We consider how to organize the processing and marketing of an agricultural product when farming costs are known only by the individual farmers. We show that when marginal costs are un-correlated and the market for final goods is competitive, the socially optimal production levels may be...

Influenced by the legacy of command economies, the recent agricultural cooperation in Central and Eastern Europe is, compared to EU countries, marked by a different pattern. Based on simplified ownership incentive approach, this paper distinguishes between the fundamental features of communist,...

This paper analyzes the design of the Danish milk quota exchange. We focus on the restriction that each producer can only submit a single bid (a quantity and a price limit). We argue that this restriction creates inefficiencies for two reasons. First, a single bid cannot express a buyer's...

Since March 1999 the two largest dairy cooperatives of Denmark, MD FOODS and KLOVER MAELK have merged after a long relationship ranging from joint ventures (such as the P-AMBA and M-AMBA companies) to various alleged price wars. We point out that the main reasons for merger from the point of...

The contracts we consider in this paper must solve three problems: moral hazard, insurance and discrimination. The moral hazard problem is that of providing the agents with incentives to perform in a way that maximizes the profit to the principal, when the agent's actions are unobservable. The...

This paper analyzes a contract between farmers and a large company in the Danish food industry, Danisco Foods. Production of green peas requires a very accurate coordination, which is obtained through centralized decision-making. The contract is based on a tournament system providing risk...

In the competition between supply chains, governance structure and coordination mechanisms can be as important as cost-efficiency. Flexible and non-committing contracts among upstream suppliers in cooperative alliances may lead to lower chain surplus through internal competition and renders the...

Four different programming models dealing with the agricultural sectors in Canada, The Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark are analysed. The purpose is to construct a knowledge base for the development of a new sector model for Danish agriculture. This analysis has created a valuable set of...

Using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), we provide a framework to analyze the potential gains from quota trading. We compare the industry profit and structure before and after a free trade reallocation of production quotas. The effects of tradable production quotas depend on several technological...

CRAM is an aggregate holding based sector model of Danish agriculture. The model is developed at Unit of Economics (now dissolved) at KVL. The purpose of CRAM is to analyse how Danish agriculture reacts to various socio-political measures. CRAM describes Danish agriculture for every year over a...