IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/revind/v64y2024i1d10.1007_s11151-023-09922-0.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How do Everyday-Low-Price Supermarkets Adjust Their Prices?

Author

Listed:
  • Guojun He

    (University of Hong Kong)

  • Jeffrey T. LaFrance

    (Monash University)

  • Jeffrey M. Perloff

    (University of California, Berkeley and Giannini Foundation)

  • Richard Volpe

    (California Polytechnic State University)

Abstract

Was the rapid increase and collapse of commodity prices in 2007–2009 passed through to supermarket prices symmetrically? This study is the first to address this issue for an everyday-low-price (EDLP) supermarket chain, which infrequently changes its prices and rarely has sales. We also reexamine the question for typical firms that set a usual high price and have frequent sales. We examine 25 goods that use a primary commodity (such as rice in a bag of rice). We fail to reject symmetric adjustments for very few goods for both types of stores. In addition, we find that the probability an EDLP chain adjusts its prices in response to even a large commodity price shock is low for most goods.

Suggested Citation

  • Guojun He & Jeffrey T. LaFrance & Jeffrey M. Perloff & Richard Volpe, 2024. "How do Everyday-Low-Price Supermarkets Adjust Their Prices?," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 64(1), pages 117-146, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:revind:v:64:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1007_s11151-023-09922-0
    DOI: 10.1007/s11151-023-09922-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11151-023-09922-0
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11151-023-09922-0?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. Daniel Hosken & David Reiffen, 2004. "Patterns of Retail Price Variation," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 35(1), pages 128-146, Spring.
    2. Celine Bonnet & Pierre Dubois & Sofia B. Villas Boas & Daniel Klapper, 2013. "Empirical Evidence on the Role of Nonlinear Wholesale Pricing and Vertical Restraints on Cost Pass-Through," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 95(2), pages 500-515, May.
    3. 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.
    4. N. Gregory Mankiw, 1985. "Small Menu Costs and Large Business Cycles: A Macroeconomic Model of Monopoly," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 100(2), pages 529-538.
    5. LaFrance, Jeffrey T., 2008. "The structure of US food demand," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 147(2), pages 336-349, December.
    6. Levy, Daniel & Bergen, Mark & Dutta, Shantanu & Venable, Robert, 1997. "The Magnitude of Menu Costs: Direct Evidence from Large U.S. Supermarket Chains," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 112(3), pages 791-824.
    7. Fernando E. Alvarez & Francesco Lippi & Luigi Paciello, 2011. "Optimal Price Setting With Observation and Menu Costs," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 126(4), pages 1909-1960.
    8. Giliola Frey & Matteo Manera, 2007. "Econometric Models Of Asymmetric Price Transmission," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(2), pages 349-415, April.
    9. Chen, Haipeng (Allan) & Levy, Daniel & Ray, Sourav & Bergen, Mark, 2008. "Asymmetric Price Adjustment in the Small," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 55(4), pages 728-737.
    10. Ronald W. Ward, 1982. "Asymmetry in Retail, Wholesale, and Shipping Point Pricing for Fresh Vegetables," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 64(2), pages 205-212.
    11. Berck, Peter & Leibtag, Ephraim S. & Villas-Boas, Sofia B. & Solis, Alex, 2009. "Patterns of pass-through of commodity price shocks to retail prices," CUDARE Working Paper Series 1082, University of California at Berkeley, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Policy.
    12. Hao Lan & Tim A. Lloyd & Steve McCorriston & Christopher Wyn Morgan, 2022. "Retailer heterogeneity and price transmission," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 104(5), pages 1679-1700, October.
    13. Severin Borenstein & Andrea Shepard, 2002. "Sticky Prices, Inventories, and Market Power in Wholesale Gasoline Markets," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 33(1), pages 116-139, Spring.
    14. Botond Kőszegi & Paul Heidhues, 2008. "Competition and Price Variation When Consumers Are Loss Averse," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(4), pages 1245-1268, September.
    15. Einav, Liran & Leibtag, Ephraim S. & Nevo, Aviv, 2008. "On the Accuracy of Nielsen Homescan Data," Economic Research Report 56490, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    16. Zivot, Eric & Andrews, Donald W K, 2002. "Further Evidence on the Great Crash, the Oil-Price Shock, and the Unit-Root Hypothesis," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 20(1), pages 25-44, January.
