This file is part of IDEAS, which uses RePEc data


[ Papers | Articles | Software | Books | Chapters | Authors | Institutions | JEL Classification | NEP reports | Search | New papers by email | Author registration | Rankings | Volunteers | FAQ | Blog | Help! ]

What Can the Price Gap between Branded and Private Label Products Tell Us about Markups?

Author info | Abstract | Publisher info | Download info | Related research | Statistics
Author Info
Robert Barsky
Mark Bergen
Shantanu Dutta
Daniel Levy

Additional information is available for the following registered author(s):

Abstract

In this paper we investigate the size of markups for nationally branded products sold in the U.S. retail grocery industry. Using scanner data from a large Midwestern supermarket chain, we compute several measures of upper and lower bounds on markup ratios for over 230 nationally branded products in 19 categories. Our method is based on the insight that retail and wholesale prices of private label products provide information on marginal costs that are also applicable to the appropriately matched nationally branded products. Under reasonable assumptions - the accuracy of which we consider in some detail - the wholesale price of a private label product is an upper bound for the marginal manufacturing cost of its nationally branded equivalent, while the retailer's margin on the national brand is an upper bound on the retailer's marginal handling cost for both the brand and private label versions. We find that lower bounds on the 'full' markup ratio range from 3.44 for toothbrushes and 2.23 for soft drinks to about 1.15-1.20 for canned tuna and frozen entrees, with the majority of categories falling in the range 1.40-2.10. Lower bounds on manufacturers' markups are even higher. Thus the data indicate that markups on nationally branded products sold in U.S. supermarkets are large.

Download Info
To download:

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. Information about this may be contained in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.

File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w8426.pdf
File Format: application/pdf
File Function:
Download Restriction: Access to the full text is generally limited to series subscribers, however if the top level domain of the client browser is in a developing country or transition economy free access is provided. More information about subscriptions and free access is available at http://www.nber.org/wwphelp.html.

As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.

Publisher Info
Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 8426.

Download reference. The following formats are available: HTML (with abstract), plain text (with abstract), BibTeX, RIS (EndNote, RefMan, ProCite), ReDIF
Length:
Date of creation: Aug 2001
Date of revision:
Publication status: published relationship to a non-chapter. This should not happen. Please contact NBER.
Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:8426

Note: EFG ME
Contact details of provider:
Postal: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
Phone: 617-868-3900
Email:
Web page: http://www.nber.org
More information through EDIRC

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: ().

Related research
Keywords:

Other versions of this item:

