Can agricultural cooperatives improve livestock farm profitability? Evidence from the beef cattle sector in China

Based on a primary survey data of beef cattle farms in China, this study empirically tests whether joining a cooperative improves beef cattle farming profitability, using the instrumental variable quantile regression method. Results show that joining cooperatives can attain higher profit. The effect of cooperative membership on farm profitability is not uniform with the bigger farms realizing more benefit than smaller farms. Further, the founding members of cooperatives receive marginally higher profit improvement than later members.