Beef packing has become an extremely concentrated industry, yet studies have found that little, if any market power exists. We propose and test alternative measures of behavior that may better describe how packers control purchases from feedlots, using confidential data collected by the USDA...

Replaced with revised version of paper on 06/11/07.

Replaced with revised version of paper 07/15/08.

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...

Replaced with revised version of paper 07/22/11.

A second-price Vickrey-style auction is used to determine the willingness to pay (WTP) for credence attributes found in "cause" coffees. WTP estimates were then compared with actual market price information. The results indicate positive average bids for the cause coffees. However, premiums were...