IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/ajagec/v87y2005i4p1020-1033.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Technology, Labor Wars, and Producer Dynamics: Explaining Consolidation in Beefpacking

Author

Listed:
  • James M. MacDonald
  • Michael E. Ollinger

Abstract

Beefpacking underwent a dramatic transformation in the 1970s and 1980s, as plants got much larger and industry concentration rose dramatically. We use individual Census Bureau plant records to analyze the sources of the transformation. We find that there were modest but extensive scale economies in packing plants, covering the full range of plant sizes, and that such economies became more important throughout the period of the study. As production shifted to larger plants, we estimate that the industry's aggregate processing costs fell by 35.3% by 2002, compared to what they would have been without consolidation. Copyright 2005, Oxford University Press.

Suggested Citation

  • James M. MacDonald & Michael E. Ollinger, 2005. "Technology, Labor Wars, and Producer Dynamics: Explaining Consolidation in Beefpacking," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 87(4), pages 1020-1033.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:ajagec:v:87:y:2005:i:4:p:1020-1033
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/j.1467-8276.2005.00785.x
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Meilin Ma & Jayson L. Lusk, 2022. "Concentration and Resilience in the US Meat Supply Chains," NBER Chapters, in: Risks in Agricultural Supply Chains, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Artz, Georgeanne M. & Orazem, Peter F. & Otto, Daniel M., 2005. "Measuring the Impact of Meat Packing and Processing Facilities in the Nonmetropolitan Midwest: A Difference-in-Differences Approach," Working Papers 18219, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    3. Jayson L. Lusk & Glynn T. Tonsor & Lee L. Schulz, 2021. "Beef and Pork Marketing Margins and Price Spreads during COVID‐19," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 43(1), pages 4-23, March.
    4. Cai, Xiaowei & Stiegert, Kyle W. & Koontz, Stephen R., 2009. "Oligopsony Power: Evidence from the U.S. Beef Packing Industry," 2009 Annual Meeting, July 26-28, 2009, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 49364, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    5. Ollinger, Michael, 2009. "The Cost of Food Safety Technologies in the Meat and Poultry Industries," 2009 Annual Meeting, July 26-28, 2009, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 48783, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    6. MacDonald, James M., 2011. "Why Are Farms Getting Larger? The Case Of The U.S," 51st Annual Conference, Halle, Germany, September 28-30, 2011 115361, German Association of Agricultural Economists (GEWISOLA).
    7. Artz, Georgeanne M. & Jackson, Rebecca & Orazem, Peter F., 2010. "Is It a Jungle Out There? Meat Packing, Immigrants, and Rural Communities," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 35(2), pages 1-17, August.
    8. James M. MacDonald, 2020. "Tracking the Consolidation of U.S. Agriculture," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 42(3), pages 361-379, September.
    9. James M. MacDonald, 2024. "Introduction: The Industrial Organization of Food and Agriculture," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 64(1), pages 1-9, February.
    10. Christopher N. Boyer & Dayton M. Lambert & Charles C. Martinez & Joshua G. Maples, 2023. "Beef and pork processing plant labor costs," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(3), pages 691-702, July.
    11. MacDonald, James M. & Dong, Xiao & Fuglie, Keith O., 2023. "Concentration and Competition in U.S. Agribusiness," Economic Information Bulletin 337566, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    12. Martinez, Stephen W., 2007. "The U.S. Food Marketing System: Recent Developments, 1997-2006," Economic Research Report 55962, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    13. Yuliya V. Bolotova, 2022. "Competition issues in the U.S. beef industry," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 44(3), pages 1340-1358, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:oup:ajagec:v:87:y:2005:i:4:p:1020-1033. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aaeaaea.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.