Kyle W. Stiegert

Nitrogen-Land Substitution in Corn Production: A Reconciliation of Aggregate and Firm-Level Evidence

In this paper we seek to reconcile low farm-level substitution elasticity between nitrogen, fertilizer, and land, with larger industry-level values for the corn sector. This is accomplished with a micro-simulation model which identifies twenty-three heterogeneous groups of corn farmers based on survey data for Indiana. After controlling for soil quality, slope, crop rotation, and natural nitrogen sources, considerable variation in fertilizer application rates remains. Model simulations indicate that the estimated substitution elasticity at the state level (1.15) is consistent with very low farm-level substitutability. The difference is attributable to compositional changes in the wake of relative price shocks. These compositional effects are potentially very important but they are ignored in most policy analyses. Copyright 1996, Oxford University Press.

State Trading Enterprises in a Differentiated Product Environment: The Case of Global Malting Barley Markets

This study tested if the exclusive procuring and pricing policies of two state trading enterprises (STEs) in international malting barley markets could be used in a strategic trade context. The research provided four key findings. First, the global malting barley market operated in a quantity-setting oligopolistic structure during the study years. Second, both STEs and other exporting countries were in Cournot competition and thus made available strategic trade possibilities. Third, initial commodity payments were too high to generate a rent-shifting outcome. Fourth, product differentiation was confirmed, which may have dampened the desire/ability of STEs to pursue a rent-shifting objective.

Imperfect Competition and Strategic Trade Theory: Evidence for International Food and Agricultural Markets

Strategic trade theory offers a way of conceptualizing and testing for strategic government interventions in imperfectly competitive international markets. This survey critically assesses recent empirical evidence, with a focus on food and agricultural markets. One finding is that while many international markets are characterized by oligopoly, price-cost markups tend to be small, and the potential gains from intervention are modest at best. In turn, empirical work has turned up few examples in which government intervention has been optimal in a strategic trade sense. Nonetheless, governments are found to frequently intervene on behalf of domestic firms and play a major role in shaping the nature of international competition. Suggestions for future research are made.

An Empirical Test of the Rent-Shifting Hypothesis: The Case of State Trading Enterprises

A central result in the theoretical literature on strategic trade is the erent-shifting hypothesisi, the idea that governmentis can employ trade policy as a precommitment device to transfer profit from foreign to domestic firms. To our knowledge, however, the rent-shifting hypothesis remains untested empirically. This paper constructs a theory-based empirical test of rent-shifting behavior that relies on observations of government precommitment variables employed through State Trading Enterprises (STEs). The analysis applies data on the delayed producer payment structure of the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) and examines its merits as a rent-shifting mechanism in the international durum market. The model fails to reject the hypothesis that the CWB utilizes a pre-commitment mechanism in the international durum market and several nonparametric tests confirm that the observed transfer payments set by the CWB are consistent with rent-shifting behavior in the 1972-95 pre-WTO period.

An Analysis of the Pricing of Traits in the U.S. Corn Seed Market

This paper investigates the pricing of patented traits in the U.S. hybrid corn seed market under imperfect competition. In a multiproduct context, we first examine how substitution/complementarity relationships among products can affect pricing. This is used to motivate multi-product generalizations of the Herfindahl-Hirschman index (GHHI) capturing cross-market effects of imperfect competition on bundle pricing. The GHHI model is applied to pricing of conventional and patented biotech seeds in the US from 2000-2007. One major finding is that standard component pricing in biotech traits is soundly rejected in favor of subadditive bundle pricing. The econometric estimates show how changes in market structures (as measured by both own- and cross-Herfindahl indexes) affect U.S. corn seed prices.

Vertical Coordination, Antitrust Law, and International Trade*

This paper demonstrates that vertically aligned private or public organizations are capable of generating strategic trade advantage similar to that acquired through direct government export subsidization. The model considers two forms of vertical coordination that lead to advantageous trade positions in international markets: upstream vertical restraint and downstream equity sharing. Such practices are commonly employed both by state trading agencies and by priyate firms in nations with lenient antitrust laws. The finding has important implications under new World Trade Organization (WTO) rules intended to reduce government intervention in international transactions. Recent reforms in the WTO favor nations that sanction highly refined vertical linkages between firms, while nations with stringent antitrust legislation have an incentive to negotiate for greater harmonization of international laws.

Corruption and Firm Performance

Most empirical research on the subject of corruption has found evidence of its deleterious effects on firms, industries, and society in general. Yet the persistence of corruption, which is present in virtually every form of public governance, suggests that the disparate benefits are difficult to unravel and lead to support for the status quo. In this paper, the authors analyze survey data from over 400 Armenian businesses to study the perceived favorability and impact of corruption on firm-level performance. The research relies on the data from two ordered response survey questions on corruption that were collected as part of a broad survey of issues facing firms pertaining to competition and industry structure. The dual role of the perceived favorability and degree of impact of corruption are modeled in a seemingly unrelated bivariate ordered probit framework. We find that corruption is perceived as more favorable among firms that (1) do not face significant competition, (2) are relatively larger, and (3) younger. Personal characteristics of the respondents, except for the level of education, explain neither the perceived favorability nor impact of corruption. The results show that the model has high predictive power. Our results suggest that enforcement of antitrust policies, encouragement of polices that foster competition, and possibly nonprotectionist trade policies will assist in the battle against corruption.

Optimal Capacity in the Anhydrous Ammonia Industry

This study analyzed the status of manufacturing capacity in the U.S. anhydrous ammonia industry (1971–91). Pindycks (1988) real option model was extended to account for mean-reverting tendencies in the marketing margin to determine optimal capacity for each year. The key result of the study is that the 30% expansion in 1973–74 would not have been recommended by the real option model, while traditional discounted cash flow approaches available in the 1970s could have easily rationalized the choices made by the industry. The results underscore the potential gains in predictive power from using the real option model in analyzing large, irreversible investments. Copyright 1997, Oxford University Press.

An Analysis of Bundle Pricing: The Case of the Corn Seed Market

This paper investigates bundle pricing under imperfect competition. In a multiproduct context, we first examine how substitution/complementarity relationships among products can affect pricing. This is used to motivate multi-product generalizations of the Herfindahl-Hirschmann index (GHHI) capturing cross-market effects of imperfect competition on bundle pricing. The GHHI model is applied to pricing of conventional and patented biotech seeds in the US from 2000-2007. One major finding is that standard component pricing in biotech traits is soundly rejected in favor of sub-additive bundle pricing. This result is consistent with the presence of scope economies in the production of genetic traits. The econometric estimates show how changes in market structures (as measured by both own- and cross-Herfindal indexes) affect U.S. corn seed prices.

How Does Advertising Affect Market Performance? A Note on Generic Advertising

We propose a novel approach to estimating the effect of advertising on market performance that relies on the preferences of firms participating in generic advertising programs. Generic advertising campaigns provide a unique window to observe advertising effects on market performance, because rotations in market demand systematically redistribute advertising rents among firms according to observable characteristics on producer size. We examine producer attitudes towards generic advertising in the “Beef. Its Whats for Dinner!” campaign of the U.S. Beef Checkoff program, the subject of the recent and controversial Supreme Court ruling on generic advertising as a form of government speech. We find the likelihood producers favor an expansion of the advertising program increases in their operating scale. This finding is consistent with an advertising campaign that has led to a counterclockwise rotation of market demand and a commensurate increase in market performance in the U.S. beef market.