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Papers written by Author(s): 'Michael Ollinger'

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  • Working Paper

    The Direct and Indirect Costs of Food Safety Regulation

    September 2008

    Authors: Michael Ollinger

    Working Paper Number:

    CES-08-31

    The cost of compliance with the Pathogen Reduction Hazard Analysis Critical Control Program (PR/HACCP) rule of 1996 has been controversial since it was first proposed. Surveys have provided some cost information but examined plant size and other indirect effects with limited data and did not make cost estimates of direct cost components, such as mandated tasks. This paper addresses those deficiencies with data from a national survey of meat and poultry plants on PR/HACCP costs. Results indicate that (1) mandated tasks are the most costly component of the PR/HACCP rule, (2) regulation favors large plants over small ones, and (3) private actions are nearly as costly as direct regulation.
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  • Working Paper

    Market Forces, Plant Technology, and the Food Safety Technology Use

    June 2008

    Working Paper Number:

    CES-08-14

    Economists (Ollinger and Mueller, 2003; Golan et al., 2004) have considered some of the economic forces, such as demands from major customers, that encourage plants to maintain food safety process control. Other economists, such as Roberts (2005), have identified food safety technologies that enable better control harmful pathogens. However, economists have not put the two together. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of economic forces, including firm effects and plant technology, customer demands, and regulation, on food safety technology use. Preliminary results suggest that customer demand has the greatest impact.
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  • Working Paper

    Mergers and Acquisitions, Employment, Wages and Plant Closures in the U.S. Meat Product Industries: Evidence from Micro Data

    March 2007

    Working Paper Number:

    CES-07-08

    The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) on wages and employment and plant closures in the meat packing, prepared meat products, and poultry slaughter and processing industries over 1977-87 and 1982-92. The analysis relies on a balanced panel dataset of all plants owned by meat and poultry firms that existed over 1977-87 or 1982-92. We find that (1) M&As are positively associated with wages in the meat packing and prepared meat products industries over 1977-87, but not over 1982-92; (2) changes in employment are positively related to M&As in all three meat and poultry industries over 1977-87, but only in the poultry industry over 1982-92; and (3) M&As are negatively associated with plant closures.
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  • Working Paper

    Mergers and Acquisitions and Productivity in the U.S. Meat Products Industries: Evidence from the Micro Data

    March 2002

    Working Paper Number:

    CES-02-07

    This paper investigates the motives for mergers and acquisitions in the U.S. meat products industry from1977-92. Results show that acquired meat and poultry plants were highly productive before mergers, and that meat plants significantly improved productivity growth in the post-merger periods, but poultry plants did not.
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  • Working Paper

    Technological Change and Economies of Scale in U.S. Poultry Slaughter

    April 2000

    Working Paper Number:

    CES-00-05

    This paper uses a unique data set provided by the Census Bureau to empirically examine technological change and economies of scale in the chicken and turkey slaughter industries. Results reveal substantial scale economies that show no evidence of diminishing with plant size and that are much greater than those realized in cattle and hog slaughter. Additionally, it is shown that controlling for plant product mix is critical to cost estimation and animal inputs are much more elastic to prices than in either cattle or hogs. Results suggest that consolidation is likely to continue, particularly if demand growth diminishes.
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  • Working Paper

    Scale Economies and Consolidation in Hog Slaughter

    March 2000

    Working Paper Number:

    CES-00-03

    We use establishment based panel data to estimate a cost function which identifies the role of scale economies in hog slaughter consolidation. We find modest by extensive technological scale economies in the 1990s, and they became more important over time. But wages rose sharply with plant size through the 1970s and those wage premiums generated a pecuniary scale diseconomy that largely offset the effects of technological scale economies. The size-wage relation disappeared in the 1980; with growing technological scale economies and disappearing pecuniary diseconomies, large plants realized growing cost advantages over smaller plants, and production shifted to larger plants.
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  • Working Paper

    Innovation and Regulation in the Pesticide Industry

    December 1995

    Working Paper Number:

    CES-95-14

    This paper examines the hypothesis that regulation negatively affects pesticide innovation, causes pesticide companies to introduce more harmful pesticides, and discourages firms from developing pesticides for minor crop markets. The results confirm that pesticide regulation adversely affects innovation and discourages firms from developing pesticides for minor crop markets. Contrary to the hypothesis, however, regulation encourages firms to develop less toxic pesticides. Estimates suggest that it requires about $29 million in industry expenditures on health and environmental testing to affect the toxicity of one new pesticide.
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  • Working Paper

    Regulation and Firm Size, Foreign-Based Company Market Presence, Merger Choice In The U.S. Pesticide Industry

    June 1994

    Working Paper Number:

    CES-94-06

    This paper uses Two-Stage Least Squares to examine the impact of pesticide product regulation on the number of firms and the foreign-based company market share of U.S. Pesticide Companies. It also investigates merger choice with a multinomial logit model. The principal finding is that greater research and regulatory costs affected small innovative pesticide companies more than large ones and encouraged foreign company expansion in the U.S. pesticide market. It was also found that the stage of the industry growth cycle and farm sector demand influenced the number of innovative companies and foreign-based company market share. Finally, firms that remain in the industry were found to have greater price cost margins, lower regulatory penalties costs, and a much greater multinational business presence than those that departed.
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