Structural Change and Competition in Seven U.S. Food Markets

Albert J. Reed and J. Stephen Clark

No 33558, Technical Bulletins from United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service

Abstract: Recent trends in mergers and acquisitions in the U.S. food sector- food manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers raise concerns about market power. In the presence of market power, farmers may receive lower than competitive farm prices, and consumers may pay higher than competitive retail prices. This study presents empirical tests of market power at the national level for seven food categories: beef, pork, poultry, eggs, dairy, fresh fruit, and fresh vegetables. At the national level, our tests provide evidence of competitive conduct in both the sale of final food products and the purchase of farm ingredients.

Keywords: Agribusiness; Industrial Organization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 30
Date: 2000
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/33558/files/tb001881.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
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:uerstb:33558

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.33558

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Technical Bulletins from United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().