Replaced with revised version of paper 08/24/09.

We empirically investigate the effects of beef packer concentration and size efficiencies, packer procurement and pricing methods, and other market variables and quality characteristics on the prices paid by packers for slaughter cattle. We find that packers pay less for fed cattle in more...

We develop an empirical methodology based upon multinomial probability models to estimate the magnitude of bid shading in cattle procurement in the Texas Panhandle region. The methodology works well in settings where data allow a good estimation of a bidder’s probability of winning, but the...