Little Cash, Little Carry: Liquidity Constraints and Missing Out on Bulk Discounts in Tanzania.

Using high-frequency data on households' item-level purchases from Tanzania, we show that liquidity constraints keep the poor from using bulk discounts consistently. On average, households save roughly 20% during the 'flush' days of the month, which comes from buying in bulk, and the poorest save ov...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Journal of Development Studies Vol. 62; no. 4; pp. 582 - 604
Autores principales: Olabisi, Michael, Persaud, Alexander
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Taylor & Francis Ltd Apr2026
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
Descripción
Sumario:Using high-frequency data on households' item-level purchases from Tanzania, we show that liquidity constraints keep the poor from using bulk discounts consistently. On average, households save roughly 20% during the 'flush' days of the month, which comes from buying in bulk, and the poorest save over 30%. Relaxing liquidity constraints through wage income or higher wealth leads to lower prices paid overall and a lower drop when flush. We estimate that failing to use bulk discounts costs households at the first quartile of wealth an additional 1% of their spending on food relative to households at the third quartile.