| Summary: | This paper provides an econometric estimation of the economic determinants of differences in the composition of seemingly identical branded food products (DC-SIP) in the European Union. The DC-SIP issue has previously been referred to in the media as the “dual food quality” issue. The analyses in this paper are based on the results from the EU wide testing survey (European Commission, 2019a) in combination with economic data collected from different statistical sources (e.g. Eurostat, Eurobarometer, World Bank, Global Dietary Database). Econometric estimation—probit estimator—is performed on the combined dataset to identify drivers of DC-SIP quantitatively. The estimated results show that the difference in income levels between two Member States (MS) has a statistically significant positive effect on the probability that the versions of seemingly identical branded food products offered in these two MS are different. The estimation of this paper also shows that other factors—such as heterogeneous consumer preferences across MS, distance, price level, and product complexity—contribute to a firm's incentive to offer different versions of seemingly identical branded food products in different MS. Further, specific characteristics of different product categories and country-specific factors are also found to impact the presence of DC-SIP between MS. © 2021 The Authors
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