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