Price Transmission along the European Food Supply Chain in Selected Northern-Southern Countries

Abstract

This study intends to estimate the different characteristics of price transmission and aims to test the hypothesis of price transmission asymmetry based on agricultural, processor and consumer monthly series of price indexes from 2005 to 2012 in 8 European countries from both Southern and Northern Europe and via the use of time series as well as econometric approaches such as co-intergation and error correction models. The results obtained reveal that price transmission has very small magnitude. Indeed, just 10 to 12% of price shocks at one level are corrected in the long-run by prices at another level both downstream and upstream of the food supply chain. The results also show that prices are transmitted mutually in both directions downstream and upstream the food supply chain in the two European groups. Furthermore, they indicate that in the long-run prices are transmitted symmetrically both downstream and upstream of the food supply chains in Northern as well as in Southern Europe. Finally, in the short-run different conclusions are found depending on the region.