The Effects of Pricing Canadian Livestock Emissions

I examine the environmental and economic effects of pricing greenhouse gas emissions from livestock in Canada. Using a partial equilibrium model, I consider three different pricing policies: a consumer level tax, a producer level tax, and a producer subsidy. All policies price emissions at $50 per tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent. The producer level tax generates the greatest reduction in emissions at the lowest social cost per unit of emissions abatement. The producer subsidy results in a smaller reduction in emissions at a higher social cost, relative to the producer tax. However, the subsidy provides a substantial increase in producer surplus, which may make it a politically feasible second‐best policy. The consumer level tax results in a trivial reduction in emissions, at a social cost that is greater than the price placed on emissions. J'examine les effets environnementaux et économiques de l'imposition d'un prix sur les gaz à effets de serre provenant des animaux d'élevage canadiens. Au moyen d'un modèle d'équilibre partiel, je tiens compte de trois différentes politiques d'imposition de prix : taxer le consommateur, taxer le producteur, et subventionner le producteur. Toutes les politiques imposent les émissions au prix de 50$ par tonne en équivalent de dioxyde de carbone. Taxer l'éleveur génère la plus grande réduction des émissions au plus bas coût social par unité de réduction des émissions. Subventionner l'éleveur entraéne une plus petite réduction des émissions à coût social plus élevé, en comparaison û la taxe imposée à l'éleveur. Par contre, le choix de subventionner fournit une augmentation substantielle de surplus pour l'éleveur, faisant de cette option un bon deuxième choix envisageable au niveau politique. Taxer le consommateur ne produit qu'une réduction négligeable des émissions, à coût social plus élevé que le taux imposé sur les émissions.     

Canadian Exports of Livestock and Meat to the United States

Canadian exports of beef and live cattle to the United States have increased significantly since the late 1980s. Hog and pork exports have increased since the mid-1990s. Major factors affecting exports of beef, pork, cattle and hogs from Canada to the United States include the exchange rate, increased Canadian production, Canada-U.S. price differentials and trade liberalization under the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement of 1989. Increased Canadian exports have resulted in small but significant reductions in U.S. domestic prices of beef, pork and hogs.     

Two Tests of Pricing Efficiency in the Rapeseed Futures Market

This paper assesses pricing efficiency in the rapeseed futures market. It reports the results of an updating of an earlier analysis, by Martin and Storey, which applies Gray' s simulation of long trading positions in futures market operations. A second test of the martingale hypothesis is also applied to rapeseed futures prices and to futures prices for soybeans, rapeseed' s major competitor. The results of simulated trading activities give some indication of price bias in the first decade of trading in rapeseed futures contracts but there is no evidence of bias in the second decade of trading. The test of the martingale hypothesis indicates that there may have been periodic instances suggestive of pricing inefficiency for the rapeseed futures contract in recent years, although such instances also characterize the more heavily traded United States Board of Trade soybean contract. Cet article évalue l' efficacité de la détermination des prix sur le marché a terme des graines de colza. II met à point une analyse précédente, par Martin et Storey, qui applique la simulation de Gray de positions longues dans les opérations sur le marché à terme. Un deuxième test de l' hypothèse martingale est appliqué aux prix à terme des graines de colza et aux prix à terme des graines de soya, le principal concurrent des graines de colza. Les résultats de la simulation des activités d' échange donnent quelques indications de partialité dans les prix pendant la première décennie d' échange de contrats à terme pour les graines de colza, mais il n' y a pas d' évidence de partialité pendant la deuxième décennie d' échange. Le test de l' hypothèse martingale démontre qu' il y a eu peut-être des cas périodiques pendant les années récentes qui semblent indiquer 1' inefficacité de la détermination des prix pour le contrat à terme des graines de colza, mais ces occasions caractérisent aussi le contrat des graines de soya du Board of Trade des Etats-Unis, dont le marché est plus actif.     

尼日利亚不同地区反刍动物市场定价行为研究

本文对尼日利亚牛羊市场的空间价格一体化程度进行了检验，试图运用双变量自回归时间序列模型验证寡头垄断市场上牛羊价格的非竞争性定价行为。论文分别对牛羊市场的合谋、歧视性、价格领袖和竞争性定价行为进行了经验性检验。结论表明，在牛羊价格形成中，博尔诺（Borno）和索科托（Sokoto）州的牛羊价格领先于克里斯河（CrossRiver）、依莫（Imo）、卡诺（Kano）、拉各斯（Lagos）、尼日尔（Niger）和奥约（Oyo）州这些地方市场的价格。有关证据也支持共谋定价一般与市场的集中有关的判断。     

Volatility and Price Jumps in Agricultural Futures Prices—Evidence from Wheat Options

Evidence suggests that agricultural futures price movements have fat-tailed distributions and exhibit sudden and unexpected price jumps. There is also evidence that the volatility of futures prices is time-dependent both as a function of calendar-time (seasonal effect) and time to maturity (maturity effect). This article extends Bates' (1991) jump-diffusion option pricing model by including both seasonal and maturity effects in the volatility specification. Both in-sample and out-of-sample procedures to fit market option prices on wheat futures show that the suggested model outperforms previous published models. A numerical example shows the magnitude of pricing errors for option valuation.     

