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The relationship between accessibility and price – The case of Swedish food stores

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  • Bondemark, Anders

Abstract

Food accessibility has been an important issue for as long as there has been human civilisation. Today, food, at least in the wealthier parts of the world, is accessible to most people. However, there are concerns regarding the market power of major retailers and the availability of affordable food among certain population groups. In this paper, I investigate how well accessibility, the ease with which individuals can reach various destinations, explains food prices in Swedish food stores. I have done this by combining price information on a large number of Swedish food stores from 2010 to 2014 with a state-of-the-art accessibility measure from the Swedish national transport model. I have found a quadratic relationship between accessibility and price, in which prices in the least and most accessible parts of Sweden are 2–3 per cent higher than in the least expensive parts, which are towns and villages around larger cities. The relationship remains significant when adding controls and accessibility is better at explaining price than measures of market structure previously used in the literature.

Suggested Citation

  • Bondemark, Anders, 2020. "The relationship between accessibility and price – The case of Swedish food stores," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jotrge:v:82:y:2020:i:c:s0966692319302625
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2019.102615
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    Cited by:

    1. Anders Bondemark & Henrik Andersson & Anders Wretstrand & Karin Brundell-Freij, 2021. "Is it expensive to be poor? Public transport in Sweden," Transportation, Springer, vol. 48(5), pages 2709-2734, October.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Food prices; Accessibility; Search; Local monopolies;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R40 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - General
    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty
    • L11 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms
    • Q18 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agricultural Policy; Food Policy; Animal Welfare Policy
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness

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