scholarly journals Market Concentration, Market Shares, and Retail Food Prices: Evidence from the U.S. Women, Infants, and Children Program

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 542-562 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meilin Ma ◽  
Tina L. Saitone ◽  
Richard J. Volpe ◽  
Richard J. Sexton ◽  
Michelle Saksena
Author(s):  
Ilya Rahkovsky ◽  
Richard Volpe

AbstractWe pair Nielsen TDLinx data, 2004–2014, with Consumer Price Index data to investigate how changes in food retail market structure drive food price inflation. We find, in corroboration with much of the evidence to date, that market concentration is positively and significantly associated with higher food prices. We find the same to be true for store format concentration, or the homogeneity of food markets. As the market shares, or penetration, of supercenters, warehouse stores, limited assortment stores, and superettes increase at expense of traditional supermarkets, food price inflation decreases.


2018 ◽  
Vol 81 (5) ◽  
pp. 799-805 ◽  
Author(s):  
LAUREN E. LIPCSEI ◽  
LAURA G. BROWN ◽  
E. RICKAMER HOOVER ◽  
BRENDA V. FAW ◽  
NICOLE HEDEEN ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 3,000 people die in the United States each year from foodborne illness, and Listeria monocytogenes causes the third highest number of deaths. Risk assessment data indicate that L. monocytogenes contamination of particularly delicatessen meats sliced at retail is a significant contributor to human listeriosis. Mechanical deli slicers are a major source of L. monocytogenes cross-contamination and growth. In an attempt to prevent pathogen cross-contamination and growth, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) created guidance to promote good slicer cleaning and inspection practices. The CDC's Environmental Health Specialists Network conducted a study to learn more about retail deli practices concerning these prevention strategies. The present article includes data from this study on the frequency with which retail delis met the FDA recommendation that slicers should be inspected each time they are properly cleaned (defined as disassembling, cleaning, and sanitizing the slicer every 4 h). Data from food worker interviews in 197 randomly selected delis indicate that only 26.9% of workers (n = 53) cleaned and inspected their slicers at this frequency. Chain delis and delis that serve more than 300 customers on their busiest day were more likely to have properly cleaned and inspected slicers. Data also were collected on the frequency with which delis met the FDA Food Code provision that slicers should be undamaged. Data from observations of 685 slicers in 298 delis indicate that only 37.9% of delis (n = 113) had slicers that were undamaged. Chain delis and delis that provide worker training were more likely to have slicers with no damage. To improve slicer practices, food safety programs and the retail food industry may wish to focus on worker training and to focus interventions on independent and smaller delis, given that these delis were less likely to properly inspect their slicers and to have undamaged slicers.


2020 ◽  
Vol 135 (2) ◽  
pp. 645-709 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Autor ◽  
David Dorn ◽  
Lawrence F Katz ◽  
Christina Patterson ◽  
John Van Reenen

Abstract The fall of labor’s share of GDP in the United States and many other countries in recent decades is well documented but its causes remain uncertain. Existing empirical assessments typically rely on industry or macro data, obscuring heterogeneity among firms. In this article, we analyze micro panel data from the U.S. Economic Census since 1982 and document empirical patterns to assess a new interpretation of the fall in the labor share based on the rise of “superstar firms.” If globalization or technological changes push sales toward the most productive firms in each industry, product market concentration will rise as industries become increasingly dominated by superstar firms, which have high markups and a low labor share of value added. We empirically assess seven predictions of this hypothesis: (i) industry sales will increasingly concentrate in a small number of firms; (ii) industries where concentration rises most will have the largest declines in the labor share; (iii) the fall in the labor share will be driven largely by reallocation rather than a fall in the unweighted mean labor share across all firms; (iv) the between-firm reallocation component of the fall in the labor share will be greatest in the sectors with the largest increases in market concentration; (v) the industries that are becoming more concentrated will exhibit faster growth of productivity; (vi) the aggregate markup will rise more than the typical firm’s markup; and (vii) these patterns should be observed not only in U.S. firms but also internationally. We find support for all of these predictions.


2004 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 797-813 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyun J. Jin ◽  
Guedae Cho ◽  
Won W. Koo

An import demand model, augmented with third-country effect variables, is developed to examine the effects of strong U.S. dollar, volatility of the U.S. dollar, and competition among the exporting countries on the shares of U.S. wheat in Asian markets. In the empirical model, the dependent variable is the market shares of U.S. wheat. Explanatory variables include wheat prices of exporting countries, exchange rates between the importing and exporting countries, and volatilities of the exchange rates. Panel estimation results show that the U.S. currency value and volatility, Australian wheat price, and the volatilities of Canadian and Australian currency values have significant effects on U.S. market shares.


2002 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 272-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brent W. Ambrose ◽  
Anthony Pennington-Cross ◽  
Anthony M. Yezer

Nutrients ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 3349
Author(s):  
Hannah Yang Han ◽  
Catherine Paquet ◽  
Laurette Dubé ◽  
Daiva E Nielsen

The role of the retail food environment in obesity risk is unclear, which may be due in part to the lack of consideration of individual differences in the responsivity to food cues. This cross-sectional investigation geo-temporally linked the CARTaGENE biobank (including genetic, dietary, lifestyle, and anthropometric data) with in-store retail food environment data to examine interactions between a polygenic risk score (PRS) for obesity and (1) diet quality (n = 6807) and (2) in-store retail food measures (n = 3718). The outcomes included adiposity-related measures and diet quality assessed using the 2010 Canadian-adapted Healthy Eating Index. A vegetable:soft drink ratio was constructed for each retail measure to assess the relative healthfulness of exposures. Generalized linear models adjusted for individual and neighborhood socio-demographic factors were used to evaluate main and interactive effects. Diet quality significantly modified the association between polygenic risk of obesity and body mass index, waist circumference, and body fat percent. A significant interaction was also observed between PRS and regular price of vegetables in relation to soft drinks on waist circumference. These results replicate previous reports of diet moderating polygenic risk of obesity and suggest that prices of low vs. high-energy density foods are an intervention target to address population obesity rates.


2021 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-79
Author(s):  
Carl Shapiro ◽  
Howard Shelanski

AbstractWe study how the courts have responded to the 2010 Horizontal Merger Guidelines issued by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission. Looking at decided cases, we find that both the government and merging parties rely on the 2010 Guidelines in presenting their cases, each side respectively arguing that it should win if the court properly follows them . The 2010 Guidelines had the strongest effect on the case law in the area of unilateral effects, where a number of courts have embraced them in ways that clearly depart from earlier decisions. The case law now exhibits much greater receptivity to a government showing that the merger will lead to higher prices simply due to the loss of direct competition between the two merging firms. The courts also have followed the 2010 Guidelines by more willingly defining markets around targeted customers. We do not detect any effect on decided cases of the higher concentration thresholds found in the 2010 Guidelines. Both the average pre-merger level of market concentration and the average increase in market concentration alleged by the government in litigated cases to date declined after 2010 .


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document