Urban food prices under lockdown: Evidence from Myanmar’s traditional food retail sector during COVID-19
Many governments imposed stringent lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic as a public health measure to suppress the spread of the disease. With consumer incomes already depressed, the potential impacts of these measures on urban food prices are of particular concern. This working paper examines the...
| Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
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| Formato: | Artículo preliminar |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés |
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International Food Policy Research Institute
2021
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/143885 |
| _version_ | 1855537477007179776 |
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| author | Goeb, Joseph Maredia, Mywish K. Win, Khin Zin Masias, Ian Lambrecht, Isabel B. Boughton, Duncan Minten, Bart |
| author_browse | Boughton, Duncan Goeb, Joseph Lambrecht, Isabel B. Maredia, Mywish K. Masias, Ian Minten, Bart Win, Khin Zin |
| author_facet | Goeb, Joseph Maredia, Mywish K. Win, Khin Zin Masias, Ian Lambrecht, Isabel B. Boughton, Duncan Minten, Bart |
| author_sort | Goeb, Joseph |
| collection | Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace) |
| description | Many governments imposed stringent lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic as a public health measure to suppress the spread of the disease. With consumer incomes already depressed, the potential impacts of these measures on urban food prices are of particular concern. This working paper examines the changes in Myanmar’s urban food prices during lockdown using detailed food price data collected from a panel of phone surveys conducted in August and September 2020 of 431 family-owned retail shops in Myanmar’s two largest cities, Yangon and Mandalay. We find that the supply side of Myanmar’s food retail sector was largely resilient to the shocks and lockdowns throughout the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Estimates from a fixed effects differencein-differences model reveal that food prices were 3 percent higher in townships under lockdown compared to those not under lockdown, a statistically significant but modest effect. Lockdowns had smaller effects on prices for highly processed food items sourced directly from companies, but larger effects on prices for raw or lightly processed commodities sourced through wholesale markets, which comprise a larger share of urban consumer’s diets. Retailer margins did not change significantly under lockdown restrictions, suggesting no evidence of price gouging. Overall, our findings of a modest impact of the lockdown on urban food prices underscore the importance of keeping the food supply chain–including wholesale markets and retail shops–functioning as completely and as safely as possible during times of crisis, as was mostly the case early in the crisis for the two cities in this study. |
| format | Artículo preliminar |
| id | CGSpace143885 |
| institution | CGIAR Consortium |
| language | Inglés |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| publishDateRange | 2021 |
| publishDateSort | 2021 |
| publisher | International Food Policy Research Institute |
| publisherStr | International Food Policy Research Institute |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | CGSpace1438852025-12-08T10:11:39Z Urban food prices under lockdown: Evidence from Myanmar’s traditional food retail sector during COVID-19 Goeb, Joseph Maredia, Mywish K. Win, Khin Zin Masias, Ian Lambrecht, Isabel B. Boughton, Duncan Minten, Bart retail marketing supply chains surveys covid-19 urban areas retail prices food prices diet retail markets Many governments imposed stringent lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic as a public health measure to suppress the spread of the disease. With consumer incomes already depressed, the potential impacts of these measures on urban food prices are of particular concern. This working paper examines the changes in Myanmar’s urban food prices during lockdown using detailed food price data collected from a panel of phone surveys conducted in August and September 2020 of 431 family-owned retail shops in Myanmar’s two largest cities, Yangon and Mandalay. We find that the supply side of Myanmar’s food retail sector was largely resilient to the shocks and lockdowns throughout the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Estimates from a fixed effects differencein-differences model reveal that food prices were 3 percent higher in townships under lockdown compared to those not under lockdown, a statistically significant but modest effect. Lockdowns had smaller effects on prices for highly processed food items sourced directly from companies, but larger effects on prices for raw or lightly processed commodities sourced through wholesale markets, which comprise a larger share of urban consumer’s diets. Retailer margins did not change significantly under lockdown restrictions, suggesting no evidence of price gouging. Overall, our findings of a modest impact of the lockdown on urban food prices underscore the importance of keeping the food supply chain–including wholesale markets and retail shops–functioning as completely and as safely as possible during times of crisis, as was mostly the case early in the crisis for the two cities in this study. 2021-05-24 2024-05-22T12:17:47Z 2024-05-22T12:17:47Z Working Paper https://hdl.handle.net/10568/143885 en https://doi.org/10.1080/00036846.2022.2044999 Open Access application/pdf International Food Policy Research Institute Goeb, Joseph; Maredia, Mywish K.; Win, Khin Zin; Masias, Ian; Lambrecht, Isabel; Boughton, Duncan; and Minten, Bart. 2021. Urban food prices under lockdown: Evidence from Myanmar’s traditional food retail sector during COVID-19. Myanmar SSP Working Paper 11. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134418. |
| spellingShingle | retail marketing supply chains surveys covid-19 urban areas retail prices food prices diet retail markets Goeb, Joseph Maredia, Mywish K. Win, Khin Zin Masias, Ian Lambrecht, Isabel B. Boughton, Duncan Minten, Bart Urban food prices under lockdown: Evidence from Myanmar’s traditional food retail sector during COVID-19 |
| title | Urban food prices under lockdown: Evidence from Myanmar’s traditional food retail sector during COVID-19 |
| title_full | Urban food prices under lockdown: Evidence from Myanmar’s traditional food retail sector during COVID-19 |
| title_fullStr | Urban food prices under lockdown: Evidence from Myanmar’s traditional food retail sector during COVID-19 |
| title_full_unstemmed | Urban food prices under lockdown: Evidence from Myanmar’s traditional food retail sector during COVID-19 |
| title_short | Urban food prices under lockdown: Evidence from Myanmar’s traditional food retail sector during COVID-19 |
| title_sort | urban food prices under lockdown evidence from myanmar s traditional food retail sector during covid 19 |
| topic | retail marketing supply chains surveys covid-19 urban areas retail prices food prices diet retail markets |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/143885 |
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