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The Effects of Imperfect Competition on the Size and Distribution of Research Benefits
Author(s) -
Alston Julian M.,
Sexton Richard J.,
Zhang Mingxia
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
american journal of agricultural economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.949
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1467-8276
pISSN - 0002-9092
DOI - 10.2307/1244282
Subject(s) - monopsony , agribusiness , oligopoly , imperfect competition , market power , economics , competition (biology) , industrial organization , monopoly , distribution (mathematics) , perfect competition , microeconomics , imperfect , agriculture , business , ecology , mathematical analysis , linguistics , philosophy , mathematics , cournot competition , biology
Studies of agricultural research benefits usually assume perfectly competitive markets. Studies that have allowed for market power of agribusiness firms have generally assumed unrealistic pure monopsony or monopoly behavior. This paper allows for processing firms to exhibit a range of degrees of oligopsony power in buying raw farm products and oligopoly power in selling processed farm products. The results indicate that different types of research‐induced technical change can exacerbate or ameliorate distortions from the exercise of market power by agribusiness firms, which affects the size and especially the distribution of research benefits.