Author
Dhoubhadel, Sunil P.
The unprecedented spike in beef price spreads during the COVID-19-driven packing plant shutdowns prompted calls for investigations into “inappropriate influence” by packers in the beef market during the pandemic disruption. Using weekly data for the January 2010–August 2020 period and designating March–May 2020 as the disruption period, we estimate a structural oligopoly/oligopsony model using the generalized method of moments. We fail to reject the hypothesis of competitive pricing of beef and cattle.
This paper uses the staggered difference-in-difference model to assess the ex post impact of precision agriculture (PA) technology adoption on whole-farm profitability. The results indicate that PA technologies do not contribute as much to farm profitability when analyzed over a period of time. PA technologies may increase some operational efficiency, but farmers should not adopt PA assuming that it will improve farm profitability. The positive contribution of a majority of PA technologies to farm profitability has not yet been established.