Regional development economics: Evaluation of the impacts of corporate hog production in Texas County, Oklahoma

Scope and method of study. The purpose of this study is to measure the impacts of the expansion of hog production and processing on the economy of Texas County, Oklahoma, and the household welfare of residents in this county. The Regional Computable General Equilibrium model was used to simulate the operation of Meat Packing plants and record the changes of other industrial sectors, change of prices, and income of households. The impact is evaluated based on the measures of regional and households welfare.;Finding and conclusions. Results of the simulated model in the short-run when capital of non-hog sectors is fixed show that when output of Meat Packing increases 10 times the output of Hog Product increases 11.54 times while the changes of output of other sectors are small, and all commodity prices increase. Because the wage rate is stable, the regional household income increases marginally is not able to cover the price effect. The regional loss is from 0.28 to 0.82 percent. The measures of regional welfare such as Gross Regional Product increases 7.21%, indirect business increases 8.33% and employment increases 10.74%. Results of the long-run simulated model when capital is mobile show that output of Hog Product increases 35.04 times when output of Meatpacking increases 30 times. Output put of Other Livestock decreases 47% because price of main intermediate inputs such as Feed Grains and Other Crops increase. The incremental gain of household income is small but prices of necessary commodities decrease cause households welfare gains from 0.34 to 0.55 percent. Gross Regional Product increases 11.48%, indirect business increases 9.55% and employment increases 24.71%.