Content by Matthew Elliott

Grain Merchant and Processor Consolidation, Concentration, and Competition

A general trend in the last century has been for greater consolidation among Grain Merchants and Oilseed Millers and Processors. The U.S. Census Bureau tracks the number of firms and/or establishments and value of sales (market size) by industry sector every 5 years as a part of the Economic Census. In addition to the number of firms and sales, the Census Bureau publishes concentration ratios for each sector. One concentration ratio they publish is the amount of sales attributed to the four largest firms in that sector. The percentage of sales of the 4 largest firms is a measure that aids in identifying the type of market structure that exists.

Engineering Cooperatives in the 21st Century: Education, Research, and Outreach

The Cooperative structure represents a unique organization type that is governed/owned by the users of the services and products. South Dakota has many types of Cooperatives, some organizations are not readily recognized as Cooperatives however, like mutual insurance, credit unions, etc. More commonly, Cooperatives are associated with Farmer Cooperatives that are prevalent in South Dakota.