IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/6932.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Prices and Coupons for Breakfast Cereals

Author

Listed:
  • Aviv Nevo
  • Catherine Wolfram

Abstract

This paper explores the relationship between shelf prices and manufacturers' coupons for 25 ready-to-eat breakfast cereals. Contrary to the predictions of static monopoly price discrimination, we find the shelf prices for a particular brand in a particular city are generally lower during periods when coupons are available. We find evidence that is also inconsistent with dynamic theories of pricing that predict lower prices and coupons after periods of low demand, and find little support for explanations of couponing based on the vertical relationship between manufacturers and retailers. We find some support for models of price discrimination in oligopoly settings that suggest inter-brand competition can cause all prices to be lower than the uniform (non-discriminatory) price. We also find some evidence suggesting that firm-wide incentives may induce managers to use coupons and price cuts simultaneously in order, for example, to meet market share targets.

Suggested Citation

  • Aviv Nevo & Catherine Wolfram, 1999. "Prices and Coupons for Breakfast Cereals," NBER Working Papers 6932, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:6932
    Note: IO
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w6932.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nevo, Aviv, 2001. "Measuring Market Power in the Ready-to-Eat Cereal Industry," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 69(2), pages 307-342, March.
    2. Holtz-Eakin, Douglas & Newey, Whitney & Rosen, Harvey S, 1988. "Estimating Vector Autoregressions with Panel Data," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 56(6), pages 1371-1395, November.
    3. Schmalensee, Richard, 1981. "Output and Welfare Implications of Monopolistic Third-Degree Price Discrimination," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(1), pages 242-247, March.
    4. Hausman, Jerry, 2015. "Specification tests in econometrics," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 38(2), pages 112-134.
    5. Richard Schmalensee, 1978. "Entry Deterrence in the Ready-to-Eat Breakfast Cereal Industry," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 9(2), pages 305-327, Autumn.
    6. Joel Sobel, 1984. "The Timing of Sales," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 51(3), pages 353-368.
    7. Griliches, Zvi & Hausman, Jerry A., 1986. "Errors in variables in panel data," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 93-118, February.
    8. Scott A. Neslin & Caroline Henderson & John Quelch, 1985. "Consumer Promotions and the Acceleration of Product Purchases," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 4(2), pages 147-165.
    9. Jeongwen Chiang, 1995. "Competing Coupon Promotions and Category Sales," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 14(1), pages 105-122.
    10. Varian, Hal R., 1989. "Price discrimination," Handbook of Industrial Organization, in: R. Schmalensee & R. Willig (ed.), Handbook of Industrial Organization, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 10, pages 597-654, Elsevier.
    11. Chakravarthi Narasimhan, 1984. "A Price Discrimination Theory of Coupons," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 3(2), pages 128-147.
    12. Varian, Hal R, 1985. "Price Discrimination and Social Welfare," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(4), pages 870-875, September.
    13. Scherer, F M, 1979. "The Welfare Economics of Product Variety: An Application to the Ready-to-Eat Cereals Industry," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(2), pages 113-134, December.
    14. Gerstner, Eitan & Hess, James D., 1991. "Who benefits from large rebates: Manufacturer, retailer or consumer?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 5-8, May.
    15. R. Schmalensee & R. Willig (ed.), 1989. "Handbook of Industrial Organization," Handbook of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 1, number 1.
    16. Lott, John R, Jr & Roberts, Russell D, 1991. "A Guide to the Pitfalls of Identifying Price Discrimination," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 29(1), pages 14-23, January.
    17. Kenneth S. Corts, 1998. "Third-Degree Price Discrimination in Oligopoly: All-Out Competition and Strategic Commitment," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 29(2), pages 306-323, Summer.
    18. Scott A. Neslin, 1990. "A Market Response Model for Coupon Promotions," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 9(2), pages 125-145.
    19. Jonq-Ying Lee & Mark G. Brown, 1985. "Coupon Redemption and the Demand for Frozen Concentrated Orange Juice: A Switching Regression Analysis," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 67(3), pages 647-653.
    20. Gerstner, Eitan & Hess, James D & Holthausen, Duncan M, 1994. "Price Discrimination through a Distribution Channel: Theory and Evidence," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(5), pages 1437-1445, December.
    21. Eppen, Gary D & Liebermann, Yehoshua, 1984. "Why Do Retailers Deal? An Inventory Explanation," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 57(4), pages 519-530, October.
    22. 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.
    23. Severin Borenstein, 1985. "Price Discrimination in Free-Entry Markets," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 16(3), pages 380-397, Autumn.
    24. R. Schmalensee & R. Willig (ed.), 1989. "Handbook of Industrial Organization," Handbook of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 2, number 2.
    25. 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. Marko Ogorevc & Miroslav VerbiÄ, 2013. "Ownership and wages: spatial econometric approach," International Journal of Sustainable Economy, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 5(2), pages 207-224.
    2. David Weiskopf, 2000. "The Impact of Omitting Promotion Variables on Simulation Experiments," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(2), pages 159-166.
    3. Price, Gregory K. & Connor, John M., 2002. "The Determinants Of Coupon Discounts For Breakfast Cereals," 2002 Annual meeting, July 28-31, Long Beach, CA 19838, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    4. Nevo, Aviv, 2001. "Measuring Market Power in the Ready-to-Eat Cereal Industry," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 69(2), pages 307-342, March.
    5. Gregory K. Price & John M. Connor, 2003. "Modeling coupon values for ready-to-eat breakfast cereals," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(2), pages 223-243.

