Title: A dominant-duopoly competitive-fringe model of the world soybean export market

Authors: Azzeddine Azzam; Sunil Dhoubhadel

Addresses: Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, 68503, USA ' Department of Agriculture, Nutrition, and Human Ecology, College of Agriculture and Human Sciences, Prairie View A&M University, Prairie View, TX, 77446, USA

Abstract: The Herfindahl index of US and Brazil soybean export concentration declined between 1980 and 2005, stabilised until 2010, and rose afterward. To the extent that concentration shapes conduct, the question this paper explores is the degree to which conduct has transitioned from one regime to another as concentration changed. For methodology, we formulate an empirically implementable dominant-duopoly competitive-fringe model and combine it with a switching regression technique to determine if there are critical concentration levels at which the transition in conduct occurred. While we do find a critical soybean export concentration level, we are not able to reject competition.

Keywords: world soybean trade; dominant duopoly; market power; switching conduct.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTGM.2024.137724

International Journal of Trade and Global Markets, 2024 Vol.19 No.2, pp.133 - 147

Received: 08 Apr 2022
Accepted: 24 Jul 2022
Published online: 04 Apr 2024 *

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