Weekly grid premium and discount price date for fed cattle have been collected over a 3-year period. The grid price data are combined with carcass data (2590 South Dakota slaughter steers) to investigate the variability in the average weekly carcass premium is affected by changes in...

Various bid-ask spread estimators are applied to transaction data from LIFFE commodity futures markets, and the resulting estimates are compared to observed actual bid-ask spreads. Results suggest that actual bid-ask spreads, unlike effective spreads, can be reasonably estimated using...

Concentration in the beef packing industry has been rising for the past 25 years. Many studies of market power in beef packing are based on the conjectural variations framework, which depends on accurate estimates of packer input and processing costs. We propose an alternative measure of packer...

This study provides a comparative evaluation of VARs versus structural VARs for policy analysis and simulation via impulse response analysis (IRA). The IRA is valuable information for rice market participants as these results provide an economically intuitive explanation of adjustments that...

We report results of a survey of 608 Ohio agribusinesses in 1999 and show them to be divided in their attitudes and acceptance of e-commerce. Half of the respondents report that their business has a web site, although many had taken a negative stance toward such a move. Nearly all say that the...

This paper addresses the quality and value of data derived from ultrasound technology. It attempts to determine whether or not ultrasound is a strong enough predictor of beef carcass quality grade to be an economical tool used to improve the current state of the beef industry.

In the classical development of economic equilibrium and efficiency, transaction costs are seldom considered. This study develops a micro- market model of an agricultural market based on quality differences. The study then develops a model of market structure based on the New Theory of the Firm....

Contracting directly between produce shippers and retailers is growing in importance. Retailers seek to obtain reliable supplies, while reducing their reliance on recurring market transactions. Producers seek stable prices and market access. These private transactions diminish spot market...

Optimal hedging strategies are analyzed for a cooperative operating a price pooling system in the presence of price and quantity risk. A three-period model, accounting for default risk and storage, is developed. Hedging allows the cooperative to increase the pool price offered to farmers by 2.8...

Nonparametric demand analysis uses axioms of revealed preference to test a data set for compatibility with the hypothesis of stable preferences. Previous applications have tested for the presence of structural change using this approach. This paper shows how to include demand shifters such as...