Market Structure and Competition in Food Retail: Some Evidences from Brazil

G.F.A. Monterio, Elizabeth Maria Mercier Querido Farina and R. Nunes

No 44199, 2008 International Congress, August 26-29, 2008, Ghent, Belgium from European Association of Agricultural Economists

Abstract: The paper analyzes competition among supermarkets in Brazil. In contrast to part of the economic literature which suggests that the fast growth of big supermarket chains would destroy independent, medium and small supermarkets, the paper argues that big supermarket chains can coexist with different formats of independent food retailing. As a result, competition in food retail is complex and cannot be described as a simple Darwinian process of market concentration. The analysis is divided in two parts. In the first part, the competition between hypermarkets and supermarkets is examined. Evidences for the district of Sao Paulo, Brazil, suggest that these retailers form separate markets. The second part is focused on neighborhood supermarkets. The results differ from the general belief that independent supermarkets establish higher prices in comparison to big chain supermarkets. The analysis brings to light the heterogeneity of the competitive fringe in the oligopoly model of Brazilian retailing.

Keywords: Agribusiness; Industrial Organization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 14
Date: 2008
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-com, nep-cse, nep-ind and nep-mic
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:eaae08:44199

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.44199

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