IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/empeco/v66y2024i2d10.1007_s00181-023-02479-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Heterogeneity in prices and inflation over the life cycle

Author

Listed:
  • Toshiaki Shoji

    (Seikei University)

Abstract

Using 1.7 million consumers’ purchasing records in Japan, this study constructs two types of price indexes at the consumer level. The first measures the relative price level of each consumer in a given time period (i.e., cross-sectional price-level comparison), while the other captures the change in prices between two different time periods for a given consumer (i.e., individual inflation rate). This study shows that these price indexes do not comove over the life cycle. In particular, older consumers who have retired pay higher prices for identical goods than working-age consumers, while facing the lower inflation rate. This difference in inflation rates stems from the fact that retired consumers tend to adjust their shopping baskets. Life-cycle variation in individual inflation rates is consistent with the argument that older consumers tend to increase the shopping frequency and search for low-priced goods.

Suggested Citation

  • Toshiaki Shoji, 2024. "Heterogeneity in prices and inflation over the life cycle," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 66(2), pages 651-670, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:empeco:v:66:y:2024:i:2:d:10.1007_s00181-023-02479-7
    DOI: 10.1007/s00181-023-02479-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00181-023-02479-7
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s00181-023-02479-7?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Inflation inequality; Price index; Shopping behavior; Heterogeneity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • E31 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Price Level; Inflation; Deflation
    • J11 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, and Forecasts

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:empeco:v:66:y:2024:i:2:d:10.1007_s00181-023-02479-7. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.