Document Type

Thesis - Open Access

Award Date

1984

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department / School

Economics

First Advisor

Brian Schmiesing

Abstract

The United States grain marketing system often is considered to be an excellent example of a competitive market. Tomek and Robinson have argued that the basic assumptions of a competitive market are perceived to exist in the grain markets. Grain commodities of a specific grade are homogeneous in characteristics. In many markets the total number of buyers and sellers is large enough to prohibit a single firm from influencing grain prices over an extended period of time. Although government actions restrict price movements in the grain markets, prices are allowed to fluctuate free of government intervention within a specified range. Resources and products are free to move in the U.S. economy. These assumptions imply that regional grain markets will be linked together, since arbitrage between markets can exist. Regional price changes will cause changes in the production, processing, and movement of grain commodities. In this study, the price relationships between South Dakota cash corn markets, export markets, regional cash corn markets, and the futures markets were examined. The time period analyzed was from October 1, 1978 through September 30, 1983. To control for the quality characteristics, No. 2 yellow corn prices were collected for all the markets analyzed in the study. To control for the time characteristic, the daily cash corn prices used were corn prices existing after the close of the futures market. Therefore, the study was able to isolate the locational price relationships between the markets. Corn was chosen for analysis because of its importance to the South Dakota agricultural economy. In the following section the role of corn in South Dakota, the destinations of the corn produced, and the role of unit trains in exporting of corn from South Dakota will be reviewed. In the final section of this chapter the research objectives and methodology used in subsequent chapters is reviewed.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Corn -- Marketing -- South Dakota

Format

application/pdf

Number of Pages

126

Publisher

South Dakota State University

Rights

No Copyright - United State
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/

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