IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/jlorco/163814.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Antitrust Legislation and Cooperation in Fish Marketing

Author

Listed:
  • Kachel, Yael
  • Finkelsthain, Israel

Abstract

The limited exemption from antitrust legislation enjoyed by the Israeli agricultural sector enabled collective marketing of fish by aquaculture producers. The cartel-like organization of fish marketing raised concerns that fish growers exploited market power to the detriment of consumers and total welfare. On the other hand, grower cooperation in marketing may increase producers’ as well as total welfare if the marketing sector is imperfectly competitive. We use a simulation approach to evaluate the costs and benefits ensuing from cooperative selling in the aquaculture sector, compared to alternative market structures. Results indicate that despite farreaching cooperation, fish farmers did not behave like a cartel and marketed quantities which were much closer to the competitive equilibrium than to an outcome expected for a producer cartel. On the other hand, we demonstrate important potential benefits from cooperation in the case of an imperfectly competitive marketing sector – commonly observed for many agricultural products. The Israeli aquaculture sector provides an example of the importance of a limited antitrust exemption for the agricultural sector.

Suggested Citation

  • Kachel, Yael & Finkelsthain, Israel, 2009. "Antitrust Legislation and Cooperation in Fish Marketing," Journal of Rural Cooperation, Hebrew University, Center for Agricultural Economic Research, vol. 37(2), pages 1-23.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:jlorco:163814
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.163814
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/163814/files/Kachel%20jrc37-2_2009_.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.163814?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John M. Crespi & Richard J. Sexton, 2003. "Concurrence, coopératives de producteurs et Marketing Orders aux États-Unis," Économie rurale, Programme National Persée, vol. 277(1), pages 135-151.
    2. Robert L. Wills, 1985. "Evaluating Price Enhancement by Processing Cooperatives," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 67(2), pages 183-192.
    3. Nash, John, 1950. "The Bargaining Problem," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 18(2), pages 155-162, April.
    4. Sexton Richard J. & Zhang Mingxia & Chalfant James A., 2005. "Grocery Retailer Behavior in Perishable Fresh Produce Procurement," Journal of Agricultural & Food Industrial Organization, De Gruyter, vol. 3(1), pages 1-23, February.
    5. Hueth Brent & Marcoul Philippe, 2003. "An Essay on Cooperative Bargaining in U.S. Agricultural Markets," Journal of Agricultural & Food Industrial Organization, De Gruyter, vol. 1(1), pages 1-15, March.
    6. Richard J. Sexton & Mingxia Zhang, 1996. "A Model of Price Determination for Fresh Produce with Application to California Iceberg Lettuce," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 78(4), pages 924-934.
    7. Lawrence E. Haller, 1992. "Branded Product Marketing Strategies in the Cottage Cheese Market: Cooperative versus Proprietary Firms," Food Marketing Policy Center Research Reports 016, University of Connecticut, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Charles J. Zwick Center for Food and Resource Policy.
    8. Paul W. Dobson & Michael Waterson & Stephen W. Davies, 2003. "The Patterns and Implications of Increasing Concentration in European Food Retailing," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(1), pages 111-125, March.
    9. Robert T. Masson & Philip M. Eisenstat, 1980. "Welfare Impacts of Milk Orders and the Antitrust Immunities for Cooperatives," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 62(2), pages 270-278.
    10. Madhavan, Ananth N & Masson, Robert T & Lesser, William H, 1994. "Cooperation for Monopolization? An Empirical Analysis of Cartelization," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 76(1), pages 161-175, February.
    11. John M. Crespi & Adriana Chacón-Cascante, 2004. "Do U.S. marketing orders have much market power? An examination of the Almond Board of California," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(1), pages 1-15.
    12. Rotemberg, Julio J & Saloner, Garth, 1986. "A Supergame-Theoretic Model of Price Wars during Booms," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(3), pages 390-407, June.
    13. Jacquemin, Alexis & Slade, Margaret E., 1989. "Cartels, collusion, and horizontal merger," Handbook of Industrial Organization, in: R. Schmalensee & R. Willig (ed.), Handbook of Industrial Organization, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 7, pages 415-473, Elsevier.
    14. Haller, Lawrence E., 1992. "Branded Product Marketing Strategies in the Cottage Cheese Market: Cooperative versus Proprietary Firms," Research Reports 25208, University of Connecticut, Food Marketing Policy Center.
