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Competition in Agricultural Markets: An Experimental Approach

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  • Casaburi, Lorenzo
  • Reed, Tristan

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental approach to measure competition in agricultural markets, based on the random allocation of subsidies to competing traders. We compare prices of subsidized and unsubsidized crop traders to recover the key market structure parameter in a standard model of imperfect competition. By combining the experimental results with quasi-experimental estimates of the pass-through rate, we also estimate market size, or the effective number of traders competing for farmers' supply. In the context of the Sierra Leone cocoa industry, our results point to a competitive agricultural trading sector and suggest that the market size is substantially larger than the village. The methodology developed in this paper uses purely individual-level treatment to shed light on market structure. This approach may be useful for the many cases in which market-level randomization is not feasible.

Suggested Citation

  • Casaburi, Lorenzo & Reed, Tristan, 2017. "Competition in Agricultural Markets: An Experimental Approach," CEPR Discussion Papers 11985, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:11985
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    Cited by:

    1. Shilpa Aggarwal & Brian Giera & Dahyeon Jeong & Jonathan Robinson & Alan Spearot, 2018. "Market Access, Trade Costs, and Technology Adoption: Evidence from Northern Tanzania," NBER Working Papers 25253, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Alain de Janvry & Elisabeth Sadoulet, 2019. "Transforming developing country agriculture: Removing adoption constraints and promoting inclusive value chain development," Working Papers hal-02287668, HAL.
    3. Aflagah, Kodjo & Bernard, Tanguy & Viceisza, Angelino, 2022. "Cheap talk and coordination in the lab and in the field: Collective commercialization in Senegal," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    4. M. Shahe Emran & Dilip Mookherjee & Forhad Shilpi & M. Helal Uddin, 2021. "Credit Rationing and Pass-Through in Supply Chains: Theory and Evidence from Bangladesh," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 13(3), pages 202-236, July.
    5. Dhingra, Swati & Tenreyro, Silvana, 2020. "The Rise of Agribusiness and the Distributional Consequences of Policies on Intermediated Trade," CEPR Discussion Papers 14384, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. de Janvry, Alain & Sadoulet, Elisabeth, 2020. "Using agriculture for development: Supply- and demand-side approaches," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    7. Rocco Macchiavello & Ameet Morjaria, 2021. "Competition and Relational Contracts in the Rwanda Coffee Chain," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 136(2), pages 1089-1143.
    8. Casaburi, Lorenzo & ,, 2018. "Time vs. State in Insurance: Experimental Evidence from Contract Farming in Kenya," CEPR Discussion Papers 12896, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Agricultural markets; Competition; Intermediaries; Interlinked transactions; Field experiments;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O13 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Agriculture; Natural Resources; Environment; Other Primary Products
    • Q13 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agricultural Markets and Marketing; Cooperatives; Agribusiness
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade

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