This paper compares the formation rates of co-operatives and conventional firms in Finland using regional data. The Finnish co-operative “wave” that began in the mid-1990s provides a useful setting for testing the hypothesis that co-operative formation rates are higher in depressed economic...

We examine the proposition that, in co-operatives, the need for democracy must clash with efficiency demands. To shed light on diverse issues surrounding this claim we distinguish different forms of co-operatives and identify different meanings of democratic governance and forms of economies of...