Buying Power in Uk Retail Chains: A Residual Supply Approach

The growth of large supermarket chains has raised concerns that these companies can exploit oligopsony power. In this article, we specify a residual supply schedule to investigate the degree of oligopsony power in seafood retailing. Based on the residual supply elasticity, one can also derive a Lerner-type index to measure the degree of market power. Our empirical analysis of the largest supermarket chains in the United Kingdom provide no evidence of oligopsony power for three key seafood products, cod, salmon and shrimp.© Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.