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Buying Less, But Shopping More: Changes In Consumption Patterns During A Crisis

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  • David McKenzie
  • Ernesto Schargrodsky

Abstract

Market research data are utilized to examine the use of changes in shopping behavior as a method of mitigating the effects of the 2002 Argentine economic crisis. Although the total quantity and real value of goods purchased fell during the crisis, consumers are found to be spending more days shopping. This increase in shopping frequency occurs through consumers purchasing lower-quality goods from a wider variety of shopping channels. This paper provides the first estimates of the magnitude of such effects during a recession, and suggests that this increase in shopping frequency can be an important coping mechanism for households. Shopping more often is shown to enable households to seek out lower prices and locate substitutes, allowing a given level of expenditure to buy more goods.

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File URL: http://www.utdt.edu/departamentos/empresarial/cif/pdfs-wp/wpcif-012005.pdf
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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Universidad Torcuato Di Tella in its series Business School Working Papers with number buyinglessshop.

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Length: 51 pages
Date of creation: 2005
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:udt:wpbsdt:buyinglessshop

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References

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Citations

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Cited by:
  1. FIEL, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung & FIEL (ed.), 2006. "Planeando el futuro. Las familias Argentinas y sus decisiones de consumo, ahorro e inversión en capital humano," Books at FIEL, FIEL, edition 1, volume 1, number 0306, January.
  2. George Alessandria & Joseph P. Kaboski, 2011. "Pricing-to-Market and the Failure of Absolute PPP," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(1), pages 91-127, January.
  3. Mark Aguiar & Erik Hurst, 2005. "Lifestyle prices and production," Public Policy Discussion Paper 05-3, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
  4. Joseph Kaboski & George Alessandria, 2005. "Violating Purchasing Power Parity," 2005 Meeting Papers 807, Society for Economic Dynamics.
  5. George Alessandria, 2005. "Consumer search, price dispersion, and international relative price volatility," Working Papers 05-9, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.

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