Food Banks and Retail Markups

John D Lowrey, Timothy J Richards and Stephen Hamilton

European Review of Agricultural Economics, 2022, vol. 49, issue 5, 1027-1055

Abstract: Food banks play a critical part in the food distribution system. In this paper, we examine the impact of food bank donations on retailer markups using data on donations and store-level productivity. We frame our empirical model of food bank donations and store-level markups as an example of quality-based price discrimination and find that stores that donate more food to the local food bank are able to charge higher markups—33% higher—after controlling for the well-known endogeneity problems. Our findings suggest that donations are not just charitable gestures by retailers but are in their own self-interests.

Keywords: food banks; food retailing; markups; price discrimination; production economics; D43; L13; M31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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European Review of Agricultural Economics is currently edited by Timothy Richards, Salvatore Di Falco, Céline Nauges and Vincenzina Caputo

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