Cooperatives are a form of economic democracy. Co-ops are owned and run by the stakeholders, which can include the workers (eg. a worker-owned and run business), the consumers (eg. food, housing co-op or a credit union), or the producers (eg. a farmers co-op that jointly owns and runs a mill). Decisions are made by stakeholders on a one member, one vote basis, as compared to ownership share as in a conventional business.
The University of Wisconsin led a recent study that looked at the direct and indirect economic impact of cooperatives. The direct impacts are the wages, revenue and employment in the cooperatives themselves. The indirect impact measures the ripple effect that results from the purchases of the cooperative, and the expenditure of coop dividends by stakeholders, including workers and members. The study found that the economic impact of cooperatives includes close to $75 billion in wages, $653 billion in revenue and over 2 million jobs.
Created by Member Economist Emily Kawano
November 2011
Source: Research on the Economic Impact of Cooperatives, Steven Deller, Ann Hoyt, Brent Hueth, Reka Sundaram-Stukel, UWI, Center for Cooperatives, revised 6-19-2009, http://reic.uwcc.wisc.edu/
