An intraregional economic analysis of production structure and factor demand in major Canadian softwood lumber producing regions

Abstract

Cross-sectional time-series data were employed to estimate four intraregional models of production structure and factor demand over the time period 1968–1984. Lumber, tie, and pulp chip information was incorporated into the restricted, single-output, variable cost transcendental logarithmic function. Results indicate that aggregate sectoral studies do not adequately reflect regional production behaviour in the industry. Additional tests for aggregation bias demonstrated that different mill sizes within a region also portray differing production behaviour. Factor demand decomposition analysis indicated that demand for production inputs is not static, but is governed by offsetting dynamic effects. With few exceptions, all mills across regions exemplify material- and energy-using and labour-saving biases in technical change. Larger mills consistenly registered the greatest labour-saving technical change, which countered their lack of attaining significantly large cost-reducing scale economies. Mid-sized mills consistently exhibited the largest returns to scale. The data suggest that small mills are leaving the industry in some regions and production capacity is becoming concentrated in the larger mills.