ARE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION FACULTY SALARIES COMPETITIVELY OR MONOPSONISTICALLY DETERMINED?

We examine the determinants of agricultural experiment station faculty salaries and find that productivity pays-as manifest by grantsmanship, publications, and the elicitation of competing offers-with no residual evidence of a negative seniority-salary relationship that could signal university monopsony power. This contrasts with findings in the previous literature on faculty salaries. Moreover, national market salary benchmarks, which may proxy for imperfectly observable productivity, correlate almost one-for-one with individual faculty salaries, with individual deviations from peers' salaries proving essentially random. This evidence is much more consistent with the hypothesis that experiment station faculty salaries are determined in a competitive labor market than with the prevailing wisdom that they are set monopsonistically.Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

DYNAMICS OF REGIONAL FED CATTLE PRICES

The dynamic relationship between four regional cash prices for fed (slaughter) cattle is investigated using time series analysis and causality tests. The results indicate that price adjustments to new information take about one week. Texas Panhandle price also was determined to dominate the price discovery process. Regional prices also were found to be interdependent. This suggests that increasing regional meat packer concentration may not grant meat packers increased regional market power in their pricing practices.Demand and Price Analysis, Livestock Production/Industries,

ARE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION FACULTY SALARIES COMPETITIVELY OR MONOPSONISTICALLY DETERMINED?

Labor and Human Capital, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

PRICE ASYMMETRY IN SPATIAL FED CATTLE MARKETS

Price asymmetry in spatial fed cattle markets is investigated for three large markets (Texas Panhandle, Nebraska, and Colorado) and one small market (Utah). Little support is found for the notion that equilibrium prices for fed cattle are asymmetric between locations. However, adjustments to price increases and price decreases occur at different speeds.Demand and Price Analysis, Livestock Production/Industries,

HEDGING CARCASS BEEF TO REDUCE THE SHORT-TERM PRICE RISK OF MEAT PACKERS

Hedging in the live cattle futures market has largely been viewed as a method of reducing producer's price over a rather lengthy production period (three to six months). Meat packers and processors also face price risk. However, packers' and processors' price risk lies on the upside (i.e., risk is due to price increases) and is also relatively short-term (usually a few days). The possibility of reducing packers' and processors' price risk through long-hedging on the live cattle contract for a short period of time (one week) was investigated. The results suggest some potential benefits to meat packers form following a routine hedging strategy.Livestock Production/Industries, Marketing,

Prompt Photon plus Charm Production at Next-to-Leading Order in QCD

The two particle inclusive cross section for the reaction $p +\bar{p}\rightarrow \gamma + c + X$ is studied in perturbative quantum chromodynamics at order $O(\alpha ^2_s)$. Differential distributions are provided for various observables, and a comparison is made with data from the CDF collaboration.Comment: 4 pages, LaTeX, uses stwol.sty, 6 postscript figures. Invited paper presented by E. L. Berger at the 28th International Conference on High Energy Physics, Warsaw, Poland, July 25 - 31, 199