EMANES Working Paper No 56
The social and solidarity economy, through cooperative structures, has been promoted for its potential to reduce poverty, enhance economic inclusion and provide alternative solutions to labour market issues in developing countries. Nevertheless, very few empirical evaluations of their impact exist. We build an original qualitative and quantitative survey on the population of cooperatives in different sectors in Morocco and estimate the determining factors of their turnover growth, accounting for sample selection bias, as well as their survival rate. Findings point to the existence of three levels of determinants affecting (i) internal factors, (ii) management (president) and (iii) external factors (legal and market environment). We underline the sector’s fragility, the possibility of the existence of negative signaling, the heterogeneity between actors and outcomes and the weak role played by women in leadership positions.
