Market and Cost Structure in the U.S. Beef Packing Industry: A Plant-Level Analysis

A resurgence of consolidation in the U.S. meat packing industry in the past few decades has stimulated academic and policy debate. Issues raised include the role of cost economies in driving these patterns, and the effects on the agricultural sector (cattle producers) from market power. Here, plant level cost and revenue data for U.S. beef packing plants are used to estimate a cost-based model incorporating cattle- and output-market pricing behavior. The robust results indicate little market power exploitation in either the cattle input or beef output markets, and that any apparent evidence is counteracted by cost efficiencies such as utilization and scope economies.     

Taking a positive approach to organizational downsizing

We drew from the literature on positive organizational behaviour (Luthans & Youssef, 2007) to test a process model relating generalized optimism (Carver & Scheier, 1999) to the cognitions, affect, and behaviour of 237 Canadian federal government managers during and following a major organizational downsizing. Our data supported a model in which generalized optimism measured 18 months prior to the downsizing (T1) associated positively with managers' cognitions, attitudes, job performance, and self‐reported coping effectiveness measured 12 months postdownsizing (T3). Analyses suggested that some of these associations were partially mediated by a positive thinking coping strategy and expectations for future career and job success reported during the downsizing (T2). We advocate for more research that draws from the positive organizational behaviour literature to study the effects of downsizing on survivors. Copyright © 2008 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Capital-skill complementarity,productivity and wages: Evidence from plant-level data for a developing country

Different types of labor and capital inputs have varying productive contributions that are dependent on plant characteristics. We estimate such contributions and their underlying determinants, recognizing the interactions among labor and capital components that reflect their substitutability or complementarity, for Turkish manufacturing plants. We distinguish technical and non-technical labor, and structures, machinery and computer capital, as well as the shares of female workers and imported capital in our production function specification. We find capital-skill complementary for both machinery and computers; greater productive contributions and thus wages for skilled labor are associated with more machinery intensity and computer use. The reverse is true for unskilled labor, which is complementary only with capital structures. Our results suggest that synergies among skilled (technical) labor, computers, and machinery capital have productivity- and skilled wage-enhancing effects that could contribute to productivity convergence of developing toward developed countries, even with their differing industry and input composition.     

Multi-Output, Nonfrontier Primal Measures of Capacity and Capacity Utilization

This article implements an econometric approach for generating primal capacity output and utilization measures for fisheries. In situations where regulatory, environmental, and resource conditions affect catch levels but are not independently identified in the data, frontier-based capacity models may interpret such impacts as production inefficiency. However, if such inefficiencies are unlikely to be eliminated, the implied potential output increases may be unrealistic. We develop a multi-output, multi-input stochastic transformation function framework that permits various assumptions about how output composition may change when operating at full capacity. We apply our model to catcher-processor vessels in the Alaskan pollock fishery.     

Employment change in the 1990s: Findings from a study in Nottingham

The paper reports from a study of employment change from a sample of members of Nottinghamshire Chamber of Commerce. The main focus is a comparison of the workers who lost their jobs and of the new recruits during the period January 1990 — September 1991. The study produced clear evidence of. the wide scale nature of workforce adjustment, although redundancy was the most important labour shedding method adopted, other methods were used. Manufacturing and service companies surveyed shed “permanent” jobs as well as part-time “flexible” jobs. Although far more jobs were lost than were created, half the surveyed companies did, in fact, recruit staff.