Does market structure influence price transmission in the agro-food sector?

摘要

There exists a large literature on price transmission in agro-food sectors. However,uda great majority of empirical studies focus on the existence of asymmetry and, byudand large, do not investigate the reason for its presence or absence. This is in sharpudcontrast to the theoretical literature that provides a number of explanations of whyudwe should expect (a)symmetry. In response, this paper investigates the reasons forudasymmetric price transmission in the agro-food chain, using meta-analysis of exist-uding studies. Our focus is on the organizational and institutional characteristics ofudthe agro-food supply chain. Our findings suggest that asymmetric price transmis-udsion in farmud–udretail relationships is more likely to occur in sectors/countries withudmore fragmented farm structure, higher governmental support and more restrictiveudregulations on price controls in the retail sector. On the other hand, more restric-udtive regulations on entry barriers in the retail sector and the relative importance ofudthe sector tend to promote symmetric farmud–udretail price transmission. The latter isudalso more likely in the presence of a strong processing industr