Suparna Biswas

Job Market Paper

Effects of Corporate Rebranding: A Difference-in-Differences Approach, Suparna Biswas, and Katherine Harris-Lagoudakis

Abstract: We examine the market impact of PepsiCo's decision to rebrand Aunt Jemima to Pearl Milling Company following George Floyd's death and the nationwide protests of May 2020. The rebranding removed both the imagery and the century-old brand name amid heightened social awareness, as companies reassessed products subject to public scrutiny. Using NielsenIQ retail scanner data, we study the rebranding’s impact on brand performance across regions with varying political and demographic characteristics. We compare Aunt Jemima’s share of syrup sales with that of competing brands within the same store (a brand-level difference-in-differences) and with matched stores whose leading syrup brand was different (an event study). Aunt Jemima’s market share falls by roughly 2 to 9 percentage points depending on specification and window, and the decline is larger in counties with a larger Black population share, a pattern that appears in both designs. A volume decomposition and a specification excluding the months of most acute pandemic disruption indicate that this decline is not attributable to concurrent pandemic-era shifts in grocery purchasing.

Work in Progress

Collusive Efforts and Market Power: Analyzing the Canned Tuna Industry, Suparna Biswas, John M. Crespi, and Katherine Harris-Lagoudakis (draft available soon)

Abstract: In this paper we examine the relationship between collusive efforts like product downsizing, list price announcements, and market power in the canned tuna industry. The reduction in can sizes, which began in July 2008, is one of several coordinated actions by these major brands, which collectively hold about 80 percent of the market share. Other collusive efforts included price-fixing agreements in 2011 and 2012, and attempts to restrict the production of Fish Aggregating Device (FAD)-free tuna products, alongside limitations on promotional activities. Drawing on retail scanner data from NielsenIQ from 2007 through 2015, we analyze how these coordinated actions impacted the price per ounce and shifts in market power. In this analysis, we utilize a logit demand model, estimated with instrumental variables, to estimate the marginal effects of price, which, together with market shares, are then used to determine probabilistic demand elasticity as an indicator of market power for the major tuna brands. The tuna companies' pricing decisions are modeled such that they are based on the probability of selling their products rather than on actual quantities sold, with each company setting its manufacturer price to maximize expected profit from a probabilistic model of consumer choice. We observe how this measure of market power changes over this time frame. Furthermore, we examine the changes in market power before and after these collusive strategies were implemented.

Publication

Book Chapter

Suparna Biswas & Saumitra N. Bhaduri, 2023. "The Role of Internal Capital Markets During Financial Stress," India Studies in Business and Economics, in: D. K. Srivastava & K. R. Shanmugam (ed.), India’s Contemporary Macroeconomic Themes, chapter 23, pages 543-570, Springer.

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