Economic Impacts of the California One-Variety Cotton Law

John H Constantine, Julian Alston and Vincent H Smith

Journal of Political Economy, 1994, vol. 102, issue 5, 951-74

Abstract: The California One-Variety Cotton Law, introduced in 1924, was intended to guarantee cotton quality and to mitigate externalities in cotton production arising from mixing different seed varieties at the gin. This paper presents quantitative estimates of the economic welfare effects of a partial deregulation under a 1978 amendment to the law. The original regulation benefited some, perhaps even most, cotton growers but became increasingly harmful to others and had adverse aggregate welfare effects. The persistence of this regulation may be due to its distributional effects. Partial deregulation yielded large increases in aggregate producer surplus but many cotton growers experienced small losses. Copyright 1994 by University of Chicago Press.

Date: 1994
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