Reindeer husbandry, the Swedish market for reindeer meat, and the Chernobyl effects

Reindeer husbandry is a cornerstone in the culture of the Sami, northern Scandinavia's indigenous people. This paper presents a dynamic, theoretical model of the Swedish reindeer husbandry and the market for reindeer meat, as well as econometric results based on three-stage least squares regression on annual data. The most striking feature of the empirical results is a "backward-sloping" supply function, which is consistent with the theoretical model. The results also show effects of the Chernobyl accident. Prevailing winds at the time of the accident carried radioactive fallout over the grazing areas for the Swedish reindeer husbandry, causing effects on both supply and demand. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.