborative works (Parma) (Paudel & Acharya, 2022). The history of formal cooperatives in Nepal dates back to the registration of the first cooperative, “Bakhan”, in 1957.…”

Are cooperatives gender sensitive? A confirmatory and predictive analysis of women's collective entrepreneurship

“…Supporting this finding, Bastida et al (2021) found that some specific characteristics of cooperatives-in particular, their organizational culture and governance model-suggest that this model of collective entrepreneurship is particularly attractive to women entrepreneurs. This is particularly important, since cooperatives have been also seen as a way to contribute to economic development, especially in developing countries (Guzman et al, 2020;Paudel and Acharya, 2021).…”