IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jfpoli/v74y2018icp212-224.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Retailers’ strategies and food price dynamics: Evidence from dairy scanner data

Author

Listed:
  • Castellari, Elena
  • Moro, Daniele
  • Platoni, Silvia
  • Sckokai, Paolo

Abstract

We investigate the relationship between retailers’ strategies and dairy price dynamics. Using high frequency Italian scanner data for different dairy products, we compute a weekly drift-free price index, specific for product category, chain, and type of store. Exploiting the (unbalanced) panel data structure to control for unobservable strategies by chain, time, and type of store, we test if unobservables are statistically significant in influencing the price dynamics of each of the products covered by our analysis. In general chain and type-of-store specific unobservables play a significant role. Moreover, we identify the role of some observable strategic variables in controlling or in stimulating price inflation rates. We obtain mixed results on the relationship between Private Label (PL) market shares and price trend, while we find price promotions to be more effective if applied to National Brands (NBs) rather than PLs. We conclude with some implications for the potential role of public policies in controlling food inflation.

Suggested Citation

  • Castellari, Elena & Moro, Daniele & Platoni, Silvia & Sckokai, Paolo, 2018. "Retailers’ strategies and food price dynamics: Evidence from dairy scanner data," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 212-224.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jfpoli:v:74:y:2018:i:c:p:212-224
    DOI: 10.1016/j.foodpol.2017.12.005
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306919217310217
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.foodpol.2017.12.005?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Emi Nakamura & Dawit Zerom, 2010. "Accounting for Incomplete Pass-Through," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 77(3), pages 1192-1230.
    2. Bontemps, Christophe & Orozco, Valerie & Requillart, Vincent, 2005. "Confirming the Price Effects of Private Labels Development," 2005 International Congress, August 23-27, 2005, Copenhagen, Denmark 24735, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    3. Ivancic, Lorraine & Erwin Diewert, W. & Fox, Kevin J., 2011. "Scanner data, time aggregation and the construction of price indexes," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 161(1), pages 24-35, March.
    4. Silver, Mick & Heravi, Saeed, 2001. "Scanner Data and the Measurement of Inflation," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 111(472), pages 383-404, June.
    5. Gita Gopinath & Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas & Chang-Tai Hsieh & Nicholas Li, 2011. "International Prices, Costs, and Markup Differences," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(6), pages 2450-2486, October.
    6. Betancourt, Roger R & Gautschi, David A, 1993. "The Outputs of Retail Activities: Concepts, Measurement and Evidence from U.S. Census Data," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 75(2), pages 294-301, May.
    7. Michael B. Ward & Jay P. Shimshack & Jeffrey M. Perloff & J. Michael Harris, 2002. "Effects of the Private-Label Invasion in Food Industries," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 84(4), pages 961-973.
    8. Irz, Xavier & Niemi, Jyrki & Liu, Xing, 2013. "Determinants of food price inflation in Finland—The role of energy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 656-663.
    9. Anania, Giovanni & Nisticò, Rosanna, 2014. "Price dispersion and seller heterogeneity in retail food markets," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 190-201.
    10. Paolo Sckokai & Claudio Soregaroli, 2008. "Impact of private label development across retail formats: Evidences from the Italian dairy market," Review of Agricultural and Environmental Studies - Revue d'Etudes en Agriculture et Environnement, INRA Department of Economics, vol. 87(2), pages 27-47.
    11. Vincent R. Nijs & Marnik G. Dekimpe & Jan-Benedict E.M. Steenkamps & Dominique M. Hanssens, 2001. "The Category-Demand Effects of Price Promotions," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 20(1), pages 1-22, September.
    12. Kim, Hyeyoung & Ward, Ronald W., 2013. "Price transmission across the U.S. food distribution system," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 226-236.
    13. Slade, Margaret E, 1995. "Product Rivalry with Multiple Strategic Weapons: An Analysis of Price and Advertising Competition," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 4(3), pages 445-476, Fall.
    14. Stephen F. Hamilton & Timothy J. Richards, 2009. "Product Differentiation, Store Differentiation, and Assortment Depth," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 55(8), pages 1368-1376, August.
    15. Gabrielsen, Tommy Staahl & Sorgard, Lars, 2007. "Private labels, price rivalry, and public policy," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(2), pages 403-424, February.
