Title: Why does the average price of tuna fall during Lent?
Description: "For many products the average price paid by consumers falls during periods of high demand.  We use information from a large supermarket chain to decompose the decrease in the average price into a substitution effect, due to an increase in the share of cheaper products, and a price reduction effect.  We find that for almost all the products we study the substitution effect explains a large part of the decrease.  We estimate demand for these products and show the price declines are consistent with a change in demand elasticity and the relative demand for different brands.  Our findings are less consistent with "loss-leader" models of retail competition"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.
Subjects: Case studies, Chicago, Consumer goods, Demand (Economic theory), Econometric models, Mathematical models, Prices, Tuna
Places: Chicago, Illinois