Deregulation and Regional Specialization: Evidence from Canadian Agriculture

Colin Carter and Shon Ferguson

No 1185, Working Paper Series from Research Institute of Industrial Economics

Abstract: For about seventy years, the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) was one of the world’s largest export “single desk” state traders in agriculture, until it was deregulated in 2012 and stripped of its marketing powers. One of the main crops controlled by the CWB was barley. We estimate the impact of the removal of the CWB’s single desk on the spatial pattern of malting barley production in Western Canada. We find that deregulation encouraged growers located closer to malt barley plants to increase production relative to growers located further from the plants. Additionally, malting barley production shifted to regions with more of a natural advantage arising from climatic conditions. This change in cropping patterns after deregulation can be explained by efficiency gains, combined with transportation and handling cost savings.

Keywords: tate trading; Deregulation; Agricultural regulation; Trade costs; Comparative advantage (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L43 Q17 Q18 R12 R14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 25 pages
Date: 2017-10-23
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Deregulation and regional specialization: Evidence from Canadian agriculture (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1185

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