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This research analyzes several facets of oligopolistic conduct and market performance in the food system. It seeks to understand strategic pricing and advertising, the impact of advertising on kids, via possibly increased consumption of high fat and sweetened foods.<P> It will also investigate the effects of MSG content on food addiction, including the role of advertising and pricing strategies. It will examine scanner data for salty snacks. No previous research have focused on salty snacks and MSG or the role of advertising in shaping addiction. It also will investigate the effects of children's presence on buying decisions in the supermarket. The covered products are candy, breakfast cereals and salty snacks. The literature on this is from the 1970's.<P> This will be the first study that uses a large data set of actual purchases in supermarkets to analyze the issue. Another component focuses on supermarket accessibility with particular attention on the impact of area crime risk on supermarket access. The impact of crime has largely been ignored in previous research. With space-time nature of this research our analysis will be directed toward understanding the dynamics of supermarket access over a 10 year period. It will also examine the impact of Wal-Mart on prices.<P> Finally we analyze changes in agribusiness organization over the past 20 years and the role of public policy in the process. All of this research will produce policy oriented analysis of agribusiness organization issues that will be disseminated in policy forums and journals.
Non-Technical Summary: The role of advertising, product differentiation and pricing of food products is of deep interest to policymakers who seek to address the obesity epidemic and more generally marketing strategies and antitrust policy. This work will expand our knowledge by introducing dynamic models with more than one strategic choice variable. They will permit more general analysis of policy issues. <P> Approach: Reduced form and structural models of pricing will evaluate policy options in antitrust and nutrition policy areas. Alternatively we will use link functions to allow for asymmetric response to market variables. New Bayesian and classical econometric estimations methods will be developed to estimate these complex link functions. Nielsen price and advertising data will be used. GIS analysis will be used to measure consumer's access for food.