不完全競争

This study aims to clarify the problems in considering functional foods from the viewpoint of empirical industrial organization based on an overview of functional foods market and review of previous studies. First, from the overview of functional foods, to consider the impact of functional foods on the power balance among actors in the food system, imperfect market competitiveness (market power, power balance, etc.) must be considered with the assumption of product differentiation. Second, based on a review of previous study on imperfect competitiveness, when analyzing imperfect competitiveness in the functional foods market, focus on product attributes such as content of functional ingredients and presence or absence of health claims is needed. Third, based on a review of a previous study on functional foods, analyzing actual purchase data focusing on product attributes such as content of functional ingredients and presence or absence of health claims is an important issue not only in Japan but also worldwide. From the above points, while considering functional food from the viewpoint of empirical industrial organization, it is a problem that we analyze imperfect competitiveness in the functional food market by using actual purchase data, assuming product differentiation and focusing on said product attributes. In particular, as no study has been conducted on the presence or absence of health claims among the above issues, an analysis is required.