Price Transmission Analysis: the Case of Milk Products in Russia

This paper investigates vertical price transmission along the milk supply chain in the Russian market using a vector autoregression model. Monthly farm-gate and retail prices were used in the analysis. Using cointegration technique, we find no empirical evidence for cointegration between farm-gate and retail prices. We show that there is bidirectional Granger causality from farm to retail prices and vice versa. However, response of the farm-gate price to a change in retail price is greater and slightly longer than price response of the retail price to a change at the farm level. The results support the assumption that price changes are not transmitted efficiently from one level to another.