In 1998, Thorn Apple Valley ceased slaughter operations at its Detroit, Michigan plant, the state's only major hog packing facility. We examine the plant closing's local impact via an investigation of whether prices received by Michigan hog producers decreased relative to hog prices in the...

Today is a time of dynamic structural change in the agri-food system that brings new challenges to producers. This change is not unique to any particular production sector within the system, nor is it restricted to one level within the agri-food marketing chain. This testimony describes the...

This study seeks to understand whether beef operators who specialize in cow-calf production exhibit different motives for alliance participation and different levels of satisfaction with these vertical marketing arrangements than their counterparts in cow-calf production who also operate...

Parametric and nonparametric market power tests most commonly used to assess imperfectly competitive behavior are identified. Monte Carlo experiments are used to assess the accuracy of eight nonparametric tests. The results are compared to Raper, Love, and Shumway's (1997) findings concerning...

A review of recent literature reveals the development of several deterministic non-parametric (DNP) tests of market power. The performance of selected DNP market power tests is ascertained to determine their usefulness as an alternative to data-hungry parametric market power tests. This...

"Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) are aimed at reducing farm level microbial contamination of fresh produce and include both fixed and variable cost components. We empirically analyze three scenarios of voluntary food safety practice adoption and third-party certification in the North American...

Cigarette manufacturers' monopsony power exertion in procuring domestic and imported tobacco is investigated using nonparametric methods. While it is often assumed that tobacco program rents are captured by growers, results indicate the opposite actually occurs. Cigarette manufacturers appear to...

A review of recent literature reflects the development of several deterministic nonparametric market power tests. We use Monte Carlo experiments to evaluate the veracity of four monopolistic and four monopsonistic market power tests that use the deterministic nonparametric approach. The...