Deregulation and regional specialization: Evidence from Canadian agriculture

• Main Authors: Carter, C.A (Author), Ferguson, S.M (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2019
• Subjects: agricultural policy; Canada; crop production; deregulation; Hordeum; policy analysis; policy implementation; regional economy; specialization; Triticum aestivum; wheat
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher
• ISBN: 00084085 (ISSN)
• DOI: 10.1111/caje.12411

For about 70 years, the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) was one of the world's largest export “single desk” state traders in agriculture, until it was deregulated in 2012 and stripped of its marketing powers. One of the main crops controlled by the CWB was barley. We estimate the impact of the removal of the CWB's single desk on the spatial pattern of malting barley production in Western Canada. We find that deregulation encouraged growers located closer to malt barley processing plants to increase production relative to growers located further from the plants. This change in cropping patterns after deregulation can be explained by efficiency gains, combined with transportation and handling cost savings. © 2019 Canadian Economics Association