    15. Richard T. Rogers & Richard J. Sexton, 1994. "Assessing the Importance of Oligopsony Power in Agricultural Markets," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 76(5), pages 1143-1150.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kachel, Yael & Finkelshtain, Israel, 2010. "A Comparative Analysis of Antitrust Regulations in the Agricultural Sector in Israel, the US and the EU," Journal of Rural Cooperation, Hebrew University, Center for Agricultural Economic Research, vol. 38(1), pages 1-35.
    2. Sexton, Richard J., 1990. "The Role of Cooperatives in Increasingly Concentrated Agricultural Markets," Cooperatives: Their Importance in the Future Food and Agricultural System - FAMC 1990 Conference 265909, Food and Agricultural Marketing Consortium (FAMC).
    3. Rogers, Richard T., 1990. "The Role of Marketing Cooperatives in Increasingly Concentrated Agricultural Markets: Reaction," Cooperatives: Their Importance in the Future Food and Agricultural System - FAMC 1990 Conference 265917, Food and Agricultural Marketing Consortium (FAMC).
    4. Li, Lan & Carman, Hoy F. & Sexton, Richard J., 2005. "Grocery Retailer Pricing Behavior for California Avocados with Implications for Industry Promotion Strategies," 2005 Annual meeting, July 24-27, Providence, RI 19498, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    5. Habtu T. Weldegebriel & Xiuqing Wang & Anthony J. Rayner, 2012. "Price transmission market power and industry technology: a note," China Agricultural Economic Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 4(3), pages 281-299, August.
    6. Kaplow, Louis & Shapiro, Carl, 2007. "Antitrust," Handbook of Law and Economics, in: A. Mitchell Polinsky & Steven Shavell (ed.), Handbook of Law and Economics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 15, pages 1073-1225, Elsevier.
    7. Ronchi, Loraine, 2006. "Fairtrade and market failures in agricultural commodity markets," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4011, The World Bank.
    8. Robert Clark & Ignatius Horstmann & Jean-François Houde, 2021. "Hub and Spoke Cartels: Theory and Evidence from the Grocery Industry," NBER Working Papers 29253, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Chaim Fershtman & Ariel Pakes, 2000. "A Dynamic Oligopoly with Collusion and Price Wars," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 31(2), pages 207-236, Summer.
    10. David G. Pearce, 1991. "Repeated Games: Cooperation and Rationality," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 983, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    11. Zahir Dossa, 2012. "Cooperatives: A Development Strategy? An Analysis of Argan Oil Cooperatives in Southwest Morocco," Euricse Working Papers 1229, Euricse (European Research Institute on Cooperative and Social Enterprises).
    12. Sexton, Richard J. & Iskow, Julie, 1993. "What Do We Know About the Economic Efficiency of Cooperatives: An Evaluative Survey," Journal of Agricultural Cooperation, National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, vol. 8, pages 1-13.
    13. Johan F.M. Swinnen & Anneleen Vandeplas, 2010. "Market power and rents in global supply chains," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 41(s1), pages 109-120, November.
    14. Okullo, Samuel J. & Reynès, Frédéric, 2016. "Imperfect cartelization in OPEC," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 333-344.
    15. Ari Hyytinen & Frode Steen & Otto Toivanen, 2018. "Cartels Uncovered," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(4), pages 190-222, November.
    16. Wolf, Christopher A. & Hamm, Larry G., 1998. "The Role Of Cooperatives In Milk Marketing," 1998 Annual meeting, August 2-5, Salt Lake City, UT 20899, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    17. Sexton, Richard J., 1994. "A Survey of Noncooperative Game Theory with Reference to Agricultural Markets: Part 2. Potential Applications in Agriculture," Review of Marketing and Agricultural Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 62(02), pages 1-18, August.
    18. Mats Bergman, 1997. "Antitrust, Marketing Cooperatives, and Market Power," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 4(1), pages 73-92, January.
    19. Malvido Perez Carletti Agustina & Hanisch Markus & Rommel Jens & Fulton Murray, 2018. "Farm Gate Prices for Non-Varietal Wine in Argentina: A Multilevel Comparison of the Prices Paid by Cooperatives and Investor-Oriented Firms," Journal of Agricultural & Food Industrial Organization, De Gruyter, vol. 16(1), pages 1-14, January.
    20. Baoubadi Atozou & Lota D. Tamini & Maurice Doyon, 2022. "Bargaining power and risk from substitutability between products attributes the case of specialty eggs in Canada," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 53(1), pages 155-169, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:jlorco:163814. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/caehuil.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.