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Abstract
Cooperatives can broadly be divided into
processing and marketing cooperatives on the one hand,
and purchasing and supplying cooperatives on the other.
In the early economic cooperative literature it is
suggested that a processing cooperative may pursue
either one of the following four objectives: a)
Maximisation of the net average revenue product, b)
Maximisation of the dividend, c) Maximisation of the
processing cooperative’s profit, and d) Maximisation of
members’ producer surplus plus the cooperative’s
profit. The corresponding objectives for purchasing and
supplying cooperatives are: e) Minimisation of the
purchasing price, f) Maximisation of the dividend, g)
Maximisation of the purchasing cooperative’s profit,
and h) Maximisation of members’ consumer surplus
plus the cooperative’s profit. This article analyses
processing cooperative behaviour within a duality
framework based on the restricted profit function. The
five derived duality theorems concisely summarise the
unambiguous qualitative comparative static results for a
cooperative’s ordinary or relative choice functions,
depending on which objective the daily manager is
assumed to pursue.