Cooperative formation and immigration: The case of cow-testing associations in the US dairy industry

We study how European immigrants influenced the formation of a productivity-enhancing cooperative – cow-testing associations (CTAs) – in the early 20th century US. Institutions are important for economic development and agriculture in specific, so understanding why they form is important. CTAs, farmer cooperatives which tested the butterfat of dairy cows, were brought to the US from Denmark by a Danish immigrant, Helmer Rabild. We hypothesize that Danish and Dutch immigrant communities were important to their formation because of knowledge transfers and a willingness to “stick” with new organizations. Using novel data on these cooperatives combined with micro-census data, we find evidence that counties with higher influxes of Danes– who came between 1880 and 1900 – had a higher chance of forming CTAs. There are positive effects for the Dutch too, albeit imprecise. We also find suggestive evidence that testers were more likely to have Danish surnames – suggesting that Danes transferred knowledge of CTAs.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Agricultural & Applied Econ

Grantor

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2025

Author dc:creator

• Alian, Ziad Sabbah

Contributors dc:contributor

• Hutchins, Jared
• McNamara, Paul
• Osman, Adam

• Economics
• History
• Agriculture
• Cow-testing
• Associations
• Cooperatives
• Institutions
• Dairy
• Dhia
• Cta

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2025 Ziad Sabbah Alian

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/129290

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F129290