A Markov Chain Analysis of Pork Farm Size Distributions in the South

Abstract Concerns over declining farm numbers, shifts in farm size distribution, and associated infrastructural problems have led to a heightened awareness of structural considerations within policy making circles. Future policy decisions will have substantial structural consequences for the agricultural industry. Often, however, the indirect effects of grain pricing policies on the livestock sector have been overlooked in these policy decisions. The incorporation of price effects into a Markov chain analysis of pork farm size distributions and the simulation of those projections to the year 2000 under various price scenarios should provide some insight into the future structure of livestock farming in the South.

[1]  T. W. Anderson,et al.  Statistical Inference about Markov Chains , 1957 .

[2]  Don E. Ethridge,et al.  A Markov Chain Analysis of Structural Changes in the Texas High Plains Cotton Ginning Industry , 1985, Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics.

[3]  W. T. Disney.  An analysis of structural and geographic shifts in U.S. pork and feeder beef production , 1985 .

[4]  S. Peltzman.  Entry in Commercial Banking , 1965, The Journal of Law and Economics.

[5]  O. J. Karst,et al.  Linear Curve Fitting Using Least Deviations , 1958 .

[6]  D. Padberg,et al.  The Use of Markov Processes in Measuring Changes in Market Structure , 1962 .

[7]  Edwin Mansfield,et al.  ENTRY, GIBRAT'S LAW, INNOVATION, AND THE GROWTH OF FIRMS , 1962 .

[8]  Arnold Zellner,et al.  Entry and empirical demand and supply analysis for competitive industries , 1985 .

[9]  L. Telser,et al.  The Demand for Branded Goods as Estimated from Consumer Panel Data , 1962 .

[10]  R. Quandt,et al.  Measurement in Economics: Studies in Mathematical Economics and Econometrics in Memory of Yehuda Grunfeld. , 1963 .

[11]  W. Eichhorn,et al.  Measurement in Economics , 1988 .

[12]  Milton C. Hallberg,et al.  Projecting the Size Distribution of Agricultural Firms—An Application of a Markov Process with Non-Stationary Transition Probabilities , 1969 .

[13]  Lauri Kettunen,et al.  Potential Entrants and Projections in Markov Process Analysis , 1968 .

[14]  W. Goldschmidt,et al.  As you sow , 1948 .

[15]  E. R. Swanson,et al.  MARKOV CHAINS: BASIC CONCEPTS AND SUGGESTED USES IN AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS , 1962 .

[16]  J. Kalbfleisch,et al.  Least‐squares estimation of transition probabilities from aggregate data , 1984 .

[17]  L. Telser,et al.  The Theory of Supply with Applications to the Ethical Pharmaceutical Industry , 1975, The Journal of Law and Economics.

[18]  Inter-Fiber Competition and the Future of the United States Cotton Industry , 1972 .

[19]  George G. Judge,et al.  On Estimating the Transition Probabilities of a Markov Process , 1965 .

[20]  T. D. Wallace,et al.  A Sampling Study of Minimum Absolute Deviations Estimators , 1963 .