{"title":"Testing Market Power and Welfare Effects in the US Catfish Industry","authors":"G. Nguyen, C. Jolly, T. Nguyen","doi":"10.1515/jafio-2019-0025","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract An empirical specification of the conjectural variations model, which conforms to microeconomic theory, is estimated for the US catfish industry. We find the existence of market power exerted by US catfish processors. Processors force the price paid to catfish growers down by 52.88 cent per pound of live catfish, which costs US catfish growers about $300 million a year. US catfish growers can deter the negative effects of processors’ market power by increasing their farm supply flexibility. Further studies are needed to address the dynamics and competitive game strategies in the US catfish industry.","PeriodicalId":52541,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Agricultural and Food Industrial Organization","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2020-02-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1515/jafio-2019-0025","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Agricultural and Food Industrial Organization","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jafio-2019-0025","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"Business, Management and Accounting","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Abstract An empirical specification of the conjectural variations model, which conforms to microeconomic theory, is estimated for the US catfish industry. We find the existence of market power exerted by US catfish processors. Processors force the price paid to catfish growers down by 52.88 cent per pound of live catfish, which costs US catfish growers about $300 million a year. US catfish growers can deter the negative effects of processors’ market power by increasing their farm supply flexibility. Further studies are needed to address the dynamics and competitive game strategies in the US catfish industry.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Agricultural & Food Industrial Organization (JAFIO) is a unique forum for empirical and theoretical research in industrial organization with a special focus on agricultural and food industries worldwide. As concentration, industrialization, and globalization continue to reshape horizontal and vertical relationships within the food supply chain, agricultural economists are revising both their views of traditional markets as well as their tools of analysis. At the core of this revision are strategic interactions between principals and agents, strategic interdependence between rival firms, and strategic trade policy between competing nations, all in a setting plagued by incomplete and/or imperfect information structures. Add to that biotechnology, electronic commerce, as well as the shift in focus from raw agricultural commodities to branded products, and the conclusion is that a "new" agricultural economics is needed for an increasingly complex "new" agriculture.