Substituting hake with sardines? Economic crisis and fish demand in Spain

Abstract

The main objective of this paper is to investigate the existence of an economic crisis-induced demand shift in the Spanish fish market. This is performed by endogenously examining whether the existence of a structural break in fish price trends around 2008, corresponding to the collapse of the Spanish economy, together with an asymmetric and specific price behavior regarding the sign and magnitude of the expected income elasticities of three staple fish species (i.e., sardine, anchovy and hake). Our data corroborate not only the structural break hypothesis for rooted luxury and inferior fish species in the Spanish market but also an opposite price response after the break, which explains the increasing pressure on cheap fish demand and conversely the lower demand for expensive fish products. Results show consistency for all market levels analyzed (i.e., origin, wholesale and retail)