Abstract: | This paper examines the economic trading relationships underlying store livestock markets in the UK for beef steers, pigs and sheep. Economic decisions relating to store sales and purchases are set within the context of a dynamic, multi-period, market-clearing framework. A new approach to modelling store markets is introduced in which the rational-expectations methodology to forming model-consistent expectations is central. The results suggest how the store markets form part of a vertically integrated production system and reveal to what extent the beef steer, pig and sheep sectors exhibit econometrically identifiable relations. |