Research
Exit Decisions in the Canadian Grain Elevator Industry (with James Nolan and Wesley Wilson) link to paper
Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade
Grain elevators play a central role in the movement of grain to market and to rural economies in terms of employment and investment. Over the last three decades, the grain elevator industry in Canada has experienced a major decline in the number of elevators as older and technologically obsolete elevators have been replaced by larger and more technologically advanced elevators. We develop a model of exit in the Canadian grain elevation industry using data from 1999 to 2016 collected at the individual elevator level. Our specification explains elevator exit based on traditional variables used in the industrial organization literature such as capacity, multi-plant ownership, and vintage. But, we also include a measure of vertical linkage in the industry (i.e., elevator linkage to the freight transport sector) as well as spatial measures to account for local demand, supply and competition. The results provide strong evidence that exit in this key agricultural and trade industry is affected by whether an elevator is a recent entrant (vintage), its size, vertical linkages, local demand and supply conditions, and spatial competition.
Key Words: Exit Decisions, Grain Elevator, Transportation Infrastructure, Vertical Investment, Spatial Competition
Watching the Grass Grow: Does Recreational Cannabis Legalization Affect Labor Outcomes? (with Keaton Miller) link to paper
Journal of Cannabis Research
Over the past several years, cannabis has become legal for recreational use in several U.S. states and jurisdictions around the world. The opening of these markets has led to the establishment of hundreds of cannabis production and retail firms with accompanying demand for labor, leading to concerns about spillover effects on wages from incumbents. We study the markets for agricultural and retail labor in Washington and Colorado, early legalizers with now-established cannabis markets. Using a synthetic control technique to account for the possibility of border-state spillover effects and machine learning techniques for data imputation and variable selection, we find no evidence that cannabis legalization is associated with increases in per-employee wages, neither within industries most similar to cannabis production or retail, nor in more broad industry categories. We conclude that cannabis legalization is unlikely to negatively impact incumbent firms through the labor market channel.
Key Words: Marijuana Legalization, Policy Change, Labor Market, Synthetic Control
Are Firms’ Cost Predictions Accurate? Evidence from Medicare Advantage (with Keaton Miller)
Draft Coming Soon
A Study of the Modal Competitive Factors Among Truck, Rail, and Barge in Agriculture
Draft Coming Soon