Nathalie Lavoie

Price Discrimination in the Context of Vertical Differentiation: An Application to Canadian Wheat Exports

This study examines the ability of the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) to price discriminate in bread wheat exports. This study models wheat as a vertically differentiated intermediate good and modifies the model of vertical differentiation by Mussa and Rosen to the realities of wheat import demand. The conceptual model isolates the bases of price discrimination and demonstrates that the CWB?s ability to exploit cost differences in pricing depends on the extent of the differentiation between Canadian and U.S. wheat. This model is implemented using monthly confidential price data provided by the CWB for exports to Japan, the United Kingdom, and two markets aggregating remaining exports through Canada?s west and east coasts, for 1982 1994. The data indicate that the CWB charges different prices to different countries for wheat of the same grade and protein content. Results from the model indicate that the price difference between any two markets is not completely explained by elements of perfect competition. However, the evidence is mixed regarding the ability of the CWB to utilize all the instruments available to price discriminate. Thus, the CWB?s pricing strategy may be more complex and dynamic than the prescription for static producer surplus maximization derived in this study.

Pricing-to-Market: Price Discrimination or Product Differentiation?

We employ a vertical differentiation model to examine the potential bias in pricing-to-market results when using export unit values aggregating differentiated products. Our results show that: (i) false evidence of pricing-to-market is always found when using unit values, whether the law of one price holds or not; and (ii) the size of the bias increases with the level of product differentiation. Our simulation results support those conceptual findings. Thus, some of the positive pricing-to-market results in the literature could be an artifact of the product heterogeneity embodied in unit values rather than evidence of imperfect competition.

Market Power in Direct Marketing of Fresh Produce: Community Supported Agriculture Farms

CSA farms establish a loyal customer base and, potentially, market power. A new empirical industrial organization (NEIO) approach and survey data from Northeast CSA farms are used to determine whether CSA farms have market power and the extent to which they exercise their market power. Results suggest CSA farms exert about two percent of their potential monopoly power.

The Effects of ITQ Management on Fishermen’s Welfare When the Processing Sector is Imperfectly Competitive

In this paper we use a general model of imperfect competition to predict welfare changes within an open-access fishery after it transitions to individual transferable quota (ITQ) management. Although related research has explored the effects of market power in the harvesting sector on ITQ performance, none has considered the implications of an imperfectly competitive processing sector. Addressing this question, we find that although fishermen should expect to gain from ITQs under perfect competition, they may suffer welfare losses if the processing sector is imperfectly competitive.

Chapter 15 Food processing and distribution: An industrial organization approach

Abstract This chapter focuses upon competitive relationships in agricultural markets. These markets often exhibit high and increasing levels of buyer and/or seller concentration. Both food manufacturing and retailing are characterized by aggressive attempts by firms to achieve product differentiation. Vertical coordination within the sector through integration or various forms of vertical control is also increasingly important. In addition agriculture is relatively unique among industries in that governments often permit and encourage producers to form selling cartels. Exports and imports of agricultural commodities also often involve intervention by marketing boards and state trading agencies. We review and evaluate recent research on each of these topic areas.

The Impact of Reforming Wheat Importing State-Trading Enterprises on the Quality of Wheat Imported

Recent surveys of wheat importers indicate that countries that import wheat via a state-trading enterprise (STE) are less sensitive to quality issues in import decision-making than countries that import wheat through private traders. This study examines conceptually and empirically the impact of the deregulation of wheat imports on the quality and source of wheat imports.

The impact of protein increments on blending revenues in the Canadian wheat industry

Since 1994, progressively more protein grade increments have been added to existing standards for Canadian Western Red Spring (CWRS) wheat. This paper simulates the impact of additional protein increments on the farm value of grain and on revenues from optimal blending by using a linear programming model that maximizes blending revenues, given the protein distribution of No. 1 CWRS wheat for 1990–91 to 1992–93. Both analytical and empirical results show that the outcome depends on the pricing schedule, the protein distribution, and the placement of the new protein grade.

Partial Implementation of COOL: Economic Effects in the U.S. Seafood Industry

Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling (MCOOL) was implemented on seafood in the United States on April 4, 2005. MCOOL exempts the foodservice sector and excludes processed seafood from labeling. This paper contributes to understanding the economics of the MCOOL law for seafood by showing that current partial implementation may have unintended consequences on the domestic supply chain. While labeling satisfies the market demand for information provision in one market, exemptions in the other market may create incentives for the diversion of imports, which are assumed to be lower in quality than domestic seafood, to the non-labeled sector. Analyzing alternate scenarios such as voluntary labeling shows that total welfare may be greatest under this scenario compared with partial MCOOL. Voluntary origin labeling of seafood by some U.S. retailers indicates there is no compelling market failure argument warranting partial MCOOL implementation. This work is therefore a step towards analyzing the effect of partial MCOOL policy in the seafood industry taking into consideration the nature of the industry.

Buyer Market Power and Vertically Differentiated Retailers

We consider a model of vertical competition where downstream firms (retailers) purchase an upstream input from a monopolist and are able to differentiate from each other in terms of quality. Our primary focus is to study the effects of introducing a large retailer, such as a WalMart Supercenter, that is able to lower wholesale prices (i.e. buyer market power). We obtain two main results. First, the store with no buyer market power responds to the presence of the large retailer by increasing its quality, a finding that is consistent with recent efforts by traditional retailers to enhance shoppers’ buying experience (i.e. quality). Second, the presence of a large retailer causes consumer welfare to increase. There are, however, two reasons for the increase in consumer welfare: consumers gain from the large retailer’s low price (because the upstream discount is partially passed on to the retail price) as well as from the high quality level offered by the traditional retailer. Contrary to the conventional wisdom most of the consumer welfare gains seem due to the latter. The intuition for this result is that price competition softens substantially as a result of firms’ quality differentiation. We also investigate the effects of buyer market power on retail and wholesale prices as well as on producer welfare.

Impact of the U.S. Export Enhancement Program on Exports of Canadian Durum to the U.S.

The Export Enhancement Program (EEP) of the United States creates a price wedge between those countries that receive this subsidy and those that do not. At the same time, the EEP has made the U.S. market profitable for Canadian exports. The objective of this study is to assess the impact of the EEP on Canadian exports of durum wheat to the U.S. For this purpose, a conceptual framework is developed and tested with a quarterly econometric model. The empirical results support the conceptual characterization and suggest that the EEP for durum has stimulated about half of Canadian durum exports to the United States.