Effects of Package Size on Household Food Purchases

Cakir, Metin; Balagtas, Joseph Valdes; Okrent, Abigail M.; Urbina-Ramirez, Mariana

doi:10.1093/aepp/ppz019

Cited by 7 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Çakır et al. (2021) show that food manufacturers’ decisions to move to smaller package sizes significantly reduces household purchase volume, which indicates a positive correlation between package size and food‐at‐home consumption. All these suggest a role for regulation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Time preferences and obesity: Evidence from urban India

Dang

2023

Agricultural Economics

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This article examines the relationship between agents’ behavioral attributes (or time preferences) and the problem of obesity and, more generally, problems of both overnutrition and undernutrition. Through a primary survey in western Delhi data were gathered on participants’ food choices and body mass index. Time preferences, as posited by the (β,δ${{\beta}},{{\delta}}$) quasi‐hyperbolic discounting model, were elicited using an incentivized, choice‐based experiment. Estimating a simultaneous two‐equation model, the article finds that individuals in the sample with lower β and/or lower δ (or higher time preferences) make unhealthy food choices, which, in turn, significantly increases their BMI. In addition, a supplementary empirical exercise analyzes a large, secondary unit record data set, with savings as a proxy for time preferences, to provide evidence that these behavioral attributes also explain the problem of underweight (germane in developing countries).

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Time preferences and obesity: Evidence from urban India

Dang

2023

Agricultural Economics

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“…Meeker (2021) estimated the degree of inattention in the US black pepper market. Çakır et al (2021) analyzed consumer panel data on peanut butter and tuna purchases, and found that downsizing reduces a consumer's purchase volume of the product. Building on these works, I compare the sales effects of downsizing and package price increases through counterfactual analysis and provide clear‐cut measures of short‐ and long‐run relative impacts of downsizing on the product's demand.…”

Section: Related Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Consumers' preference for downsizing over package price increases

Kim

2023

Economics Manag Strategy

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In this paper, I study how and why consumers react differently to package downsizing and package price increases that result in the same degree of unit price increases. Utilizing differential responses of South Korean milk manufacturers to the production cost rise in 2018, I first show that consumers strongly prefer downsizing to package price increases, and this tendency does not diminish over time. Then, I develop a theoretical model whose prediction is consistent with the empirical findings, providing a simple but novel explanation of why fully informed consumers would be less sensitive to downsizing than package price increases.

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“…Studies focusing on food intake have generally found that package size and food consumption are positively related (Zlatevska et al, 2014). For example, in a recent study, Çakır et al (2019) investigate household purchase volume before and after a downsizing event and find that smaller package size significantly reduces household purchase volume while the effect on the number of packages purchased is statistically insignificant.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Retail pass‐through of package downsizing

Cakir

2021

Agribusiness

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The package downsizing strategy allows a manufacturer to raise unit prices while maintaining package prices in a range acceptable to consumers. The success of the strategy depends on the retailers' ability to transmit the cost of downsized products into consumer prices at higher rates compared to transmitting equivalent increases in the cost of nondownsized products. In this article, we test this hypothesis by empirically analyzing the retailers' pass‐through behavior in response to downsizing. Using data on ice cream purchases, our main finding is that downsizing is significantly associated with the price pass‐through. On average, downsized products' pass‐through rate is 8.4 percentage points higher than the rate for nondownsized products. An important implication of this result is that in competitive environments in which manufacturers prefer to avoid substantial increases in package prices, downsizing could be a win–win strategy for manufacturers and retailers in response to increasing production costs. [EconLit Citations M31, D12, D4].

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Effects of Package Size on Household Food Purchases

Cited by 7 publications

References 36 publications

Time preferences and obesity: Evidence from urban India

Time preferences and obesity: Evidence from urban India

Consumers' preference for downsizing over package price increases

Retail pass‐through of package downsizing

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