Analysis of Size Economies and Comparative Advantage in Crop Production in Various Areas of the United States

This appendix provides the detailed analysis of size economies and comparative advantage by area for crop production. A summary of this analysis was presented in chapter 8. The analysis was conducted at the University of Minnesota by Steve Cooke under the guidance of Burt Sundquist. Cooke’s manuscript “Size Economies and Comparative Advantage in the Production of Corn, Soybean, Wheat, Rice, and Cotton in Various Areas of the United States” is published in a second volume to this OTA report, The following analysis is organized by commodity. Each section follows the same format. First, there is a discussion of size economies by selected producing areas. Second, there is a discussion of comparative advantage, including the relationship between comparative advantage and size economies. Each of these commodity sections includes a summary of the size economy indices and “scoring table. ”