Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics
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This study identifies consumer welfare from new brand introductions in the potato chip market. Price and variety effects of new brand introduction are measured by estimating a demand system underlying an expenditure function. Variety effects are positive in most cities, while price effects are generally negative when consumers exhibit some variety preference. Variety effects dominate price effects in most cities; an opposite effect observed in some cities may indicate high entry barriers or joint brand- and price-based marketing strategies. Results indicate that consumers and producers gain from product innovations, but substantial regional variation exists in the distributional effects of new brand introduction.
Processed food products account for a growing share of global agricultural trade. Growth in total factor productivity and intersectoral linkages between agricultural and processed foodsectors are hypothesized as factors explaining this phenomenon. Estimating the neoclassical trade model using an internationally comparable database, we find evidence of (a) Hechsher-Ohlin (factor endowments) and Ricardian-type (technology) effects in agricultural and processed food trade, and (b) transfer of comparative advantage from the primary agricultural sector to the processed food sector. Thus, public policies protecting primary agriculture can adversely affect processed food sectors, while those supporting R&D efforts can bring about dynamic and comparative advantage.
Firms selling products overseas may do so in a wide variety of ways, such a s through trading companies, foreign distributors, brokers, direct sales, license arrangements, and foreign direct investment. Many firms employ a portfolio of arrangements for each of their products. Using a share equation model, we examine the factors influencing food processing cooperatives’ foreign business arrangements. Particularly important are the cooperative’s financial resources and structure, risk exposure and risk preferences, information resources, and product types. Compared to investor-owned firms, we find that cooperatives have distinct disadvantages in investing or selling directly abroad, although the disadvantages are tempered by some equalizing considerations.
This study investigates the effects of market structure and research and development (R&D) on the innovation activities of firms. Fixed and random effects count data models are estimated with firm-level data for the U.S. food processing industry. Results show a positive association between patents and R&D, and patents and market structure, suggesting that firms which exhibit noncompetitive behavior are likely to develop new products and processes. Significant intra-industry spillovers of knowledge are identified using industry R&D. For this industry, deadweight losses from imperfect competition may be offset by greater product variety and quality of food products for consumers.
Significant differences exist in the rates of capital adjustment in the four major sectors of the U.S. economy: agriculture, food, manufacturing, and services. A multioutput adjustment cost model is specified to compute the rates of capital adjustment. This specification allows us to derive dynamic output supply and investment demand functions for the four sectors, which are then fitted to time-series data. Our estimates show that capital in agriculture and manufacturing is almost fixed and adjusts toward respective long-run equilibrium at a rate of about 2% per year. The food processing and services sectors are more flexible in that their capital stocks fully adjust in less than five years. Thus, the rate of adjustment of agricultural capital is lower than that of other sectors in the U.S. economy.
Sources of growth in U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) are analyzed in a general equilibrium, open economy framework using time-series data. Contributions from labor and capital account for 75% of the economy’s average growth, with total factor productivity (TFP) accounting for the remainder. Changes in the domestic terms of trade appear to be biased in favor of the services sector and against the agricultural and industrial sectors. A number of Rybczynski and Stolper-Samuelson-like linkages between the agricultural sector and the rest of the economy are identified. Labor-using technological change and favorable terms of trade appear to be the major contributors to the growth of the services sector. These changes have led to a decline in the competitiveness of the industrial and agricultural sectors for economy-wide resources. Technological change has tended to be neutral toward the production of farm output.
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