Female leadership, internet use, and performance of agricultural cooperatives in Vietnam

authored by: Trung Thanh Nguyen, Manh Hung Do, Dil B. Rahut, Viet Hung Nguyen, Panharoth Chhay
Abstract: Supporting agricultural cooperatives might contribute to the livelihood improvement of many small-scale farmers in developing countries. This research examines the factors affecting the internet use of agricultural cooperatives with a focus on female leadership, its effects on cooperatives’ economic, social, and innovative performance, and the distributional effects of internet use on economic performance. Our analysis relied on the data of 3,512 agricultural cooperatives collected in 2021 from Vietnam. We addressed the endogeneity issue of internet use in impact assessment by employing an instrumental variable approach. Our results show that female leadership was positively and significantly associated with internet use and that internet use had a positive and significant effect on returns on assets, returns on equity, labor productivity, payment per laborer, contribution to labor union and insurance per laborer, and innovation in products of agricultural cooperatives. In addition, unconditional quantile regressions show that internet use in agricultural cooperatives exacerbated income inequality. Enhancing female leadership and promoting rural education were recommended to improve agricultural cooperatives’ performance.
Organisation(s): Institute of Environmental Economics and World Trade
External Organisation(s): Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI)
Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development (IPSARD), Vietnam
Type: Article
Journal: Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics
Volume: 94
Pages: 877-903
No. of pages: 27
ISSN: 1370-4788
Publication date: 06.08.2023
Publication status: Published
Peer reviewed: Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas: Sociology and Political Science, Economics and Econometrics
Sustainable Development Goals: SDG 1 - No Poverty, SDG 5 - Gender Equality, SDG 10 - Reduced Inequalities
Electronic version(s): https://doi.org/10.1111/apce.12434 (Access: Open)