Mary A. Yeager

Bio: Mary A. Yeager is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Oligopoly & Meat packing industry. The author has an hindex of 2, co-authored 2 publications receiving 51 citations.

From Settlement to Fordism: The Agro-Industrial Revolution in the American Midwest

Abstract: The Midwest has often served as a paradigmatic case of capitalist development and a proving ground for American theories of urban and regional growth, although interest in the successful history of the region has diminished in recent years. Existing approaches based on central place, staples export, cumulative causation, and industrial take-off concepts all miss the mark, despite their several contributions to an understanding of the midwestern experience. New ideas coming from industrial geography provide a spur to rethinking the nineteenth century roots of the birthplace of Fordist mass production. Four considerations stand out: (1) The indigenous evolution of industry and productive capabilities, starting from the very earliest periods of settlement; industry did not follow the plow, it built the plow. (2) The symbiotic relation of agriculture and manufacturing in a process of agro-industrialization, and the particular materials processing and farm supply sectors that led midwestern growth; external tr...

Technological variety, technological change and a geography of production techniques

Abstract: How much heterogeneity in techniques of production exists within the economy, and how does that heterogeneity move over time? In this paper we show that the range of production techniques employed by establishments within individual manufacturing industries is large. We go on to show that technological heterogeneity persists over time: there is no evidence of convergence to best-practice or some other point in technology space. Next, we explore the geography of variety and reveal that there are significant spatial differences in the production techniques employed by manufacturing plants in the same industry. Finally, we examine how these geographical differences move over time, measuring the processes that drive the creation and destruction of the range of production techniques across industries and regions in the US economy. © The Author (2006). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.

The Origins of State Pure Food Regulation

Abstract: Why did state governments begin to regulate the food industry in the late nineteenth century? One possible explanation is that pure food regulation was the result of rent seeking on the part of traditional food producers who wanted to limit the availability of new substitutes. Another potential hypothesis is that regulation was desired because it helped solve an asymmetric information problem in the market for food products. I find the evidence to be more consistent with the latter hypothesis. D uring the late 1800s state governments in America began to regulate the food industry. Over the course of roughly two decades the food and dairy trade became one of the more heavily regulated segments of the United States economy. State legislatures began to enact pure food and pure dairy laws in the early 1880s. By 1900 nearly every state had passed some kind of pure food or pure dairy legislation that made it illegal to sell "adulterated" food products. What explains this expansion of regulatory activity?1 One hypothesis is that state pure food laws were enacted to enhance the market power of manufacturers and distributors of traditional food products. Technological developments in food manufacturing and processing during the late 1800s gave rise to new and cheaper products, such as oleomargarine, glucose, and dressed beef, that threatened to undermine the market power of more traditional food products. Could it be that pure food laws that outlawed the "adulteration" (cheapening through the addition of impurities) of food products were introduced to protect traditional food producers from these new substitutes? Another hypothesis is that pure food laws were enacted to help make a market for certain food products.2 Specialization and technological change in food production made it difficult for consumers to judge product quality