IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eso/journl/v30y1999i1p71-90.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Rationale for Repealing the 1987 Groceries Order

Author

Listed:
  • Patrick Paul Walsh

    (Trinity College Dublin and Katholeike Universteit Leuven)

  • Ciara Whelan

    (London School of Economics and Katholeike Universteit Leuven)

Abstract

A ban on pricing below cost was implemented under the 1987 Groceries Order based on the premise that loss leading used in multi-product retail pricing distorts competition and exploits consumers in the short run, while driving a more concentrated structure and reducing welfare in the long run. Loss leading is examined for multi-product retailers selling in imperfectly competitive market niches with imperfect consumer information. We develop a theoretical argument in a simple two-stage framework that illustrates how loss leading on a subset of products is an equilibrium outcome of price competition that leaves overall welfare equal to that observed under laissez faire.

Suggested Citation

  • Patrick Paul Walsh & Ciara Whelan, 1999. "A Rationale for Repealing the 1987 Groceries Order," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 30(1), pages 71-90.
    • Handle: RePEc:eso:journl:v:30:y:1999:i:1:p:71-90
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.esr.ie/vol30_1/4_Walsh.pdf
    File Function: First version, 1999
    Download Restriction: no

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bliss, Christopher, 1988. "A Theory of Retail Pricing," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(4), pages 375-391, June.
    2. Walsh, Patrick Paul & Whelan, Ciara, 1999. "Modelling Price Dispersion as an Outcome of Competition in the Irish Grocery Market," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(3), pages 325-343, September.
    3. Holmes, Thomas J, 1989. "The Effects of Third-Degree Price Discrimination in Oligopoly," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(1), pages 244-250, March.
    4. Giulietti, M., 1995. "Multiproduct Firms' Pricing Behavior in the Italian Grocery Trade," Discussion Papers 9509, Exeter University, Department of Economics.
    5. Severin Borenstein, 1985. "Price Discrimination in Free-Entry Markets," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 16(3), pages 380-397, Autumn.
    6. Shepard, Andrea, 1991. "Price Discrimination and Retail Configuration," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(1), pages 30-53, February.
    7. Steven C. Salop, 1979. "Monopolistic Competition with Outside Goods," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 10(1), pages 141-156, Spring.
    8. Borenstein, Severin & Rose, Nancy L, 1994. "Competition and Price Dispersion in the U.S. Airline Industry," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 102(4), pages 653-683, August.
    9. Severin Borenstein, 1991. "Selling Costs and Switching Costs: Explaining Retail Gasoline Margins," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 22(3), pages 354-369, Autumn.
    10. Katz, Michael L, 1984. "Price Discrimination and Monopolistic Competition," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 52(6), pages 1453-1471, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Patrick Paul Walsh & Ciara Whelan, 2002. "Portfolio Effects and Firm Size Distribution - Carbonated Soft Drinks," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 33(1), pages 43-54.
    2. Patrick P. Walsh & Ciara Whelan, 2001. "Product differentiation and firm size distribution : an application to carbonated soft drinks," Working Papers 200113, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    3. Ciara Whelan, 2003. "Is equating market share to market power a sound economic principle?," Open Access publications 10197/136, School of Economics, University College Dublin.

    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:eso:journl:v:30:y:1999:i:1:p:71-90. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Martina Lawless). General contact details of provider: http://www.esr.ie .

    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 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.

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.