Using data from a survey of Pennsylvania food processors, we investigate what firm-level characteristics make a processor more or less likely to buy agricultural inputs and ingredients though contracts. We find that over 20 percent of Pennsylvania processors use contracts, and over 44 percent of...

U.S. banking markets have undergone important structural and institutional changes. Overall, the sector has experienced steady consolidation through mergers and acquisitions that have resulted in fewer banks holding a greater value of the total assets. Despite consolidation, new branch offices...

Most of the discussion of regional income convergence in recent decades has operated under the assumption, either explicit or implicit, that spatial and temporal differences in regional prices (i.e., cost of living and inflation) are negligible. Using five different measures of interstate and...