Slicer, Ian H. (1977) Unilever and economic power : a study of the market for margarine in the United Kingdom. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Preview

Text WRAP_thesis_Slicer_1977.pdf - Submitted Version Download (11Mb) | Preview

Request Changes to record.

Abstract

This analysis of the margarine industry in the presence of Unilever,
identifies and examines the economic issues of structure, behaviour
and performance, against a background of policy issues related to
international trade, concentration and nutrition. The major divisions
of the thesis are (i) the political and international trade issues
(ii) propaganda and advertising (iii) the nutrition problem (iv) margarine
demand (v) the degree of monopoly in the margarine industry
(vi) Government White Papers and multinational corporate activity.'
An attempt is made, both by descriptive and empirical treatment of the
subject matter, to demonstrate the danger inherent in the oligopolistic
manipulation of consumer demand and public opinion by propaganda
and advertising, and to consider the evidence of resource wasteage.
Empirical work, mainly be using techniques of multivariate regression
analysis, tests issues in the nutrition problem and also estimates
aggregate demand functions for margarine as well as estimating the
change in performance due to changing structure and performance.
Attention is also paid to the influence of oligopolistic price
adjustment in the macroeconomic problem of inflation. The main thrust
lies in the direction of considering adjustment problems in time series
data. In demand estimation it is shown by allowing for quality variation
and by allowing the influence of advertising to build up over time, that
whilst aggregate demand for margarine appears to remain uninfluenced by
advertising expenditure, substantially higher values are obtained than
are usual for own price elasticity. In relation to the performance
issue, the results indicate a more rapid adjustment to changes in the
aggregate advertising variable than are usually obtained. Results
are also reported which suggest that price adjustment to cost
changes are rapid, and this is attributed to the structure of
margarine production.
Apart from technical issues the main conclusions are that the
nutrition controversy is being influenced unduly by propaganda
and that independently of this, resource wasteage by the margarine
oligopoly would be reduced by an increase in competition, and by
the control of advertising. Again it is suggested gains, in
relation to the problem of UK self sufficiency and in relation to
the problem of inflation, could be expected following an increase
in competition. The benefits of the control of costs as well as
prices are considered as an alternative policy measure.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Unilever (Firm), Margarine industry , Marketing -- Management, Product management
Official Date:	August 1977
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Economics
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Cowling, Keith
Extent:	vii, 247 leaves
Language:	eng

Request changes or add full text files to a record

Repository staff actions (login required)

View Item

Downloads