    17. Matthew S. Lewis, 2011. "Asymmetric Price Adjustment and Consumer Search: An Examination of the Retail Gasoline Market," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(2), pages 409-449, June.
    18. Peter Berck & Ephraim Leibtag & Alex Solis & Sofia Villas-Boas, 2009. "Patterns of Pass-through of Commodity Price Shocks to Retail Prices," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 91(5), pages 1456-1461.
    19. Cosmin Ilut & Rosen Valchev & Nicolas Vincent, 2020. "Paralyzed by Fear: Rigid and Discrete Pricing Under Demand Uncertainty," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 88(5), pages 1899-1938, September.
    20. Sang Yong Kim & Richard Staelin, 1999. "Manufacturer Allowances and Retailer Pass-Through Rates in a Competitive Environment," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 18(1), pages 59-76.
    21. Peter Karadi & Adam Reiff, 2019. "Menu Costs, Aggregate Fluctuations, and Large Shocks," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(3), pages 111-146, July.
    22. Luther G. Tweeten & C. Leroy Quance, 1969. "Positivistic Measures of Aggregate Supply Elasticities: Some New Approaches," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 51(2), pages 342-352.
    23. Sam Peltzman, 2000. "Prices Rise Faster than They Fall," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 108(3), pages 466-502, June.
    24. Mikhail Golosov & Robert E. Lucas Jr., 2007. "Menu Costs and Phillips Curves," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 115(2), pages 171-199.
    25. Canning, Patrick, 2011. "A Revised and Expanded Food Dollar Series: A Better Understanding of Our Food Costs," Economic Research Report 262243, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    26. Eugenio J. Miravete & Katja Seim & Jeff Thurk, 2020. "One Markup to Rule Them All: Taxation by Liquor Pricing Regulation," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 12(1), pages 1-41, February.
    27. Perron, Pierre, 1989. "The Great Crash, the Oil Price Shock, and the Unit Root Hypothesis," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 57(6), pages 1361-1401, November.
    28. Rudolf Wolffram, 1971. "Positivistic Measures of Aggregate Supply Elasticities: Some New Approaches—Some Critical Notes," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 53(2), pages 356-359.
    29. E. Glen Weyl & Michal Fabinger, 2013. "Pass-Through as an Economic Tool: Principles of Incidence under Imperfect Competition," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 121(3), pages 528-583.
    30. 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.
    31. Günter J. Hitsch & Ali Hortaçsu & Xiliang Lin, 2021. "Prices and promotions in U.S. retail markets," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 289-368, December.
    32. Paul B. Ellickson & Sanjog Misra, 2008. "Supermarket Pricing Strategies," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(5), pages 811-828, 09-10.
    33. Bacon, Robert W., 1991. "Rockets and feathers: the asymmetric speed of adjustment of UK retail gasoline prices to cost changes," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(3), pages 211-218, July.
    34. Sridhar Moorthy, 2005. "A General Theory of Pass-Through in Channels with Category Management and Retail Competition," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(1), pages 110-122, August.
    35. 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.
    36. Jochen Meyer & Stephan von Cramon‐Taubadel, 2004. "Asymmetric Price Transmission: A Survey," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(3), pages 581-611, November.
    37. Prasanna Surathkal & Chanjin Chung, 2019. "Effects of packers’ inventory and market power on price adjustments in the U.S. beef industry," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(46), pages 5076-5089, October.
    38. Azzeddine M. Azzam, 1999. "Asymmetry and Rigidity in Farm-Retail Price Transmission," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 81(3), pages 525-533.
    39. Stefano DellaVigna & Matthew Gentzkow, 2019. "Uniform Pricing in U.S. Retail Chains," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 134(4), pages 2011-2084.
    40. Ricardo Reis, 2006. "Inattentive Producers," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 73(3), pages 793-821.
    41. Emi Nakamura & Jón Steinsson, 2008. "Five Facts about Prices: A Reevaluation of Menu Cost Models," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 123(4), pages 1415-1464.
