Stéphane Turolla

Retail Mergers and Food Prices: Evidence from France

This paper analyzes the impact of a merger in the French supermarket industry on food prices. Using consumer panel data, we compare the changes in prices for merging and rival firms in affected and comparison markets. We use a novel definition of affected markets when some firms have a local pricing strategy and others a more centralized pricing strategy. We find that prices increase significantly following the merger, and that the merging firms lose market shares. For the rivals, the price increases are larger in local markets, in which concentration increased and differentiation changed after the merger.

Vertical Ownership and Export Performance: Firm-Level Evidence from the Food Industry

&NA; This article examines whether ownership arrangements between food firms and intermediaries improve the export performance of the former. We develop a theoretical model of trade with vertically‐linked industries whereby upstream manufacturers compete in export markets and may decide to acquire ownership stakes in an intermediary. The model highlights how more productive firms succeed in managing the double marginalization problem and in reducing the costs of exporting through forward acquisition. The predictions from the model are tested using firm‐level data on the French food industry. The results demonstrate that acquiring an intermediary lowers prices and distribution costs, and reveal that the benefits from forward acquisitions can be quite large. Conversely, we find that vertical ownership creates a market externality among manufacturers due to the reallocation of market shares from small firms to large firms, thereby forcing some low‐productivity firms to exit foreign markets.

Nomenclature de produits et concordance dans le temps. Procédure de correction et analyses de sensibilité

Dans cet article, les auteurs presentent un algorithme permettant un suivi des statistiques de production ou d’echange d’un produit donne, malgre les actualisations frequentes des nomenclatures officielles. L’interet de cette procedure est demontre a travers une application sur les donnees des douanes francaises sur les exportations et importations des produits agroalimentaires. Sans l’application de cette procedure, les gains aux echanges lies a l’introduction de nouvelles varietes peuvent etre surestimes.