Permalink : http://hdl.handle.net/2115/45390

In this paper, we analyzed the influence of the Global Financial Crisis on the grocery-purchasing behavior of consumers in Japan. We used the daily scanner data of a supermarket chain in Hokkaido, aggregated over the top tenbranches in terms of the number of customers between January 2008 and December 2009. We built systems of itemlevel demand functions for four categories: raw eggs, milk (excluding low-fat milk), natto (fermented soybeans), and tofu. Each system was estimated for the pre- and post-crisis periods. The overall results show that, in most of the categories, the consumers became more sensitive to prices after the crisis. With regard to item-level price elasticity, we found three types of changes in the estimates of own- and cross-price elasticities, which were increased own elasticity only, both increased own and cross elasticity, and increased cross elasticity only.