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Document Type

Thesis

Date of this Version

6-1964

Citation

Thesis (M.S.)—University of Nebraska—Lincoln, 1964. Department of Agricultural Economics.

Comments

Copyright 1964, the author. Used by permission.

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the recent merger movement in the flour milling industry and to determine its role in the growth of the firms involved.Although earlier studies have considered the flour milling industry to be one of relatively low concentration, there is reason to believe that the industry’s concentration has undergone marked changes since the end of World War II. Moreover, the role that post-war mergers may have played in changing the industry’s concentration levels is unknown.

The merger data for this study are from governmental and industrial sources.A report prepared by the Federal Trade Commission on mergers by the 500 largest industrial firms and 50 largest merchandising firms included eight of the 20 largest flour milling firms. These data were supplemented by a review of trade journals from 1947 to 1963 to obtain relatively complete merger information for the milling industry.

Several conclusions came out of this study, one of them was that the change in number of mills and the concentration of milling capacity cannot help but change the competitive nature of the industry and that the existing level of concentration among a few suggests that these firms can engage in price practices not wholly in the public interest.

Advisor: Richard G. Walsh

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