AgEcon4972

Agricultural Economics 4972
Agri-Food Business & Cooperative Management
University of Missouri

Instructor
  Michael L. Cook
  125C Mumford Hall
  882-0127

Associates
Molly Burress 882-6014
Kristi Livingston 882-0140

Administrative Assistant:
   Gail Foristal
   127 Mumford Hall
   882-2823

NOTE: If you need accommodations because of a disability, if you have emergency medical information to share with me, or if you need special arrangements in case the building must be evacuated, please inform me immediately. Please see me privately after class, or at my office by appointment. To request academic accommodations (for example, a notetaker), students must also register with the Office of Disability Services, (http://disabilityservices.missouri.edu), S5 Memorial Union, 882-4696. It is the campus office responsible for reviewing documentation provided by students requesting academic accommodations, and for accommodations planning in cooperation with students and instructors, as needed and consistent with course requirements. For other MU resources for students with disabilities, click on "Disability Resources" on the MU homepage.

NOTE: The University community welcomes intellectual diversity and respects student rights. Students who have questions concerning the quality of instruction in this class may address concerns to either the Departmental Chair or Divisional leader or Director of the Office of Students Rights and Responsibilities (http://osrr.missouri.edu/). All students will have the opportunity to submit an anonymous evaluation of the instructor(s) at the end of the course.

Academic integrity is fundamental to the activities and principles of a university. All members of the academic community must be confident that each person's work has been responsibly and honorably acquired, developed, and presented. Any effort to gain an advantage not given to all students is dishonest whether or not the effort is successful. The academic community regards breaches of the academic integrity rules as extremely serious matters. Sanctions for such a breach may include academic sanctions from the instructor, including failing the course for any violation, to disciplinary sanctions ranging from probation to expulsion. When in doubt about plagiarism, paraphrasing, quoting, collaboration, or any other form of cheating, consult the course instructor.

Assignments

Week I

Quiz 1 = Take Home Exam (65 points)
Quiz 2 = In Class (25 points)
Reading Assignment — Required
   -   Henry Hansman, The Ownership of Enterprise, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1996
           pp     1-8       Part I: The Theory of Enterprise Ownership: Introduction
           pp 11-23       Part I: Chapter 1, An Analytic Framework
           pp 24-34       Part I: Chapter 2, The Costs of Contracting

Week 2:

Reading Assignment — Required
   -   Factors Critical to the Success or Failure of Emerging Agricultural Cooperatives, Sexton & Iskow, pp 1-18
            (Gianini Foundation Information Series, No. 88-3)
   -   Hansmann, pp 35-49   Part I: Chapter 3, The Costs of Ownership
Quiz 3 (50 points)

Week 3:

Work Assignment One: "Who owns, controls, benefits?" Details of assignment will be discussed in Thursday, Feb. 7 class. Due Feb. 15, 2008 at 5:00 p.m.
Reread Sexton, pp 1-18. — Required
Outline of Hansman, pp 11-49 — Required
- Two-page outline summarizing Part I of Hansmann's Ownership of Enterprise
- Will be discussed in Thursday class, Feb. 7, 2008.
Read Chapter 4 - Hansmann, pp 53-65: Part II - Producer-Owned Enterprise : Investor-owned Firms — Required

Week 4:

Project interest discussion: Details in Tuesday class
Review of Hansmann, pp53-65: Market Contracting Costs and Costs of Ownership in Investor-Owned Firms.
Project Interest Decisions: Details in Thursday class
Read Hansmann, Chapter 7, pp 120-149, Agricultural and Other Producer Cooperatives.
Read Case One: Cooxupé and the World Coffee Industry: Strategies to Increase Producer Income, February 2007.

Week 5:

.Read: Michael L. Cook, 1995. "The Future of U.S. Agricultural Cooperatives: A Neo-Institutional Approach", Amer. J. Agr. Econ 77, pp 1153-1159.

March 13:

Read before class Tuesday, March 18: Welcome to Cooperatives, by Donald A. Frederick, The Cooperative Accountant (Winter 2007), pp 24-33.
Read "Cooperative Ownership Compared to Other Business Arrangements for Multi-Family Dairy Operations", by G. Lawless, R. Cropp and P. Harris, UCC Occasional Paper No. 11, April 1996 — and its accompanying table: "Comparison of Five Business Structure Alternatives for Closely-Held Joint Ventures".

March 20:

Read before class on Thursday, April 3: "Chapter One, LAW OF COOPERATIVES — Legal Framework of Cooperative Development", by Mark J. Hanson. In: The Law of Cooperatives: Business, Structure, and Legal Issues, Stoel Rives LLP, 2007, Ch.1, p.1 - Ch. 2, p. 23.

April 2:

Additional articles:
— "Understanding New Cooperative Models: An Ownership-Control Rights Typology”," Chaddad, F. and M.L. Cook, Rev. Agric. Econ., 2004, 348-360; and
— "Redesigning Cooperative Boundaries: The Emergence of New Models," Cook, M.L. and F.R. Chaddad, Am. J. Agr. Econ., 86(5), 2004, 1249-53.

Last edited 04/03/2008