The economic impacts of a ban on subtherapeutic antibiotics in swine production

The impacts of antibiotic use in swine production on production costs and human health are described. Pork supply and demand functions are specified and estimated, and elasticity estimates are then utilized to calculate consumer and producer surpluses for the retail pork market. The impacts of a ban on subtherapeutic antibiotics on both consumers and producers are calculated. Given supply and demand elasticity estimates and assumptions regarding the market impacts of such a ban, producer surplus would increase by $6.97 million and consumer surplus would increase by $6.19 million. These changes are small on a per capita basis.