Great! This is the only ‘complete’ argument I’ve seen that our prior for animal products industries should be that they are increasing-cost rather than constant-cost. I’m not as confident as you seem to be, but that’s more of a quibble at this point, and I’m glad we agree on the meta-prior!
The challenge then is to convince Norwood and Lusk that we want to know the long-run impact of consumer choices on animal production, not the short-run! They’re clearly estimating short-run elasticities since (a) their supply curves are way too steep, even for an increasing-cost industry, and (b) they explain their elasticities with an explanation that is irrelevant to the long-run:
Because it takes a year between the time a cow is bred and the time her calf is born, and then it also takes a long period before that cow can be transformed into beef or produce milk, it is difficult for beef and dairy producers to alter production according to changes in consumer preferences.
Great! This is the only ‘complete’ argument I’ve seen that our prior for animal products industries should be that they are increasing-cost rather than constant-cost. I’m not as confident as you seem to be, but that’s more of a quibble at this point, and I’m glad we agree on the meta-prior!
The challenge then is to convince Norwood and Lusk that we want to know the long-run impact of consumer choices on animal production, not the short-run! They’re clearly estimating short-run elasticities since (a) their supply curves are way too steep, even for an increasing-cost industry, and (b) they explain their elasticities with an explanation that is irrelevant to the long-run: