Reindeer husbandry is a cornerstone in the culture of the Sami, northern Sc
andinavia's indigenous people. This paper presents a dynamic, theoretical m
odel of the Swedish reindeer husbandry and the market for reindeer meat, as
well as econometric results based on three-stage least squares regression
on annual data. The most striking feature of the empirical results is a "ba
ckward-sloping" supply function, which is consistent with the theoretical m
odel. The results also show effects of the Chernobyl accident. Prevailing w
inds at the time of the accident carried radioactive fallout over the grazi
ng areas for the Swedish reindeer husbandry, causing effects on both supply
and demand. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.