TY  - JOUR
AU  - Genesove, David
AU  - Mullin, Wallace P
TI  - The Sugar Institute Learns to Organize Information Exchange
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 5981
PY  - 1997
Y2  - March 1997
DO  - 10.3386/w5981
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w5981
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w5981.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
David Genesove
Department of Economics
Faculty of Social Sciences
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Mount Scopus, Jerusalem 91905  ISRAEL
Tel: 972-2-5883128
Fax: 972-2-5816071
E-Mail: genesove@mscc.huji.ac.il

Wallace Mullin
Department of Economics
George Washington University
2115 G Street N.W.
Washington, DC 20052
Tel: 202/994-8087
Fax: 202/994-6147
E-Mail: wpmullin@gwu.edu
M1  - published as David Genesove, Wallace Mullin. "The Sugar Institute Learns to Organize Information Exchange," in Naomi R. Lamoreaux, Daniel M. G. Raff and Peter Temin, editors, "Learning by Doing in Markets, Firms, and Countries" University of Chicago Press (1999)

AB  - This paper describes information exchange under the Sugar Institute, the trade association of U.S. domestic sugar cane refiners, between 1928 and 1936.  The Institute collected production and delivery data from the individual firms and returned it to them in aggregated form.  Attempts to exchange sales data were stymied by the larger firms.  Surprisingly, there is no indication of mis-reporting of statistics by Institute members, although statistics were, at times, withheld.  The paper concentrates on the evolution of the Institute.  Proposals for successor organizations show that a workable mechanism required greater discretion to the central authority and greater voting rights to the larger firms.
ER  -