IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ucp/ecdecc/doi10.1086-714050.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Shortening Supply Chains: Experimental Evidence from Fruit and Vegetable Vendors in Bogota

Author

Listed:
  • Leonardo Iacovone
  • David McKenzie

Abstract

Fruit and vegetable vendors in Bogota travel most days to a central market to purchase produce, incurring substantial costs. A social enterprise attempted to shorten the supply chain by aggregating orders from many small stores and delivering orders directly from farmers to vendors. We randomized the introduction of this service at the market-block level. Initial interest was high, and the service reduced travel time and costs and increased work-life balance. Purchase costs fell by 6%–8%, there was incomplete pass-through into lower prices for consumers, and markups rose. However, stores reduced sales of products not offered by this new service, and their total sales and profits appear to have fallen in the short run, with service usage falling over time. The results offer a window into the nature of competition among small retailers and point to the challenges in achieving economies of scale when disrupting centralized markets for multiproduct firms.

Suggested Citation

  • Leonardo Iacovone & David McKenzie, 2022. "Shortening Supply Chains: Experimental Evidence from Fruit and Vegetable Vendors in Bogota," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 71(1), pages 111-149.
  • Handle: RePEc:ucp:ecdecc:doi:10.1086/714050
    DOI: 10.1086/714050
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/714050
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/714050
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1086/714050?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 look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Grover,Arti Goswami & Imbruno,Michele, 2020. "Using Experimental Evidence to Inform Firm Support Programs in Developing Countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9461, The World Bank.
    2. Abate, Gashaw T. & Abay, Kibrom A. & Chamberlin, Jordan & Kassim, Yumna & Spielman, David J. & Paul Jr Tabe-Ojong, Martin, 2023. "Digital tools and agricultural market transformation in Africa: Why are they not at scale yet, and what will it take to get there?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    3. Ambler, Kate & de Brauw, Alan & Herskowitz, Sylvan & Pulido, Cristhian, 2023. "Viewpoint: Finance needs of the agricultural midstream," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).

    More about this item

    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:ucp:ecdecc:doi:10.1086/714050. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Journals Division (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/EDCC .

    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.