Abstract
This paper presents a territorial analysis of the cooperatives within various Spanish regions. The purpose is threefold. The first objective is to investigate whether the cooperatives’ employment cycle shows a different relationship regarding the business cycle and whether this depends on the regional localization of the cooperatives. The second is to evaluate whether the greater the cooperative tradition, the greater the decoupling between business cycle and cooperatives’ cyclical phases. The third objective is to find out if, within the different Spanish regions, those cooperatives that survived the 2008 crisis share some common patterns. Our results show that (1) more than 50% of the regions achieve a medium degree of a pro-cyclical relationship and that only a small group of regions presents a counter-cyclical relationship; (2) the cooperatives' employment exhibits a certain degree of resilience; and (3) the cooperatives that survived the crisis were mature, small-sized firms with adequate financial ratios but with a negative profit margin.
Highlights
Spain has a long tradition with regard to cooperatives
cooperatives’ employment (CE) tends to be longer than the business cycle in contraction phases and shorter in expansion phases (Table A2.2)
We have studied the relationship between business cycle and cooperatives’ employment in Spain
Summary
Spain has a long tradition with regard to cooperatives They remain an important economic engine which derives not so much from their contribution to the Spanish macroeconomic data (they account for roughly 0.6% of the added value, and generate, in average, a bit more than 1% of employment) but because they represent a new organizational model whose goals go further towards maximizing profits. In the face of economic shocks, employees are more accepting towards changes in their work conditions, and more willing to find ways to reduce costs and to enhance their relationship with their customers. These measures would be necessary to increase cooperatives’ chances of survival and to maintain their employment levels
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