(7) They correctly note that B2B buyers can profit from
oligopsony agreements--agreements to buy an anticompetitively low level of inputs.
From the perspective of a buyer, creative government regulation leads to or protects a position of monopsony or
oligopsony for a particular good or service.
"Meat-Packer Conduct in Fed Cattle Pricing: Multiple-Market
Oligopsony Power," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, no.
"Ag producers, however, face
oligopsony power which involves the exercise of market power to reduce prices paid to sellers, such as meat packers colluding to keep prices low.
A recent analysis confirms that while agricultural growth reduces rural poverty, a measure of
oligopsony exacerbates poverty.(17)
Only here's the catch: The predator exploiting its
oligopsony (that's the demand-side version of "oligopoly") power is the government.
Some markets are characterized by monopoly or oligopoly or monopsony or
oligopsony on one side and a high level of competition on the other.
While this itself is not prima facie evidence that pulpwood markets are imperfectly competitive, the case for
oligopsony or some form of monopsonistic power in pulpwood and other timber markets has been studied for years in the U.S.
But for training programmes such as [v.sub.t1] and [v.sub.t2] which are transferable but not general, we should consider the possibility that the labour market is imperfectly competitive: [v.sub.t1] corresponds to
oligopsony; [v.sub.t2] models a situation in which firms have differentiated skill requirements.
Models of industrial organization - oligopoly and
oligopsony - appear to fit the large economic units in world trade, according to the HHI results.
The Sherman Act eventually was passed in 1890, after considerable lobbying by midwestern farmers, who claimed the Beef Trust exercised
oligopsony power, and after a major congressional investigation (one of but three concerning trusts) into the Chicago packers.
The long-run implications are less evident and may largely depend on the degree of
oligopsony power--the acquisition of goods by a few buying firms from many sellers--that may arise from changes in grain acquisition structures.