An Approach to Examining Relative Efficiency in the Canadian Livestock Slaughtering Industry

In order to identify possibilities for enhancing economic efficiency, levels of relative performance in subsectors of the Canadian livestock slaughtering industry are examined. A variant of the transcendental logarithmic profit function is used to compare relative economic, technical and allocative efficiency between groups of plants of different size, and groups of plants with different degrees of product specialization. Large plants are found to be more technically efficient than small plants, and plants producing both fresh and processed products are found to be more technically efficient than those producing only fresh products. All categories of meat processing plants are found to be relatively and absolutely allocatively efficient. Further research is necessary at an individual firm level to establish specific efficiency characteristics. Afin ?identifier les possibilités ?accroissement de ?efficacité économique dans ?industrie canadienne de ?abattage, les niveaux de performances relatives des sous-secteurs sont analysés. Une variante de la forme logarithmique transcendantale de la fonction de profit est utilisée afin de comparer ?efficacité relative, technique et allocative entre groupes ?abattoirs de différentes tailles et de différents degrés de spécialisation. Cette comparaison montre que les abattoirs de grande taille sont techniquement plus efficaces que ceux de taille modeste. Les abattoirs mettant en marché à la fois des produits frais et transformés sont techniquement plus efficients comparativement aux abattoirs spécialisés dans le produit frais. Toutes les catégories de transformateurs sont relativement et de façon absolue allocativement efficients. Une recherche plus poussée est nécessaire afin ?établir les caractéristiques ?efficience individuelles.     

Use of Public Perceptions of Groundwater Quality Benefits in Developing Livestock Management Options

In this study, a dichotomous choice model is used to determine the compensating welfare measure for water quality improvements stemming from livestock waste management in the Abbotsford region of southwestern British Columbia. The benefits of improving water quality are compared with the net costs of composting manure on a large scale, the option for handling livestock wastes preferred by the provincial government. The results indicate that the costs of composting manure exceed the revenue from selling manure (compost) plus the off-site damages avoided.     

Price Discrimination and Pricing to Market Behavior of Canadian Canola Exporters

The role of exchange rate fluctuation on the pricing behavior of Canadian canola exporters to Japan, Mexico, and the U.S. is examined using a model identifying noncompetitive and exchange rate related pricing behavior. Price discrimination was identified for Canadian canola exports to the three destinations over the period of 1993–99. Results also suggest that Pricing to Market strategies were employed for Japanese imports. Canadian canola exporters used local currency price stabilization to dampen the effects of relative price changes in the Japanese currency, perhaps linked to the large size of Japanese imports relative to Mexico and the U.S.     

Testing the Integration of U.S.–Canadian Meat and Livestock Markets

Price transmission is a critically important issue that affects market enlargement and the unification of Canadian–U.S. agriculture. This study adopts alternative frameworks to examine the nature of cross‐border integration in selected meat and livestock markets. The aim is to determine the extent to which selected meat and livestock markets transmit price signals across the international border using time‐series data through 2001. Typically, price‐based studies examining market integration across countries ignore important spatial and temporal factors affecting commodity price relationships such as adjustments lags, changes in the value of national currencies, and policy‐induced trade barriers. Here, we account for such factors in our two model specifications. The first model is based upon the law‐of‐one price (LOP) framework and focuses on spatial efficiency. The second analytical framework is the vector autoregressive (VAR) model that highlights the dynamic notion of market connectedness. The LOP analysis permits us to formally test the existence of perfect market integration and complete market segmentation. The VAR analysis enables us to gauge price‐shock transference. Empirical evidence is generated confirming that the two national markets for whole chicken are segmented, a not unsurprising finding given that poultry is a supply managed sector in Canada. The Canadian–U.S. hog‐ and pork‐product markets were found to be more integrated than the Canadian–U.S. steer‐ and beef‐product markets. Evidence is also provided showing that the Canadian–U.S. exchange rate inhibits cross‐border integration in these commodity markets. La transmission des prix est un sujet extrêmement important qui gêne l'expansion des marchés et l'unification de l'agriculture du Canada et des États‐Unis. Dans la présente étude, nous avons utilisé divers cadres d'analyse pour examiner la nature de l'intégration transfrontalière de marchés sélectionnés de la viande et des bestiaux. L'objectif consistait à déterminer l'étendue avec laquelle des marchés sélectionnés de la viande et des bestiaux transmettent des signaux de prix au‐delà des frontières en utilisant des données de séries chronologiques jusqu'en 2001. Généralement, les études de prix qui examinent l'intégration des marchés entre les pays font abstraction de facteurs spatiaux et temporels importants touchant le rapport des prix des produits de base tels que le décalage dans les rajustements, la variation du cours des devises nationales et les obstacles au commerce induits par les politiques. Dans le présent article, nous avons tenu compte de ces facteurs dans les spécifications de deux modèles. Le premier est modèle fondé sur la loi du prix unique qui met l'accent sur l'efficacité spatiale. Le deuxième est un modèle d'autorégression vectorielle (VAR) qui met en évidence la notion dynamique de la connexité des marchés. Le modèle fondé sur la loi du prix unique nous a permis de vérifier l'existence de l'intégration parfaite et de la segmentation totale des marchés. Le modèle d'autorégression vectorielle nous a permis d'évaluer le transfert d'un choc de prix. L'évidence empirique a confirmé que les deux marchés nationaux du poulet entier étaient segmentés, un résultat qui n'est pas sans surprise compte tenu que l'élevage du poulet au Canada est un secteur soumis à la gestion de l'offre. Nous avons trouvé que les marchés canado‐américains des porcs et de la viande porcine étaient plus intégrés que les marchés canado‐américains des bovins et de la viande bovine. L'évidence empirique a également montré que le taux de change entravait l'intégration transfrontalière de ces marchés de produits de base.     

