EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

SPATIAL DYNAMICS OF THE LIVESTOCK SECTOR IN THE UNITED STATES: DO ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATIONS MATTER?

Deepananda P.B. Herath, Alfons Weersink and Chantal Line Carpentier

No 22059, 2003 Annual meeting, July 27-30, Montreal, Canada from American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association)

Abstract: The US hog and dairy sectors are increasingly shifting production toward western states away from more traditional production regions in the east. In contrast, production levels in the fed-cattle sector have increased over the last three decades only in the three main producing states. One possible reason for the shifts in production areas is that a state may introduce or keep less stringent environmental regulations relative to neighboring states as a means to cope with inter-jurisdictional capital competition. Such differences might create "pollution havens". This study examines the factors affecting the annual growth rate in inventory for each of the hog, dairy and fed-cattle sectors using data from 48 states for 1975 to 2000. The results indicate that environmental regulatory stringency is generally not as important as other economic variables in the location choices of livestock producers. In the two sectors (hog and dairy) where significant regional production shifts have occurred, major drivers appear to be relative prices and business climate. Inventories are rising in more remote areas and regulatory stringency appears to increase ex post as a response to increasing livestock production levels. Thus, with the exception of the fed-cattle sector, regional differences in environmental regulations appear not to have a significant influence on livestock production decisions and consequently regional comparative advantage

Keywords: Environmental Economics and Policy; Livestock Production/Industries (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 33
Date: 2003
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/22059/files/sp03he04.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Spatial Dynamics of the Livestock Sector in the United States: Do Environmental Regulations Matter? (2005) Downloads
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:aaea03:22059

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.22059

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in 2003 Annual meeting, July 27-30, Montreal, Canada from American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search (aesearch@umn.edu).

 
Page updated 2024-12-28
Handle: RePEc:ags:aaea03:22059