Measuring the Multilateral Allocation of Rents: Wyoming Low-Sulfur Coal

Scott Atkinson and Joe Kerkvliet

RAND Journal of Economics, 1986, vol. 17, issue 3, 416-430

Abstract: This article develops a general econometric procedure for determining the amount of rent captured by buyers and sellers of goods produced under any market structure. We use this technique to measure the rents earned by firms involved in the extraction, transportation, and consumption of low-sulfur Wyoming coal. Statistical results indicate that railroads and coal producers each capture about 23% of potential rent, while the state and purchasing utilities capture 7% and 47%, respectively. Further, statistical tests support the hypothesis that rents have shifted towards the railroads since their deregulation in 1980. We also examine the extent of discriminatory pricing by relating the percentage markups of price over estimated marginal cost to the demand elasticity for coal. We find evidence of price discrimination by coal producers and railroads, but the degree of price discrimination exercised by coal producers declines with more recent contracts.

Date: 1986
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

Downloads: (external link)
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0741-6261%2819862 ... O%3B2-C&origin=repec full text (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to JSTOR subscribers. See http://www.jstor.org for details.

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:rje:randje:v:17:y:1986:i:autumn:p:416-430

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://editorialexp ... i-bin/rje_online.cgi

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in RAND Journal of Economics from The RAND Corporation
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().