    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. Stole, Lars A., 2007. "Price Discrimination and Competition," Handbook of Industrial Organization, in: Mark Armstrong & Robert Porter (ed.), Handbook of Industrial Organization, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 34, pages 2221-2299, Elsevier.
    2. Aguirre Pérez, Iñaki, 2011. "Multimarket Competition and Welfare Effects of Price discrimination," IKERLANAK info:eu-repo/grantAgreeme, Universidad del País Vasco - Departamento de Fundamentos del Análisis Económico I.
    3. Simon P. Anderson & Régis Renault, 2011. "Price Discrimination," Chapters, in: André de Palma & Robin Lindsey & Emile Quinet & Roger Vickerman (ed.), A Handbook of Transport Economics, chapter 22, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    4. Aguirre Iñaki, 2016. "On the Economics of the “Meeting Competition Defense” Under the Robinson–Patman Act," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 16(3), pages 1213-1238, September.
    5. Yi-Chun (Chad) Ho & Yi-Jen (Ian) Ho & Yong Tan, 2017. "Online Cash-back Shopping: Implications for Consumers and e-Businesses," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 28(2), pages 250-264, June.
    6. Imke Reimers & Claire (Chunying) Xie, 2019. "Do Coupons Expand or Cannibalize Revenue? Evidence from an e-Market," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(1), pages 286-300, January.
    7. Simshauser, Paul, 2018. "Price discrimination and the modes of failure in deregulated retail electricity markets," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 54-70.
    8. Simshauser, Paul & Whish-Wilson, Patrick, 2017. "Price discrimination in Australia's retail electricity markets: An analysis of Victoria & Southeast Queensland," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 92-103.
    9. (Catherine) Zhang, Jie & Savage, Scott J. & Chen, Yongmin, 2015. "Consumer uncertainty and price discrimination through online coupons: An empirical study of restaurants in Shanghai," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 43-55.
    10. Igal Hendel & Aviv Nevo, 2013. "Intertemporal Price Discrimination in Storable Goods Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(7), pages 2722-2751, December.
    11. Alan Kirman & Sonia Moulet & Rainer Schulz, 2008. "Price Discrimination and Customer Behaviour: Empirical Evidence from Marseille," Working Papers halshs-00349036, HAL.
    12. Elias Deutscher, 2022. "Brand bidding restraints revisited – What is the appropriate economic and legal framework for the antitrust analysis of vertical online search advertising restraints?," Working Paper series, University of East Anglia, Centre for Competition Policy (CCP) 2021-09, Centre for Competition Policy, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK..
    13. He, Qingxin & Zheng, Xiaoyong, 2020. "Price discrimination across different ticket distribution channels: Evidence from the US-china flight market," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    14. Simon Cowan, 2016. "Welfare-increasing third-degree price discrimination," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 47(2), pages 326-340, May.
    15. David Besanko & Jean-Pierre Dubé & Sachin Gupta, 2003. "Competitive Price Discrimination Strategies in a Vertical Channel Using Aggregate Retail Data," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 49(9), pages 1121-1138, September.
    16. Jean-Pierre Dubé & Zheng Fang & Nathan Fong & Xueming Luo, 2017. "Competitive Price Targeting with Smartphone Coupons," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 36(6), pages 944-975, November.
    17. Sofia Berto Villas‐Boas, 2009. "An empirical investigation of the welfare effects of banning wholesale price discrimination," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 40(1), pages 20-46, March.
    18. Morten Hviid & Greg Shaffer, 2012. "Optimal low-price guarantees with anchoring," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 10(4), pages 393-417, December.
    19. Asplund, Marcus & Eriksson, Rickard & Strand, Niklas, 2001. "Price Discrimination in Oligopoly: Evidence from Swedish Newspapers," SSE/EFI Working Paper Series in Economics and Finance 468, Stockholm School of Economics, revised 01 Jan 2007.
    20. Cotterill, Ronald W & Putsis, William P, Jr & Dhar, Ravi, 2000. "Assessing the Competitive Interaction between Private Labels and National Brands," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 73(1), pages 109-137, January.

    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:nbr:nberwo:6932. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.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.