Both conventional wisdom and leading academic research view pork barrel spendingas antithetical to responsible policymaking in times of crisis. In this paper we presentan alternative view. When agents are heterogeneous in their ideology and in theirinformation about the economic situation,...

We analyze the trade and welfare impact of quarantine measures imposed by Australiaon imports of pigmeat. In particular, we account for changes to Australia’s pigmeat quarantinepolicy over time including those changes related to the recent resolution of a WTO disputebetween Australia and the...

We hypothesize that hog production can be characterized by complementarities between newtechnologies, worker skills and farms size. Such production processes are consistent withKremer’s (1993) O-ring production theory in which a single mistake in any one of severalcomplementary tasks in a...

We propose a strategy to identify the complementarity or substitutability amongtechnology bundles. Under the assumption that alternative technologies are independent,we develop a hypothetical distribution of multiple technology adoptions. Differencesbetween the observed distribution of...

We propose a strategy to identify the complementarity or substitutability amongtechnology bundles. Under the assumption that alternative technologies are independent,we develop a hypothetical distribution of multiple technology adoptions. Differencesbetween the observed distribution of...

A 2007 survey of US pork producers indicated that nearly two-thirds of US hogs are produced by less than 200 firms marketing 50,000 or more hogs per year. We estimate that 27 operations marketing at least 500,000 hogs a year sold 43% of US hogs in 2006. The next 164 operations marketing between...

Niche markets of agricultural products are experiencing rapid growth. One suchniche market is organic pork. Organic pork production is a relatively new and expandingsegment of the pork industry. Similar to some other niche markets, it has also experiencedrapid growth (Organic Trade...

We study business organization and coordination of specialty-market hog production using a comparative analysis of two Iowa pork niche-marketing firms. We describe and analyze each firm's management of five key organizational challenges: planning and logistics, quality assurance, process...

Pork production has seen a period of volatility that it has not seen before. Duringthis period, there has been a rise in a number of issues. Pork producers must deal withnarrowing margins, environmental issues, animal welfare issues, integration, andslaughter capacity concerns. These issues have...