Demand Elasticities for Fresh Fruit at the Retail Level

The obesity epidemic in the US and elsewhere has re-doubled efforts to understand determinants of the quality of consumers' diets. Part of the discussion has centered on the potential of "fat taxes" and/or the subsidization of the purchase of fresh fruits and vegetables to coax consumers to better diets. Whether this discussion has merit or not, fundamental to the debate are the demand elasticities of the commodities involved. This study employs weekly data from several retail stores on fruit prices and sales to estimate elasticities of individual fruits. Estimates show consumers are more responsive to price than has been found previously