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports: References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Susanto Basu & John G. Fernald, 1999. "Are Apparent Productive Spillovers a Figment of Specification Error?," NBER Working Papers 5073, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  2. Daniel Levy & Shantanu Dutta & Mark Bergen, 2004. "Heterogeneity in Price Rigidity: Evidence from a Case Study Using Micro-Level Data," Macroeconomics 0402021, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Robert E. Hall, 1986. "Market Structure and Macroeconomic Fluctuations," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 17(1986-2), pages 285-338. [Downloadable!]
  4. Slade, Margaret E, 1998. "Optimal Pricing with Costly Adjustment: Evidence from Retail-Grocery Prices," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 65(1), pages 87-107, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  5. Hall, Robert E, 1988. "The Relation between Price and Marginal Cost in U.S. Industry," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 96(5), pages 921-47, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Charles Brown & James L. Medoff, 1989. "The Employer Size-Wage Effect," NBER Working Papers 2870, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  7. Julio J. Rotemberg & Michael Woodford, 1996. "Imperfect Competition and the Effects of Energy Price Increases on Economic Activity," NBER Working Papers 5634, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  8. Dutta, Shantanu & Bergen, Mark & Levy, Daniel, 2002. "Price flexibility in channels of distribution: Evidence from scanner data," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 26(11), pages 1845-1900, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  9. Brown, C. & Medoff, J.L., 1991. "Cheaper By The Dozen," Harvard Institute of Economic Research Working Papers 1557, Harvard - Institute of Economic Research.
  10. Daniel Levy & Shantanu Dutta & Mark Bergen & Robert Venable, 1998. "Price adjustment at multiproduct retailers," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(2), pages 81-120.
    Other versions:
  11. Bils, Mark, 1987. "The Cyclical Behavior of Marginal Cost and Price," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 77(5), pages 838-55, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Judith A. Chevalier & Anil K. Kashyap & Peter E. Rossi, 2000. "Why Don't Prices Rise During Periods of Peak Demand? Evidence from Scanner Data," NBER Working Papers 7981, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  13. Nevo, Aviv, 2001. "Measuring Market Power in the Ready-to-Eat Cereal Industry," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 69(2), pages 307-42, March.
    Other versions:
  14. Julio J. Rotemberg & Garth Saloner, 1984. "A Supergame-Theoretic Model of Business Cycles and Price Wars During Booms," NBER Working Papers 1412, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Bergen, Mark & Levy, Daniel & Ray, Sourav & Rubin, Paul & Zeliger, Ben, 2006. "When Little Things Mean a Lot: On the Inefficiency of Item Pricing Laws," MPRA Paper 1158, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Levy, Daniel & Young, Andrew, 2004. "The Real Thing: Nominal Price Rigidity of the Nickel Coke, 1886–1959," MPRA Paper 1046, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Daniel Levy & Georg Müller & Haipeng (Allan) Chen & Mark Bergen & Shantanu Dutta, 2008. "Holiday Price Rigidity and Cost of Price Adjustment," Emory Economics 0802, Department of Economics, Emory University (Atlanta). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Georg Müller & Mark Bergen & Shantanu Dutta & Daniel Levy, 2006. "Private label price rigidity during holiday periods," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 13(1), pages 57-62, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  5. Kostas Axarloglou, 2007. "Thick markets, market competition and pricing dynamics: evidence from retailers," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(7), pages 669-677. [Downloadable!]
  6. Kevin X. D. Huang & Zheng Liu, 2004. "Multiple stages of processing and the quantity anomaly in international business cycle models," Working Papers 04-8, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  7. Virgiliu Midrigan, 2007. "Menu Costs, Multi-Product Firms, and Aggregate Fluctuations," CFS Working Paper Series 2007/13, Center for Financial Studies. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  8. Dennis W. Carlton & James D. Dana, 2004. "Product Variety and Demand Uncertainty," NBER Working Papers 10594, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Matthias R. Fengler & Joachim K. Winter, 2007. "Price variability and price dispersion in a stable monetary environment: evidence from German retail markets," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(7), pages 789-801. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  10. Bonanno, Alessandro & Lopez, Rigoberto A., 2004. "Private Labels, Retail Configuration, and Fluid Milk Prices," Research Reports 25222, University of Connecticut, Food Marketing Policy Center. [Downloadable!]
  11. Peter J. Klenow, 2003. "Measuring consumption growth: the impact of new and better products," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, issue Win, pages 10-23. [Downloadable!]
  12. Kevin X.D. Huang & Zheng Liu, 2003. "Production, Trade, and International Comovement," Emory Economics 0308, Department of Economics, Emory University (Atlanta). [Downloadable!]
  13. Daniel Levy & Hainpeng (Allan) Chen & Sourav Ray & Mark Bergen, 2004. "Asymmetric Price Adjustment in the Small: An Implication of Rational Inattention," Emory Economics 0408, Department of Economics, Emory University (Atlanta). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  14. Georg Müller & Mark Bergen & Shantanu Dutta & Daniel Levy, 2007. "Non-price rigidity and cost of adjustment," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(7), pages 817-832. [Downloadable!]
  15. Daniel Levy, 2007. "Price rigidity and flexibility: new empirical evidence," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(7), pages 639-647. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  16. Georg Müller & Sourav Ray, 2007. "Asymmetric price adjustment: evidence from weekly product-level scanner price data," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(7), pages 723-736. [Downloadable!]
  17. Sascha A. Weber & Sven M. Anders, 2007. "Price rigidity and market power in German retailing," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(7), pages 737-749. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  18. Julio J. Rotemberg, 2002. "Customer Anger at Price Increases, Time Variation in the Frequency of Price Changes and Monetary Policy," NBER Working Papers 9320, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Statistics
Access and download statistics

Did you know? All the bibliographic data shown here has been contributed by volunteers, thereby helping to keep this service free.

This page was last updated on 2009-11-11.

This information is provided to you by IDEAS at the Department of Economics, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Connecticut using RePEc data on a server sponsored by the Society for Economic Dynamics.