    16. Sexton, Richard J. & Xia, Tian & Li, Lan, 2006. "Food Retailers' Pricing and Marketing Strategies, with Implications for Producers," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association, vol. 35(2), pages 1-18, October.
    17. Richards, Timothy J. & Allender, William J. & Hamilton, Stephen F., 2012. "Commodity price inflation, retail pass-through and market power," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 50-57.
    18. Christopher F Baum, 2001. "Residual diagnostics for cross-section time series regression models," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 1(1), pages 101-104, November.
    19. Christian Broda & Ephraim Leibtag & David E. Weinstein, 2009. "The Role of Prices in Measuring the Poor's Living Standards," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 23(2), pages 77-97, Spring.
    20. Timothy Richards & Stephen F. Hamilton, 2013. "Network externalities in supermarket retailing," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 40(1), pages 1-22, February.
    21. Bontemps Christophe & Orozco Valerie & Réquillart Vincent & Trevisiol Audrey, 2005. "Price Effects of Private Label Development," Journal of Agricultural & Food Industrial Organization, De Gruyter, vol. 3(1), pages 1-18, February.
    22. Monsivais, Pablo & Mclain, Julia & Drewnowski, Adam, 2010. "The rising disparity in the price of healthful foods: 2004-2008," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(6), pages 514-520, December.
    23. Christophe Bontemps & Valérie Orozco & Vincent Réquillart, 2008. "Private Labels, National Brands and Food Prices," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 33(1), pages 1-22, August.
    24. Emi Nakamura, 2008. "Pass-Through in Retail and Wholesale," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(2), pages 430-437, May.
    25. Karsten Hansen & Vishal Singh, 2009. "Market Structure Across Retail Formats," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 28(4), pages 656-673, 07-08.
    26. Davis, Peter, 2002. "Estimating multi-way error components models with unbalanced data structures," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 106(1), pages 67-95, January.
    27. Nakamura, Alice O. & Nakamura, Emi & Nakamura, Leonard I., 2011. "Price dynamics, retail chains and inflation measurement," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 161(1), pages 47-55, March.
    28. Timothy J. Richards, 2006. "Sales by multi-product retailers," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(4), pages 261-277.
    29. Timothy J. Richards & Stephen F. Hamilton, 2006. "Rivalry in Price and Variety among Supermarket Retailers," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 88(3), pages 710-726.
    30. Jean-Pierre Dubé & Sachin Gupta, 2008. "Cross-Brand Pass-Through in Supermarket Pricing," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(3), pages 324-333, 05-06.
    31. Michael J. Boskin, 1998. "Consumer Prices, the Consumer Price Index, and the Cost of Living," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 12(1), pages 3-26, Winter.
    32. de Haan, Jan & van der Grient, Heymerik A., 2011. "Eliminating chain drift in price indexes based on scanner data," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 161(1), pages 36-46, March.
    33. Martin Eichenbaum & Nir Jaimovich & Sergio Rebelo, 2011. "Reference Prices, Costs, and Nominal Rigidities," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(1), pages 234-262, February.
    34. André Bonfrer & Pradeep K. Chintagunta, 2004. "Store Brands: Who Buys Them and What Happens to Retail Prices When They Are Introduced?," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 24(2), pages 195-218, March.
    35. W. Erwin Diewert, 1998. "Index Number Issues in the Consumer Price Index," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 12(1), pages 47-58, Winter.
    36. Robert P. Rooderkerk & Harald J. van Heerde & Tammo H. A. Bijmolt, 2013. "Optimizing Retail Assortments," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 32(5), pages 699-715, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tiff-Annie Kenny & Matthew Little & Tad Lemieux & P. Joshua Griffin & Sonia D. Wesche & Yoshitaka Ota & Malek Batal & Hing Man Chan & Melanie Lemire, 2020. "The Retail Food Sector and Indigenous Peoples in High-Income Countries: A Systematic Scoping Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(23), pages 1-49, November.
    2. Piotr Borawski & Aneta Beldycka-Borawska & Adam Pawlewicz & Jayson K. Harper & Bogdan Klepacki & Agnieszka Brelik & Ireneusz Zuchowski, 2020. "Impact of New Member Accession to the European Union on Food Trade," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(Special 1), pages 149-159.
    3. Dipankar Das, 2019. "Multilayer of Suppliers Fixed Costs and Spatial Competition in the Upstream Market as a Source of Retailers Buying Power," Studies in Microeconomics, , vol. 7(2), pages 210-226, December.
