Date of Award

Spring 5-3-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts (BA)

Department

Economics

First Advisor

Monica Das

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of Karnataka’s 2013 amendment to agricultural cooperative governance on the state’s agricultural productivity. Using a difference-in-differences (DiD) approach and panel data from Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra spanning 2004 to 2021, the study estimates whether the reform produced measurable improvements in Net State Value Added by Agriculture (NVAA). The analysis incorporates detailed financial control variables, including short- and medium-term loans, borrowings, and reserve funds, to examine the financial mechanisms underlying productivity changes. The results suggest that Karnataka experienced a sizeable but statistically insignificant decline in NVAA relative to the control states following the amendment, raising questions about the effectiveness of increasing cooperative autonomy without parallel investments in governance capacity and financial discipline. These findings carry important policy implications, emphasizing the need for carefully designed cooperative reforms that balance autonomy with accountability. The study contributes to the literature on cooperative governance, institutional reform, and rural development by providing one of the first causal evaluations of Karnataka’s policy shift and offering comparative insights for policymakers and scholars interested in strengthening agricultural cooperatives.

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