Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 April 2015
Cattlemen have expressed concern about wholesale beef and fed cattle pricing and have antitrust lawsuits pending against supermarkets, meatpackers, trade associations, and a meat price reporting firm. Lawsuits allege manipulation of wholesale carcass beef prices to artificially depress spot prices for fed cattle (General Accounting Office, 1977). Congressional and administrative investigations have focused on wholesale carcass beef pricing and price reporting and their effects on fed cattle pricing (Committee on Small Business, General Accounting Office, 1978; National Commission on Food Marketing; Packers and Stockyards Program, 1978). Cattlemen also have expressed dissatisfaction with live cattle futures markets before congressional and administrative committees, alleging that futures market prices adversely affect spot prices for fed cattle (Leuthold and Tomek; Meat Pricing Task Force). However, economists have not empirically studied the impacts of wholesale carcass beef and live cattle futures market prices in short-period pricing models for fed cattle, that is, impacts on individual transaction prices.