IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fip/fedmsr/437.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The economic performance of cartels: evidence from the New Deal U.S. sugar manufacturing cartel, 1934-74

Author

Listed:
  • Benjamin Bridgman
  • Shi Qi
  • James A. Schmitz

Abstract

We study the U.S. sugar manufacturing cartel that was created during the New Deal. This was a legal-cartel that lasted 40 years (1934-74). As a legal-cartel, the industry was assured widespread adherence to domestic and import sales quotas (given it had access to government enforcement powers). But it also meant accepting government-sponsored cartel-provisions. These provisions significantly distorted production at each factory and also where the industry was located. These distortions were reflected in, for example, a declining industry recovery rate, that is, the pounds of white sugar produced per ton of beets. It declined from about 310 pounds in 1934 to 240 pounds in 1974. The cartel provisions also distorted the location of industry. For example, it kept production in California and the Far West. Since the cartel ended in 1974, California's share of sugar production has dropped dramatically.

Suggested Citation

  • Benjamin Bridgman & Shi Qi & James A. Schmitz, 2009. "The economic performance of cartels: evidence from the New Deal U.S. sugar manufacturing cartel, 1934-74," Staff Report 437, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedmsr:437
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.minneapolisfed.org/research/SR/SR437.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://www.minneapolisfed.org/publications_papers/pub_display.cfm?id=4336
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Quang-Thanh Ngo & Quang-Van Tran & Tien-Dung Nguyen & Trung-Thanh Nguyen, 2020. "How Heterogeneous Are the Determinants of Total Factor Productivity in Manufacturing Sectors? Panel-Data Evidence from Vietnam," Economies, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-25, July.
    2. Norman Gemmell & Richard Kneller & Danny McGowan & Ismael Sanz & José F. Sanz‐Sanz, 2018. "Corporate Taxation and Productivity Catch‐Up: Evidence from European Firms," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 120(2), pages 372-399, April.
    3. James A. Schmitz, 2012. "New and Larger Costs of Monopoly and Tariffs," Economic Policy Paper 12-5, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
    4. Andrea Lasagni & Annamaria Nifo & Gaetano Vecchione, 2015. "Firm Productivity And Institutional Quality: Evidence From Italian Industry," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(5), pages 774-800, November.
    5. Van Reenen, John, 2011. "Does competition raise productivity through improving management quality?," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 306-316, May.
    6. Agostino, Mariarosaria & Nifo, Annamaria & Trivieri, Francesco & Vecchione, Gaetano, 2016. "Total factor productivity heterogeneity: channelling the impact of institutions," MPRA Paper 72759, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Syed Hasan, 2018. "Great Engines Turn On Small Pivots: A Productivity Analysis Of Small-Scale Manufacturing In Punjab, Pakistan," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 23(03), pages 1-19, September.
    8. Benjamin Bridgman & Michael Maio & James A. Schmitz, 2012. "What ever happened to the Puerto Rican sugar manufacturing industry?," Staff Report 477, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
    9. Benjamin Bridgman & Shi Qi & James A. Schmitz, 2015. "Cartels Destroy Productivity: Evidence from the New Deal Sugar Manufacturing Cartel, 1934-74," Staff Report 519, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
    10. Norman Gemmell & Richard Kneller & Danny McGowan & Ismael Sanz, 2012. "Corporate Taxation and Productivity Catch-Up: Evidence from 11 European Countries," Discussion Papers 12/06, University of Nottingham, School of Economics.
    11. Chad Syverson, 2011. "What Determines Productivity?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 49(2), pages 326-365, June.
    12. Francisco Buera & Benjamin Moll & Yongseok Shin, 2013. "Well-Intended Policies," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 16(1), pages 216-230, January.
    13. Young Eun Kim & Norman V. Loayza, 2019. "Productivity Growth: Patterns and Determinants across the World," Revista Economía, Fondo Editorial - Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, vol. 42(84), pages 36-93.
    14. A. Nifo & G. Vecchione, 2015. "Measuring Institutional Quality in Italy," Rivista economica del Mezzogiorno, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 1-2, pages 157-182.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Cartels; Productivity; Competition;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fip:fedmsr:437. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Jannelle Ruswick (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cfrbmus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.