Identifying and characterising price leadership in British supermarkets

B-Tier
Journal: International Journal of Industrial Organization
Year: 2013
Volume: 31
Issue: 5
Pages: 392-403

Authors (2)

Seaton, Jonathan S. (not in RePEc) Waterson, Michael (University of Warwick)

Score contribution per author:

1.005 = (α=2.01 / 2 authors) × 1.0x B-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

Price leadership is a concept that lacks precision. We propose a deliberately narrow, falsifiable, definition then develop it, illustrate its feasibility and test it using the two leading British supermarket chains. We find both firms engaging in leading prices upward over a range of products, with the larger being initially more dominant but the smaller increasing leadership activity to take overall leadership over time. However, more price leadership events are price reductions than price increases, consistently led by the smaller firm. Nevertheless, the increases are of larger monetary amounts than the falls, so average basket price increases over time.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:eee:indorg:v:31:y:2013:i:5:p:392-403
Journal Field
Industrial Organization
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-29