Food banks play a critical part in the food distribution system. In this paper, we examine the impact of food bank donations on retailer markups using data on donations and store-level productivity. We frame our empirical model of food bank donations and store-level markups as an example of quality-based price discrimination and find that stores that donate more food to the local food bank are able to charge higher markups—33% higher—after controlling for the well-known endogeneity problems. Our findings suggest that donations are not just charitable gestures by retailers but are in their own self-interests.

中文翻译：

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食品银行和零售加价

食品银行在食品分配系统中发挥着关键作用。在本文中，我们使用捐赠和商店层面的生产力数据研究了食品银行捐赠对零售商加价的影响。我们将食品银行捐赠和商店级别加价的经验模型构建为基于质量的价格歧视的示例，并发现向当地食品银行捐赠更多食品的商店在控制了众所周知的内生性问题。我们的研究结果表明，捐赠不仅仅是零售商的慈善姿态，而且符合他们自己的利益。