Specific Objectives of the Project:
To pilot an efficiency wage field experiment leading to a larger grant application using a large-scale provider of temporary labor in California.

Project Report/Summary of Results:
We engaged in initial, positive conversations with a partner firm, including the signing of a data agreement. These conversations were put on hold as that firm underwent a merger and restructured and then further delayed as our chief contact at that firm left for another position.

We are currently working to rebuild connections at the firm to explore the viability of the project moving forward. We are hoping to receive an extension of support to hire a graduate student GSR to work on rebuilding these relationships.

Do changes in food commodity prices have asymmetric effects on retail grocery prices? For years, farmers, consumer advocates and others have argued that grocery store prices rise rapidly in response to increases in commodity prices, but do not fall equally rapidly when commodity prices drop. We examine pricing in both stores that have regular sales and those that use everyday low pricing and rarely have sales. For both types of stores, we find very little evidence for asymmetric price adjustment. We believe that some earlier studies found asymmetric adjustments because they did not use narrowly defined products, control for all the main factor prices, and use state-of-the-arts estimation procedures.