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Pricing Efficiency in Agricultural Markets: Discussion

The interest in pricing efficiency in markets rests upon possible inaccurate value determination emanating from a market which in turn sends incorrect signals to producers and/or consumers. The extent to which inefficient resource allocation may be caused by pricing inefficiency is of long-standing concern to economists and policymakers. Clearly, the importance of the topic needs minimal justification. The paper by Buccola provides a useful summary of this topic. The review of the methods and empirical findings associated with this rather broad topic is treated by Buccola in his usual deft fashion. There is little to quarrel with in the Buccola paper. However, the opportunity to expand on the Buccola review is too tempting to resist. Some of the terrain is deserving of expansion and/or retrospective examination. The main message Buccola delivers is that agents' costs or transaction costs have been ignored or not fully considered in many efficiency studies. Clearly, this is true. It is also true that costs typically are difficult to measure and that the effect of risk on cost, an important factor to Buccola, may be difficult to conceptualize. However, simple recognition of the potential importance of costs is not sufficient for progress in our research methods and findings. Some testable hypotheses need to evolve that embody the essence of cost phenomena on pricing efficiency. This point is addressed more fully later.