Sources and Measurement of Agricultural Productivity and Efficiency in Canadian Provinces: Crops and Livestock

This paper measures and assesses the variation in total factor productivity (TFP) growth among Canadian provinces in crops and livestock production over the period 1940–2009. It also determines if agricultural productivity growth in Canada has recently slowed down as indicated by earlier studies. The paper uses the stochastic frontier approach that incorporates inefficiency to decompose TFP growth into technical change (TC), scale effect (SE), and technical efficiency change. The results indicate that productivity changes were mainly driven by TCs for crops, while the productivity changes in livestock was mainly driven by SEs and technical progress. Though change in technical efficiency is mainly positive (except for New Brunswick and Nova Scotia), its contribution to productivity growth was very little for the provinces. We also found that over the entire period, the productivity growth rates for the crop subsector are on average higher for the Prairie provinces than for the Eastern and Atlantic provinces. On the other hand, the productivity growth rates in the livestock subsector are on average higher in the Eastern and Atlantic provinces than in the Prairie region with the exception of Manitoba. Finally, we found that though there is some evidence of a recent decline in productivity growth for the crops subsector, there is no such evidence in the livestock subsector.     

On the Number and Heterogeneity of Bidders in Livestock Auctions

We show in the context of livestock auctions that a seller's revenue may increase or decrease as the number of buyers increases, whether the additional bidder wins or not an object. Additional bidders who fill part of their demand from an outside source may have an even more adverse effect on prices. We use data from the Quebec daily hog auction to measure the effect of new bidders on auction prices. Variations in the number of bidders come from the entry and exit of Quebec packers and sporadic invitations extended to Ontario packers. We find that entry by Quebec packers had a significant positive impact on hog auction prices but that sporadic participation by Ontario packers did not have a significant impact on hog prices.     

Can Futures and Options Markets Hold the Milk Price Safety Net? Policy Conflicts and Market Failures in Dairy Hedging

U.S. Department of Agriculture's Dairy Options Pilot Program promoted hedging by producers, and was a test case for similar programs in other agricultural industries. Rapidly shifting milk pricing policies impeded quantitative hedging evaluations while the program was active. Hedging appears capable of reducing price variance by 50–60% in most regions, and favors large, sophisticated producers in heavy cheese manufacturing regions. Forward contracting or price insurance products may offer lower transaction costs and attract more small-scale producers. Ballooning milk deficiency payments and milk's prominent role in trade-distorting payments suggest an ongoing need to promote private price risk management tools.     

中加菜籽油期货市场波动溢出实证研究

利用误差修正模型、BEKK-GARCH模型和格兰杰因果关系实证研究了加拿大和中国菜籽油期货市场之间的信息传导、波动溢出和价格引导关系。实证结果显示：这两个市场之间存在一定的信息传导关系;加拿大菜籽油期货市场对中国菜籽油期货市场存在显著的波动溢出效应,而中国菜籽油期货市场对加拿大菜籽油期货市场的波动溢出不显著;短期内加拿大菜籽油期货市场对中国菜籽油期货市场的价格引导作用更强些,这与加拿大菜籽油期货市场是全球菜籽油定价中心的实际相吻合,而中国菜籽油期货市场的竞争力有待进一步提升。