Firms selling products overseas may do so in a wide variety of ways, such a s through trading companies, foreign distributors, brokers, direct sales, license arrangements, and foreign direct investment. Many firms employ a portfolio of arrangements for each of their products. Using a share...

Marketing cooperatives often commingle farm products in a common payment pool. A member’s receipts from a pool depend upon the method the cooperative uses for valuing raw product patronage. The present article examines alternative patronage valuation methods with particular regard to...

In this paper we investigate the welfare effects of technological convergence in the food industries. We extend Krugman's (1980) monopolistic competition model to allow for technological differences between two (groups of) countries. Technological convergence is reflected in a narrowing...

Productivity growth in the Canadian processed food industry has lagged behind that in the United States because of a relatively low rate of R&D investment. Although U.S. firms generally have a technological advantage over Canadian firms, marginal rates of return to R&D are higher in Canada.

We focus on regulations controlling the spread of noxious weeds, especially the trade effects of regulatory differences across U.S. states. We specify a gravity model for each state’s seed, nursery product, and commodity trade with each other state. Within the gravity model, we examine...

This study examines how the spatial distribution of grocery stores affects food prices charged in neighborhoods with different median incomes. Studies have shown that low-income neighborhoods often have fewer grocery stores, smaller grocery stores and have higher prices for a standard market...

This article discusses economic issues related to public labeling. The main contributions in both the empirical and theoretical literatures are presented in order to motivate responses to the questions, when should a regulator promote public labeling, and what are the limits to and the possible...

Our objective is to identify the determinants for success among USDA’s Value- Added Producer Grants (VAPG) program recipients. Business development has become an important program in departments of agricultural economics. Market share was found to be an important determinant of VAPG...