    42. Barry K. Goodwin & Nicholas E. Piggott, 2001. "Spatial Market Integration in the Presence of Threshold Effects," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 83(2), pages 302-317.
    43. Eugenio J. Miravete & Katja Seim & Jeff Thurk, 2018. "Market Power and the Laffer Curve," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 86(5), pages 1651-1687, September.
    44. Severin Borenstein & A. Colin Cameron & Richard Gilbert, 1997. "Do Gasoline Prices Respond Asymmetrically to Crude Oil Price Changes?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(1), pages 305-339.
    45. Grasso, Margherita & Manera, Matteo, 2007. "Asymmetric error correction models for the oil-gasoline price relationship," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 156-177, January.
    46. Julio J. Rotemberg, 2010. "Altruistic Dynamic Pricing with Customer Regret," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 112(4), pages 646-672, December.
    47. Nicholas J. Powers, 1995. "Sticky short-run prices and vertical pricing: Evidence from the market for iceberg lettuce," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 11(1), pages 57-75.
    48. Galeotti, Marzio & Lanza, Alessandro & Manera, Matteo, 2003. "Rockets and feathers revisited: an international comparison on European gasoline markets," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 175-190, March.
    49. Engle, Robert & Granger, Clive, 2015. "Co-integration and error correction: Representation, estimation, and testing," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 39(3), pages 106-135.
    50. Parrott, Scott D. & Eastwood, David B. & Brooker, John R., 2001. "Testing For Symmetry In Price Transmission: An Extension Of The Shiller Lag Structure With An Application To Fresh Tomatoes," Journal of Agribusiness, Agricultural Economics Association of Georgia, vol. 19(1), pages 1-15.
    51. James P. Houck, 1977. "An Approach to Specifying and Estimating Nonreversible Functions," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 59(3), pages 570-572.
    52. Carlton, Dennis W, 1986. "The Rigidity of Prices," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(4), pages 637-658, September.
    53. Tweeten, Luther G & Quance, C Leroy, 1969. "Positivistic Measures of Aggregate Supply Elasticities: Some New Approaches," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 59(2), pages 175-183, May.
    54. Emi Nakamura, 2008. "Pass-Through in Retail and Wholesale," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(2), pages 430-437, May.
    55. Jeanine Miklós-Thal & Greg Shaffer, 2021. "Pass-Through as an Economic Tool: On Exogenous Competition, Social Incidence, and Price Discrimination," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 129(1), pages 323-335.
    56. 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.
    57. Henry W. Kinnucan & Olan D. Forker, 1987. "Asymmetry in Farm-Retail Price Transmission for Major Dairy Products," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 69(2), pages 285-292.
    58. Stephan Cramon-Taubadel & Jens-Peter Loy, 1996. "Price Asymmetry in the International Wheat Market: Comment," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 44(3), pages 311-317, November.
    59. Emmanuel Asane-Otoo and Bernhard C. Dannemann, 2022. "Rockets and Feathers Revisited: Asymmetric Retail Gasoline Pricing in the Era of Market Transparency," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 6).
    60. von Cramon-Taubadel, Stephan, 1998. "Estimating Asymmetric Price Transmission with the Error Correction Representation: An application to the German Pork Market," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 25(1), pages 1-18.
    61. David Besanko & Jean-Pierre Dubé & Sachin Gupta, 2005. "Own-Brand and Cross-Brand Retail Pass-Through," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(1), pages 123-137, July.
    62. Sims, Christopher A., 2003. "Implications of rational inattention," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(3), pages 665-690, April.
    63. Mariano Tappata, 2009. "Rockets and feathers: Understanding asymmetric pricing," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 40(4), pages 673-687, December.
    64. 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.
    65. Abdulai, Awudu, 2000. "Spatial price transmission and asymmetry in the Ghanaian maize market," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 327-349, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Giliola Frey & Matteo Manera, 2007. "Econometric Models Of Asymmetric Price Transmission," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(2), pages 349-415, April.
    2. Rahman, Mohammad Chhiddikur, 2020. "Welfare Impact of Asymmetric Price Transmission on Bangladesh Rice Consumers," EconStor Theses, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, number 242248, June.