    4. Lanter, David & Hirsch, Stefan & Finger, Robert, 2018. "Profitability and Competition in EU Food Retailing," 2018 Annual Meeting, August 5-7, Washington, D.C. 274202, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Castellari, Elena & Moro, Daniele Daniele & Platoni, Silvia & Sckokai, Paolo, 2014. "Investigating the impact of Private Labels on National Brand prices in the Italian yogurt market," 2014 Third Congress, June 25-27, 2014, Alghero, Italy 173020, Italian Association of Agricultural and Applied Economics (AIEAA).
    2. Irz, Xavier & Mazzocchi, Mario & Réquillart, Vincent & Soler, Louis-Georges, 2015. "Research in Food Economics: past trends and new challenges," Revue d'Etudes en Agriculture et Environnement, Editions NecPlus, vol. 96(01), pages 187-237, March.
    3. Sheldon, Ian M., 2017. "The Competitiveness Of Agricultural Product And Input Markets: A Review And Synthesis Of Recent Research," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 49(1), pages 1-44, February.
    4. Fabian Bergès & Philippe Bontems & Vincent Réquillart, 2009. "L'impact économique du développement des marques de distributeurs," Economie & Prévision, La Documentation Française, vol. 0(3), pages 41-56.
    5. Castellari, Elena & Moro, D. & Platoni, S. & Sckokai, P., 2013. "Measuring the impact of retailers’ strategies on food price inflation using scanner data," 2013 Annual Meeting, August 4-6, 2013, Washington, D.C. 150258, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    6. Markus Lampe & Paul Sharp, 2014. "Greasing the wheels of rural transformation? Margarine and the competition for the British butter market," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 67(3), pages 769-792, August.
    7. Sckokai, Paolo & Soregaroli, Claudio, 2006. "Do consumers benefit from private label development?," 98th Seminar, June 29-July 2, 2006, Chania, Crete, Greece 10068, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    8. Kevin J, Fox. & Iqbal A. Syed, 2016. "Price Discounts and the Measurement of Inflation: Further Results," Discussion Papers 2016-05, School of Economics, The University of New South Wales.
    9. Fox, Kevin J. & Syed, Iqbal A., 2016. "Price discounts and the measurement of inflation," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 191(2), pages 398-406.
    10. Johansen, Bjørn Olav, 2012. "Private Labels, Rent Shifting And Consumer Welfare," Working Papers in Economics 02/12, University of Bergen, Department of Economics.
    11. Richards, Timothy J. & Hamilton, Stephen F. & Patterson, Paul M., 2010. "Spatial Competition and Private Labels," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 35(2), pages 1-26, August.
    12. Emi Nakamura & Jón Steinsson, 2013. "Price Rigidity: Microeconomic Evidence and Macroeconomic Implications," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 5(1), pages 133-163, May.
    13. Fabian Bergès & Zohra Bouamra-Mechemache, 2012. "Is producing a private label counterproductive for a branded manufacturer?," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 39(2), pages 213-239, April.
    14. Bontemps, Christophe & Orozco, Valerie & Requillart, Vincent, 2005. "Confirming the Price Effects of Private Labels Development," 2005 International Congress, August 23-27, 2005, Copenhagen, Denmark 24735, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    15. Christophe Bontemps & Valérie Orozco & Vincent Réquillart, 2008. "Private Labels, National Brands and Food Prices," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 33(1), pages 1-22, August.
    16. Kozo Ueda & Kota Watanabe & Tsutomu Watanabe, 2021. "Household Inventory, Temporary Sales, and Price Indices," CARF F-Series CARF-F-520, Center for Advanced Research in Finance, Faculty of Economics, The University of Tokyo.
    17. Delajara Marcelo & Murillo Garza José Antonio, 2012. "Weekday with Low Prices: Evidence on Daily Seasonality of Foods, Beverages and Tobacco Prices," Working Papers 2012-09, Banco de México.
    18. Baxter, Marianne & Landry, Anthony, 2017. "IKEA: Product, pricing, and pass-through," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(3), pages 507-520.
    19. Tiboldo, Giulia & Lopez, Rigoberto & Hirsch, Stefan, 2016. "Private label market power: evidence from Italian dairy retailing," 2016 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Boston, Massachusetts 235592, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    20. Timothy J. Richards, 2017. "Analysis of Umbrella Branding with Crowdsourced Data," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(2), pages 135-150, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Food price dynamics; GEKS index; Retail strategies; Error Component Model;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q18 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agricultural Policy; Food Policy; Animal Welfare Policy
    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • C43 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics - - - Index Numbers and Aggregation
    • E31 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Price Level; Inflation; Deflation
    • L11 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jfpoli:v:74:y:2018:i:c:p:212-224. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/foodpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.