THE IMPACT OF PROVINCIAL MARKETING BOARDS ON PRICE RELATIONS AND PRICING DYNAMICS IN THE NORTH-AMERICAN SLAUGHTER HOG MARKET

Canadian provincial hog marketing boards act as sales agents for hog p roducers. The hypothesis that the introduction of marketing boards in Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan between 1969 and 1972 created selle r side market power is tested and supported: their hog prices rose to levels comparable to Ontario where a marketing board had been in place . Organized sellers can also influence pricing dynamics because of the linked spatial oligopsonistic nature of the hog packing industry. Coi ntegration tests and variance decompositions indicate that establishin g boards in the surplus producing western provinces made them relative ly less isolated from pricing innovations in deficit producing eastern Canada.