Measuring Market Power for Food Retail Activities: French Evidence
通过估计逆需求系统和供给函数，测量法国食品零售企业在乳制品、肉类和其他食品中的寡头垄断与寡头垄断势力，发现超过20%和17%的批发零售价差源于市场扭曲。
In this paper we develop and estimate an empirical model of pricing behaviour for food retail firms in both a quantity‐setting oligopoly engaged in the joint production of demand‐related final goods and a quantity‐setting oligopsony for supply‐unrelated wholesale goods. The procedure consists of estimating an inverse demand system for the final goods, single supply functions for the wholesale goods and the retail industry first‐order profit‐maximisation conditions, from which an estimate of the degree of imperfect competition and of oligopoly‐oligopsony power for the different commodities can be retrieved. The model is applied to the French food retail industry and three commodities are distinguished: dairy products, meat products and other food products. We strongly reject the hypothesis that French food retail firms behave competitively, and more than 20 and 17 per cent of the wholesale‐to‐retail price margins for dairy products and meat products, respectively, can be attributed to oligopoly‐oligopsony distortions.