Concentration and Racial Equity in Meat Processing

Grant description:

This project seeks to provide some of the first causal evidence on how concentration in the meat-processing industry affects producers, workers, and consumers across racial and income groups in the United States. Rising concentration has been especially salient in the meat-processing industry, and recent research connects market power in the product market with monopsony power in the labor market. This project will build and expand on that literature by measuring the effect of consolidation by meat processors on monopoly power in the input and product markets, and monopsony power in the labor market, and then assessing what the implications of these market conditions are on racial inequality, specifically farmer profits, conditions for workers, and prices for consumers.