| This paper addresses the issue of competition in the U.S. catfish industry. To this end, a conjectural variation oligopolistic model was developed. The model was estimated econometrically using the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) procedure. Chi-square analysis implied that catfish processors do not exert market power over farmers or over consumers. The conjectural elasticity was estimated to be 0.073, the oligopoly power index 0.28, and the oligopsony power index 0.68, and none of these values were statistically significant. The results support competitive behavior of the catfish processing sector. |
