IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/aesc22/321169.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Retailer Response to Price Gouging Litigation and Consumer Food Prices

Author

Listed:
  • Scheitrum, Daniel
  • Schaefer, K. Aleks
  • Saitone, Tina

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic fundamentally changed how consumers obtained food with a dramatic shift out of food service and restaurants into grocery retail. At the onset of the pandemic, prices of a variety of goods, including groceries, increased rapidly. In many cases, U.S. states led lawsuits alleging price gouging behavior of food retailers and producers. In this paper, we examine the case of eggs and nd that price gouging litigations lead to a dramatic change in retailer behavior, long after the resolution of many of these disputes. We nd that retailers responded by rigidly adhering to pre-pandemic price levels for eggs, despite that fact that costs of production of eggs increased sharply during this time. We determine a breakdown in the pre-pandemic relationship between input costs and output prices for eggs. Additionally, we nd that retailers signicantly decreased their purchases of eggs and reduced the number of advertisements they placed for eggs, suggesting they are now willing to accept empty shelves in lieu of increasing prices.

Suggested Citation

  • Scheitrum, Daniel & Schaefer, K. Aleks & Saitone, Tina, 2022. "Retailer Response to Price Gouging Litigation and Consumer Food Prices," 96th Annual Conference, April 4-6, 2022, K U Leuven, Belgium 321169, Agricultural Economics Society - AES.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:aesc22:321169
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.321169
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/321169/files/Daniel_Scheitrum_price_gouging.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.321169?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Engle, Robert & Granger, Clive, 2015. "Co-integration and error correction: Representation, estimation, and testing," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 39(3), pages 106-135.
    2. Brenna Ellison & Brandon McFadden & Bradley J. Rickard & Norbert L. W. Wilson, 2021. "Examining Food Purchase Behavior and Food Values During the COVID‐19 Pandemic," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 43(1), pages 58-72, March.
    3. Kirk, Colleen P. & Rifkin, Laura S., 2020. "I'll trade you diamonds for toilet paper: Consumer reacting, coping and adapting behaviors in the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 124-131.
    4. Colin A. Carter & K. Aleks Schaefer & Daniel Scheitrum, 2021. "Piecemeal Farm Regulation and the U.S. Commerce Clause," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 103(3), pages 1141-1163, May.
    5. Jasper Grashuis & Theodoros Skevas & Michelle S. Segovia, 2020. "Grocery Shopping Preferences during the COVID-19 Pandemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-10, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cruz-Cárdenas, Jorge & Zabelina, Ekaterina & Guadalupe-Lanas, Jorge & Palacio-Fierro, Andrés & Ramos-Galarza, Carlos, 2021. "COVID-19, consumer behavior, technology, and society: A literature review and bibliometric analysis," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    2. Zaid Obeidat & Mohammad Ibrahim Obeidat, 2023. "A typology of Jordanian consumers after Covid‐19: The rational, the suspicious, and the cautious consumer," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(1), pages 121-139, January.
    3. Bożena Kusz & Lucyna Witek & Dariusz Kusz & Katarzyna Chudy-Laskowska & Paulina Ostyńska & Alina Walenia, 2023. "The Effect of COVID-19 on Food Consumers’ Channel Purchasing Behaviors: An Empirical Study from Poland," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-17, March.
    4. Martina Vecchi & Edward C. Jaenicke & Claudia Schmidt, 2022. "Local food in times of crisis: The impact of COVID‐19 and two reinforcing primes," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(4), pages 850-873, October.
    5. Ellen Van Droogenbroeck & Leo Van Hove, 2021. "Adoption and Usage of E-Grocery Shopping: A Context-Specific UTAUT2 Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-27, April.
    6. Simone Cerroni & Rodolfo M Nayga & Gioacchino Pappalardo & Wei Yang, 2022. "Malleability of food values amid the COVID-19 pandemic [Experimental methods: when and why contextual instructions are important]," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 49(2), pages 472-498.
    7. Brenna Ellison & Linlin Fan & Norbert L.W. Wilson, 2022. "Is it more convenient to waste? Trade‐offs between grocery shopping and waste behaviors," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 53(S1), pages 75-89, November.
    8. Stanca, Liana & Dabija, Dan-Cristian & Câmpian, Veronica, 2023. "Qualitative analysis of customer behavior in the retail industry during the COVID-19 pandemic: A word-cloud and sentiment analysis approach," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    9. Sit, Kokho Jason & Ballantyne, Erica E.F. & Gorst, Jonathan, 2022. "Profiling shoppers’ coping behaviours during a pandemic crisis: A regulatory focus perspective," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    10. Anca Monica Brata & Aurelia Ioana Chereji & Vlad Dumitru Brata & Anamaria Aurelia Morna & Olivia Paula Tirpe & Anca Popa & Felix H. Arion & Loredana Ioana Banszki & Ioan Chereji & Dorin Popa & Iulia C, 2022. "Consumers’ Perception towards Organic Products before and after the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study in Bihor County, Romania," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-14, October.
    11. Mostafa Ghodsi & Ali Ardestani & Arash Rasaizadi & Seyednaser Ghadamgahi & Hao Yang, 2021. "How COVID-19 Pandemic Affected Urban Trips? Structural Interpretive Model of Online Shopping and Passengers Trips during the Pandemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-15, October.
    12. Aybegüm Güngördü Belbağ, 2022. "Impacts of Covid‐19 pandemic on consumer behavior in Turkey: A qualitative study," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(1), pages 339-358, March.
    13. Yilan Xu & Wookjae Heo & Diane Elizabeth Kiss & Soo Hyun Cho & Michael S. Gutter, 2022. "Pushing or clicking the grocery cart? Health and economic concerns during the COVID‐19 pandemic," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(4), pages 1658-1682, December.
    14. Ellen Van Droogenbroeck & Léon Van Hove, 2021. "Adoption and usage of E-grocery shopping: A context-specific UTAUT2 model," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/324918, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    15. Xiaojing Sheng & Seth C. Ketron & Yubing Wan, 2022. "Identifying consumer segments based on COVID‐19 pandemic perceptions and responses," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(1), pages 34-67, March.
    16. Herwartz, Helmut & Reimers, Hans-Eggert, 2006. "Modelling the Fisher hypothesis: World wide evidence," Economics Working Papers 2006-04, Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, Department of Economics.
    17. Antzoulatos, Angelos A., 1998. "Macroeconomic forecasts under the prism of error-correction models," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 50(6), pages 535-550, November.
    18. Burton Hollifield & Robert A. Miller & Patrik Sandås, 2004. "Empirical Analysis of Limit Order Markets," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 71(4), pages 1027-1063.
    19. Bilal Mehmood & Syed Hassan Raza & Mahwish Rana & Huma Sohaib & Muhammad Azhar Khan, 2014. "Triangular Relationship between Energy Consumption, Price Index and National Income in Asian Countries: A Pooled Mean Group Approach in Presence of Structural Breaks," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 4(4), pages 610-620.
    20. Farmer, Roger E.A. & Nicolò, Giovanni, 2018. "Keynesian economics without the Phillips curve," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 137-150.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Agribusiness; Demand and Price Analysis;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:ags:aesc22:321169. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic 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.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aesukea.html .

    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.