    3. Ankamah-Yeboah, Isaac, 2012. "Spatial Price Transmission in the Regional Maize Markets in Ghana," MPRA Paper 49720, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Mohammad J Alam & Raghbendra Jha, 2016. "Asymmetric threshold vertical price transmission in wheat and flour markets in Dhaka (Bangladesh): seemingly unrelated regression analysis," ASARC Working Papers 2016-03, The Australian National University, Australia South Asia Research Centre.
    5. Ray, Sourav & Snir, Avichai & Levy, Daniel, 2023. "Retail Pricing Format and Rigidity of Regular Prices," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, pages 1-1.
    6. Rosa, Franco & Weaver, Robert D. & Vasciaveo, Michela, 2015. "Structural Changes and Dairy Chain Efficiency in Italy," International Journal on Food System Dynamics, International Center for Management, Communication, and Research, vol. 6(3), pages 1-21, July.
    7. Fousekis, Panos & Katrakilidis, Constantinos & Trachanas, Emmanouil, 2016. "Vertical price transmission in the US beef sector: Evidence from the nonlinear ARDL model," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 52(PB), pages 499-506.
    8. Dhyne, Emmanuel & Fuss, Catherine & Pesaran, M. Hashem & Sevestre, Patrick, 2011. "Lumpy Price Adjustments: A Microeconometric Analysis," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 29(4), pages 529-540.
    9. Anthony N. Rezitis, 2019. "Investigating price transmission in the Finnish dairy sector: an asymmetric NARDL approach," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 57(3), pages 861-900, September.
    10. Loy, Jens-Peter & Weiss, Christoph R. & Glauben, Thomas, 2016. "Asymmetric cost pass-through? Empirical evidence on the role of market power, search and menu costs," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 184-192.
    11. Karantininis, Kostas & Katrakylidis, Kostas & Persson, Morten, 2011. "Price Transmission in the Swedish Pork Chain: Asymmetric non linear ARDL," 2011 International Congress, August 30-September 2, 2011, Zurich, Switzerland 114772, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    12. Joshua Sherman & Avi Weiss, 2015. "Price Response, Asymmetric Information and Competition," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 125(589), pages 2077-2115, December.
    13. Bairagi, S. & Mohanty, S., 2018. "Analysis of Price Transmission along the Cambodian Rice Value Chain," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277022, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    14. Tim Lloyd, 2017. "Forty Years of Price Transmission Research in the Food Industry: Insights, Challenges and Prospects," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 68(1), pages 3-21, February.
    15. Levy, Daniel & Snir, Avichai & Gotler, Alex & Chen, Haipeng (Allan), 2020. "Not all price endings are created equal: Price points and asymmetric price rigidity," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, issue forthcomi.
    16. Chen, Haipeng (Allan) & Levy, Daniel & Ray, Sourav & Bergen, Mark, 2008. "Asymmetric Price Adjustment in the Small," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 55(4), pages 728-737.
    17. Daniel Levy & Dongwon Lee & Haipeng (Allan) Chen & Robert J. Kauffman & Mark Bergen, 2011. "Price Points and Price Rigidity," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 93(4), pages 1417-1431, November.
    18. Asane-Otoo, Emmanuel & Schneider, Jan, 2015. "Retail fuel price adjustment in Germany: A threshold cointegration approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 1-10.
    19. Bittmann, Thomas & Loy, Jens-Peter & Anders, Sven, 2017. "Cost Pass-Through And Product Differentiation," 2017 International Congress, August 28-September 1, 2017, Parma, Italy 261145, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    20. Christos Genakos & Blair Yuan Lyu & Mario Pagliero, 2024. "Asymmetric pass-through and competition," CEP Discussion Papers dp2028, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Everyday-low-price supermarkets; Asymmetric price transmission; Food prices; Price adjustment; Retail price; Time series;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D40 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - General
    • Q13 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agricultural Markets and Marketing; Cooperatives; Agribusiness
    • C22 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Time-Series Models; Dynamic Quantile Regressions; Dynamic Treatment Effect Models; Diffusion Processes

    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:kap:revind:v:64:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1007_s11151-023-09922-0. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.