Private sugar processors in Andhra Pradesh, India use an unusual form of vertical coordination. They issue 'permits' to selected cane growers a few weeks before harvest. These permits specify the amount of cane to be delivered during a narrow time period. This article investigates why processors...

Private sugar processors in Andhra Pradesh, India use an unusual form of vertical coordination. They issue 'permits’ to selected cane growers a few weeks before harvest. These permits specify the amount of cane to be delivered during a narrow time period. This article investigates why...

Private sugar processors in Andhra Pradesh, India use an unusual form of vertical coordination. They issue'permits'to selected cane growers a few weeks before harvest. These permits specify the amount of cane to be delivered during a narrow time period. This article investigates why processors...

Sugarcane produced in India is utilized to manufacture three sweetening agents: sugar, gur, and khandsari. Sugar processors must comply with a floor price for cane, but gur and khandsari producers are exempt from the floor price. Thus, any effect of the sugar processor’s choice of procurement...

Most agricultural policy analysis assumes that markets are perfectly competitive, despite increasing evidence to the contrary. We demonstrate that the interaction of market power and government intervention may lead to outcomes that are counter to key results of policy analysis for perfectly...

Privatization and market liberalization are widely considered to be complementary reforms in transition economies. This paper challenges this view and closely related "big bang" approach to economic reform. Our analysis suggests that when pursued too vigorously, privatization may actually impede...

Agency theory explanations for agricultural contract designs are often observationally equivalent to perfect information explanations. Further in order to test properly the hypothesis that moral hazard is important one must first test and accept the hypothesis that agents respond to contract...