Data Needs for Consumer and Retail Firm Studies

Growing concentration in the retail grocery sector raises new economic questions that are difficult to answer with existing data sources. In part because of concentration in the retail data industry as well the fact that these data are not primarily collected for academic research purposes, currently available grocery-level datasets are extremely expensive, not properly randomized, and lack critical information. We discuss the increase in concentration at the retail level, concentration in data provision, data needs for a number of important research areas, and possible solutions.Agribusiness, Consumer/Household Economics,

U.S. Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Marketing: Emerging Trade Practices, Trends, and Issues

In the past year, trade practices between fresh produce shippers and food retailers gained national attention. Shippers are concerned that recent retail consolidation has led to market power and the growing incidence of fees and services. Retailers argue that these new trade practices reflect their costs of doing business and the demands of consumers. Trade practices include fees such as volume discounts and slotting fees, as well as services like automatic inventory replenishment, special packaging, and requirements for third-party food safety certification. Trade practices also refer to the overall structure of a transaction-for example, long-term relationships or contracts versus daily sales with no continuing commitment. This study compares trade practices in 1999 with those prevalent in 1994, placing them in the broader context of the evolving shipper/retailer relationship. Most shippers and retailers reported that the incidence and magnitude of fees and services associated with transactions has increased over the last 5 years. Fees paid to retailers are usually around 1-2 percent of sales for most of the commodities we examined, but 1-8 percent for bagged salads. Information on the incidence and magnitude of these new practices is scarce. To augment information that is publicly available, we interviewed a limited number of shippers, retailers, and wholesalers about their firms and trade practices. We received a high level of voluntary cooperation from the interviewed firms.produce, fresh fruit and vegetables, fresh-cut produce, trade practices, fees and services, slotting fees, retail consolidation, produce shipper consolidation, Crop Production/Industries, Marketing,

SHORTRUN EFFECTS OF U.S. MACROECONOMIC POLICIES ON U.S. GRAIN EXPORTS

Treating exchange rates as the only exogenous U.S.- macroeconomic variable, many studies are able to unambiguously predict the effects of changes in the value of the dollar on the volume, price, and share of U.S. grain exports and government program expenses. Using the neo-Keynesian paradigm, this study develops a theoretical framework to assess the overall impact of changes in U.S. macroeconomic policy on the same variables via real income, interest and exchange rates, and the general price level. The analysis demonstrates that the shortrun impacts cannot be always unambiguously predicted. The direction of the impacts are shown to be crucially dependent on (1) the initial equilibrium point, (2) the extent of the linkage variable responses, and (3) relative magnitudes of price and real income elasticities of domestic demand, the real interest elasticity of domestic supply, and the price elasticity of export demand curves

SHORT-RUN IMPACT OF U.S. MACROECONOMIC POLICY ON U.S. AGRICULTURAL MARKETS

Exchange rates do not represent the only mechanism of transmission from macroeconomic policy changes to the determination of agricultural variables •. Using the nee-Keynesian paradigm, this study examines the short-run theoretical relationships between macroeconomic policy and U.S. agriculture, via·total output, the general price level, rates of interest and exchange rates

BALANCE OF PAYMENTS AND MACROECONOMIC POLICIES: AN HISTORICAL OVERVIEW AND IMPLICATIONS FOR AGRICULTURAL TRADE

Misunderstanding the predominant forces that determine the balance of payments (BOP) has resulted in the recommendation that restrictive trade policies be used to solve the current U.S. BOP "problems." This paper reviews the BOP relationships, accounting concept, theory, and history (1975-86). It shows how various account balances respond simultaneously to international macroeconomic developments and that movements in agricultural trade have mirrored the movements in nonagricultural trade. Imbalances are caused by the same forces and should not be viewed as problems in and of themselves. Therefore, macroeconomic, not commodity-specific, policies are more likely to alleviate imbalances