Price Variability and Industrial Concentration in U.S. Food Industries

This paper focuses on the sources of intra‐industry price variability in US food industries during a period of increasing concentration, while accounting for the impact of variations in prices of primary agricultural products. Results suggest that intra‐industry price variability in food industries increases with their respective mean rate of inflation and product heterogeneity. However, industrial concentration lowers the sensitivity of relative prices to changes in the mean rate of inflation. Hence, static welfare losses to consumers from increasing concentration in food industries, a subject of recent and intensive investigation, can partly be offset by gains such as reduced price variability.     

Sources of Sectoral Growth in an Economy Wide Context: The Case of U.S. Agriculture

Growth in U.S. agriculture is linked to the non-farm economy through domestic terms of trade and factor market adjustments. With almost stable input growth, the relatively large contributions from growth in Total Factor Productivity (TFP) are passed on to intermediate and final consumers in the form of declining real prices for primary farm products. The resulting net growth in the real value of farm output (GDP) is relatively low (0.25% per annum). The decomposition of TFP suggests that public agricultural stock of knowledge and infrastructure are robustly associated with TFP growth, while spill-overs from private agricultural and economy wide research and development (R and D) are positive but, relatively small.     

Welfare Effects of Technological Convergence in Processed Food Industries

We develop a monopolistic competition model to investigate effects of international technological convergence on factor rewards, output composition, and welfare. Comparative static analysis indicates technological convergence improves the follower's—but impairs the leader's—international competitiveness. The leader's welfare improves unambiguously; the follower's welfare depends on the relative strength of convergence's income and terms-of-trade effects. We use data from seventeen food industries in thirty countries, 1993–2001, to test these analytical predictions. Evidence of convergence is found in thirteen of seventeen industries. Convergence lifts followers' relative wages and global value-added shares. Followers benefit from convergence's positive income effect. Leaders benefit from higher terms of trade.     

Intergenerational spaces: citizens,political marketing and conceptualising trust in a transitional democracy

Abstract

As the third largest democracy in the world, Indonesia’s relatively peaceful transition from authoritarian rule to democracy deserves academic attention. This study explored the notion of trust and how it could influence electoral behaviour. An intergenerational perspective was used to compare the differences between parents who were familiar with the previous political system and their children who have only been exposed to a new democratic system. Through the extension of the Dermody and Hanmer-Lloyd model of electoral behaviour, this study identifies the antecedents of trust/distrust in a transitional democracy and shows how these are different when citizens’ consider the political system and the political candidate. The work can benefit policy makers and political candidates who can develop political marketing strategies to engage citizens in the electoral process.     

Modeling inter-sectoral growth linkages: An application to U.S. agriculture

General equilibrium and open economy trade theory are used along with time series data on the U.S. agricultural sector to provide insights into the structure of agricultural supply, factor returns and linkages to the rest of the economy. Output expansion and factor returns are found to vary depending on relative factor intensities, which we refer to as Rybczynski and Stolper-Samuelson like effects. The effect of the rest of the economy, particularly the increase in price of services, is found to have relatively large negative impacts on agriculture. The short-run effects of prices and factor endowments on growth in agricultural supply and factor returns are dominated by the long-run effects of technological change.     

Post–Uruguay Round price linkages between developed and developing countries: the case of rice and wheat markets

The Uruguay Round Agreement on agriculture attempted to lower distortions in global agricultural markets. However, the significant fall in commodity prices in the late 1990s may have reduced the incentives for both developed and developing countries to better integrate into world markets. This study analyzes price linkages and adjustment between developed and developing countries during the post–Uruguay Round period. Prices of two key commodities, long‐grain rice and medium‐hard wheat, are assembled for major exporters and producers. Results of multivariate cointegration analysis suggest partial market integration between developed and developing countries in the post–Uruguay Round period. Developed countries are found to be price leaders in these two markets, and in most cases, changes in their prices have relatively large impacts on those of the developing countries. Developing countries (e.g., Vietnam and Argentina) have faced considerable price adjustment due to changes in the developed countries' prices.     

Pollution Control and Foreign Direct Investment in Mexico: An Industry-Level Analysis

Foreign direct investment (FDI) flows into developing countries have been increasing dramatically over the past decade. At the same time, there has been widespread concern that lax environmental standards are in part responsible for this surge. This paper revisits the question of the existence of a pollution haven effect by examining the extent to which the pollution intensity of production helps explain FDI in Mexico. We focus on pollution intensities, which are directly related to emission regulations, rather than unobservable pollution taxes and allow for substitution between capital and pollution. Examining several different pollutants, we find a positive correlation between FDI and pollution that is statistically and economically significant in the case of the highly regulated sulfur dioxide emissions. Industries for which the estimated relationship between FDI and pollution is positive receive up to 30% of total FDI and 30% of manufacturing output. Although we confirm the importance of Mexico’s comparative advantage in labor-intensive production processes, consistent with the previous literature, our results suggest that environmental considerations may matter as well for firms’ investment decisions.      

R&D Spillovers: Evidence from U.S. Food Processing,Farm Machinery and Agricultural Sectors

This paper computes private and social rates of return to R&D capital in the three vertically linked sectors, primary agriculture, food processing, and the farm machinery in the United States. Using a cost function approach, the private rates of return to R&D ranged from an average of 21.5% per annum for farm machinery to 87.5% for agriculture. The social rates of return to R&D in food processing and farm machinery are larger than the private rates due to spillovers. We find that spillovers from public agricultural R&D mitigates the market's failure in farm machinery to fully appropriate the returns to its R&D capital.     

What Causes Spatial Variations in Economic Development in the United States?

This article examines the causes of spatial disparities in economic development in the United States. A theoretical model is developed to analyze the location decisions of firms and households. An empirical model is estimated to quantify the contribution of alternative factors to spatial variations in wage, employment density, housing price, and land development density. Results suggest that remoteness is a primary cause of spatial disparities in economic development, while natural amenities are a major determinant of housing prices. Despite the dominant role of geography, public investments in infrastructure and human capital development could contribute to economic development in remote areas.     

Cooperative pricing and scale efficiency: The case of Korean rice processing complexes

Unlike most investor‐owned enterprises, cooperatives often have freedom to choose among a variety of firm objectives. Using 2002–2008 plant‐ and province‐level data, we ask in the present article which of several alternative maximands a Korean cooperative rice processing firm pursues. In contrast to earlier studies, farmer‐member supply functions are incorporated into the cooperative's optimization framework. We show that only large cooperative firms have operated at efficient scale, while small and medium‐sized ones have been scale‐inefficient. Because the latter operate where scale returns are increasing, mergers of small and medium‐sized cooperatives likely would be cost‐reducing and member‐return‐enhancing.