Got (clean) milk? Organization, incentives, and management in Indian dairy cooperatives

Smallholder producers in developing countries often collaborate teams that take advantage of scale economies and allocate surplus among members. We experimentally evaluate team-level incentive contracts for quality upgrading Indian dairy cooperatives where there is a risk free-riding because individual cannot be traced. Incentives improve aggregate quality, with evidence increased effort from both cooperative managers. However, several managers decline payments when they control how payment information disclosed to Survey indicates publicity lowers managerial returns, suggesting transparency-based efforts constrain elites can undermine the core policy goal.