Ready for a new leap in food prices
Øystein Foros and Frode Steen: Food prices skyrocket in February and July. It is normal, but the jumps were extra large last year.
Professor Frode Steen
- Frode.Steen@nhh.no
- Telephone
- +47 55 95 92 59
- Department
- Economics
- Centre
- FOOD CBE
- Office
- D226
- Expertise
- Competition Economics Industrial Organization
BIOGRAPHY
Frode Steen has been a professor since 2004. Presently he is the holder of NHH’s NorgesGruppen-professorship in Competition Economics on grocery Markets. He has since 2005 been a research fellow in the Centre for Economic Policy Design (CEPR). He is also a permanent member of the Norwegian Competition Tribunal. He received his PhD degree from NHH in 1995, and he has an MA in Economics from the University in Bergen from 1991.
He is working in the field of econometrics and empirical Industrial Organization, and have undertaken studies of several industries and markets; telecom/media, cement, shipping, airline, gasoline, grocery, salmon etc. The last ten years he has focused in particularly on grocery-, gasoline- and airline markets. A primary interest in his work is related to market power, cartels and their functioning. His research publications have appeared in journals as e.g., American Economic Review, The Economic Journal, American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, European Economic Review and Scandinavian Journal of Economics.
He has an extensive experience as external competition expert in sector specific regulation and competition cases both in Norway and outside Norway. This involves written and/or oral testimonies in several competition policy cases, involving cartel overcharge estimations, predatory pricing, and merger control and regulation matters in court in several countries. He has also been involved in a number of private litigation cases, estimating competitive- or regulatory damage.
Selected publications
| Author(s) | Title | Publisher |
|---|---|---|
| Hyytinen, Ari; Steen, Frode; Toivanen, Otto | Cartels Uncovered | American Economic Journal: Microeconomics Volume 10 (4); page 190 - 222; 2018 |
| Foros, Øystein; Steen, Frode | Vertical Control and Price Cycles in Gasoline Retailing | The Scandinavian Journal of Economics Volume 115 (3); page 640 - 661; 2013 |
| Röller, Lars-Hendrik; Steen, Frode | On the workings of a cartel: Evidence from the Norwegian cement industry | The American Economic Review Volume 96 (1); page 321 - 338; 2006 |
| Sørgard, Lars; Steen, Frode | Semicollusion in the Norwegian cement market | European Economic Review Volume 43 (9); page 1775 - 1796; 1999 |
| Steen, Frode; Salvanes, Kjell G. | Testing for market power using a dynamic oligopoly model | International Journal of Industrial Organization Volume 17 (2); page 147 - 177; 1999 |
Research in progress
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“The effect of cross-border shopping on commodity tax revenue: Results from a natural experiment”, 2022, co-authored with Richard Friberg, Emil M. Strøm Halseth and Simen A. Ulsaker, DP 9/2022, Department of Economics, NHH. Forthcoming in Scandinavian Journal of Economics.
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“Co-location, good, bad or both: How does new entry of discount variety stores affect local grocery business?“, 2021, co-authored with Charlotte B. Evensen and Simen A. Ulsaker, Fortcoming in Journal of European Economic Association: https://doi.org/10.1093/jeea/jvad074
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“Unemployment shocks, cyclical prices and shopping behavior”, 2021, co-authored with Thor Andreas Aursland and Simen A. Ulsaker, DP 03/2021, Department of Economics, NHH
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“Asymmetric cost transmission and market power: An examination of the Swedish retail gasoline market.”. 2022, coauthored with Ritvana Rrukaj, WP NHH.
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“Measuring Market Power in Gasoline Retailing: A Market- or Station Phenomenon?”, (with Mai Nguyen-Ones).
TEACHING AREAS
Competition Law
Dissemination
Industry leaders to discuss new trading legislation Navn
On 11 March, the grocery industry will be attending a conference in Oslo on the topic ‘death of the high street and the industry shift’. ‘There is no shortage of excitement in the grocery industry,’ says head of FOOD Frode Steen.
It is no longer as simple as cheap refuel on certain days
Øystein Foros and Frode Steen: Customers do not get to know when petrol prices are at their lowest.
An Anatomy of Cartel Contracts
The article "An Anatomy of Cartel Contracts" by Ari Hyytinen, Frode Steen and Otto Toivanen has been accepted for publication by the Economic Journal.
Sugar taxation in Norway
Most people seem to agree; a reduction in sugar content in grocery products is overall positive. However, which means to use to obtain such a reduction, is under debate.
Stations are Coordinating Petrol Prices
NHH researchers Øystein Foros (t.h) and Frode Steen believe that petrol stations in Norway are coordinating petrol prices, something that costs customers money. By publishing recommended retail prices on their web pages the players in the market can adjust their prices to one another. Today the market follows a cycle with the highest price occurring on Monday and the cheapest petrol on Sunday. Now, Foros and Steen stress that the companies must be forbidden from publishing recommended retail prices on the internet.