An economic assessment of the lumber manufacturing sector in western Washington.

详细信息   

• 作者：Daniels ; Jean M.
• 学历：Doctor
• 年：2007
• 导师：Perez-Garcia, John
• 毕业院校：University of Washington
• 专业：Agriculture, Forestry and Wildlife.;Economics, Agricultural.;Agriculture, Wood Technology.
• ISBN：9780549043720
• CBH：3265323
• Country：USA
• 语种：English
• FileSize：13166283
• Pages：175

文摘

The objective of this study is to apply economic analysis techniques to provide insight into how lumber manufacturers in western Washington responded to market trends from 1972 to 2002. The production structure of the lumber industry was investigated using a three-input Cobb-Douglas and transcendental logarithmic (translog) cost function. Analyses were performed using a panel data set with biennial time series observations between 1972 and 2002 for sixteen western Washington counties. Scale economies, Allen and Morishima partial elasticity of substitution, own- and cross-price factor demand elasticities, and technical change were calculated at regional, biennial, and county level scales.;Economies of scale in western Washington sawmills were calculated as 0.118; a one percent increase in output led to a 0.12 percent decline in costs. Sawmills in western Washington were able to expand production to capture economies of scale, although by 1998 economies of scale were exhausted. Allen and Morishima substitution elasticities confirmed that capital and labor were most easily substituted input combination at all three scales. Own-price elasticity at the regional level showed that capital demand was the most responsive to changes in own-price while log demand was least responsive. The demand for logs had virtually no response to changes in capital and labor price, leading to the conclusion that sawmills had little flexibility to reduce total costs by substituting away from log inputs. Technological change reduced lumber production costs by 2.66 percent biennially, and the change was capital-using and labor- and log-saving. The rate of technological change declined between 1972 and 1994, indicating reduced gains to innovation that leveled off in 1998, coinciding with the decline of log exports.;County-level analyses of scale economies, elasticities, and technical change rates point to the formation of concentrated of production capacity centers south of King County along the Interstate-5 corridor and in Clallam County on the Olympic Peninsula. Sawmills in Lewis County were particularly acute in gaining market share of lumber processing in western Washington by the end of the study period.