The Competitive Structure of U.S. Agricultural Exports

Abstract

The competitive structure of U.S. agricultural exports is examined using a model of exporter behavior based on pricing decisions across destination markets. Market power is revealed in the adjustment patterns of export prices in response to exchange rate movements. The results reject the hypothesis that the export pricing decisions by U.S. firms are consistent with price discrimination across destination markets for cotton, corn, and soybeans. The strongest evidence against the competitive market structure is obtained for international trade in wheat, where results indicate that the two largest importers (Soviet Union and PRC) may exert market power to obtain lower prices.

A nagy európai bortermelők piaci árazási stratégiája

“…A korábbi empirikus kutatások középpontjában inkább az ipari termékek és gépek kereskedelme állt, és csak korlátozott számú kutatás foglalkozott a mezőgazdasági, élelmiszeripari termékek kereskedelmének elemzésével (Pick-Park [1991], Lavoie [2005], Jin [2008], Pall et al [2013], [2014]). …”

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

“…Knetter's model has since been used extensively, due to its simplicity and data availability, to determine the presence of price discrimination in international trade. This approach has been particularly popular in the study of food and agricultural exports (e.g., Pick and Park 1991;Pick and Carter 1994;Griffith and Mullen 2001;Carew and Florkowski 2003;and Glauben and Loy 2003), automobile exports (e.g., Knetter 1989Knetter , 1993Marston 1990;Gagnon and Knetter 1995), and in a wide range of other industries.1…”

Exchange rate pass-through, price discrimination, and US meat export prices

“…Knetter's model has been used to study the competitiveness of US export markets for wheat, feed grains, soybeans, soybean by-products, cotton, rice and high-value food products (Pick and Park, 1991;Yumkella et al, 1994;Park and Pick, 1996;Patterson et al, 1996). Most recently Knetter's model has been used to study the competitiveness of Canadian and US export markets for wheat, pulse, and tobacco (Carew, 2000).…”