@article{MorrisonPaul:190897,
      recid = {190897},
      author = {Morrison Paul, Catherine J.},
      title = {Cost Economies and Market Power: The Case of the U.S Meat  Packing Industry},
      address = {2000-10},
      number = {1570-2016-133663},
      series = {Working Paper},
      pages = {32},
      year = {2000},
      abstract = {Increasing size of establishments and resulting  concentration in US industries may stem
from various types  of cost economies. In particular, scale economies arising  from technological
factors embodied in plant and equipment  may be a driving force for such market structure
changes.  In this case typical market power measures like Lerner  indexes can be misleading; if
scale (cost) economies  prevail, cost efficiencies rather than market deficiencies  may actually
underlie the observed patterns. In this study  I provide measures of scale economies and market
power for  the US meat packing industry, where increased consolidation  and concentration have
raised great concern in policy  circles. The results suggest that this trend has been  motivated by
cost economies, but that little excess  profitability exists, and on the margin the potential  for
taking further advantage of such economies has become  minimal.},
      url = {http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/190897},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.190897},
}