The impact of inequality, gender, external assistance and social capital on local-level cooperation

Abstract Drawing upon recent theoretical advances in the analysis of cooperation, this paper presents an econometric analysis of the determinants of successful collective action based on a survey of 104 peasant cooperative institutions in Paraguay. The most important results of this analysis are: 1. (a) the level of cooperation is not monotonically related to either the degree of inequality of endowments within the community or the level of external assistance; rather, it is of an inverted U-shape form; 2. (b) cooperation increases as the level of women's participation and social capital increases.

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