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Holiday Price Rigidity and Cost of Price Adjustment

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Author Info
Daniel Levy (Bar-Ilan & Emory)
Georg Muller (Litholink)
Shantanu Dutta (USC)
Mark Bergen (Minnesota)

Additional information is available for the following registered author(s):

Abstract

Using unique retail and wholesale price data for 4,532 products carried by a major Midwestern grocery retailer, we find evidence of significant retail price rigidity during the Thanksgiving through Christmas holiday period relative to the rest of the year. We suggest that this pattern of holiday retail price rigidity is best explained by an increased opportunity cost of changing prices at these stores during the holiday period. Evidence based on discussions with retail managers suggests that during holidays the physical, managerial, and customer costs of changing prices rise considerably. Due to higher store traffic, performing tasks such as restocking shelves, handling customers’ questions and inquiries, running cash registers, cleaning, and bagging, become more urgent during holidays and thus receive priority. As a result, the holiday-period opportunity cost of price adjustment increases dramatically for the stores. The data provide a natural experimental setting to study variation in price rigidity because the products, stores, and surrounding institutional features and arrangements, including the market structure, the contractual arrangements, and the nature of relationships, etc., do not change between holiday and non-holiday weeks.

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Paper provided by EconWPA in its series Macroeconomics with number 0402019.

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Length: 27 pages
Date of creation: 07 Feb 2004
Date of revision: 10 Jun 2005
Handle: RePEc:wpa:wuwpma:0402019

Note: Type of Document - pdf; prepared on Win 98; to print on Any printer; pages: 27 ; figures: There are no figures
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Web page: http://129.3.20.41

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Related research
Keywords: Price Rigidity; Price Flexibility; Cost of Price Adjustment; Menu Cost; Holidays; Thanksgiving Holiday; Christmas Holiday; Scanner Data; Transaction Price Data; Retail Price; Wholesale Price; Natural Experiment; Opportunity Cost of Changing Price;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
E12 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General Aggregative Models - - - Keynes; Keynesian; Post-Keynesian
E31 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Price Level; Inflation; Deflation
E50 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - General
L11 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms
L16 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Industrial Organization and Macroeconomics; Macroeconomic Industrial Structure
L22 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Organization and Market Structure
L66 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - Food; Beverages; Cosmetics; Tobacco
L81 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Retail and Wholesale Trade; e-Commerce
M21 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting - - Business Economics - - - Business Economics
M31 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting - - Marketing and Advertising - - - Marketing
Q11 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Aggregate Supply and Demand Analysis; Prices
Q13 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agricultural Markets and Marketing; Cooperatives; Agribusiness

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
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  25. Mark Bergen & Daniel Levy & Sourav Ray & Paul H. Rubin & Benjamin Zeliger, 2008. "When Little Things Mean a Lot: On the Inefficiency of Item-Pricing Laws," Journal of Law & Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 51(2), pages 209-250, 05. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Daniel Levy & Dongwon Lee & Haipeng Chen & Robert Kauffman & Mark Bergen, 2008. "Price Points and Price Rigidity," Emory Economics 0809, Department of Economics, Emory University (Atlanta). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Georg Müller & Mark Bergen & Shantanu Dutta & Daniel Levy, 2005. "Private Label Price Rigidity during Holiday Periods," Emory Economics 0512, Department of Economics, Emory University (Atlanta). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Daniel Levy, 2007. "Price rigidity and flexibility: new empirical evidence," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(7), pages 639-647. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Georg Müller & Mark Bergen & Shantanu Dutta & Daniel Levy, 2006. "Holiday Non-Price Rigidity and Cost of Adjustment," Emory Economics 0612, Department of Economics, Emory University (Atlanta). [Downloadable!]
  5. Ellingsen, Tore & Friberg, Richard & Hassler, John, 2006. "Menu Costs and Asymmetric Price Adjustment," CEPR Discussion Papers 5749, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Mark Bergen & Daniel Levy & Sourav Ray & Paul Rubin & Benjamin Zeliger, 2004. "When Little Things Mean a Lot: On the Inefficiency of Item Pricing Laws," Emory Economics 0404, Department of Economics, Emory University (Atlanta). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  7. Jerzy (Jurek) D. Konieczny & Fabio Rumler, 2006. "Regular adjustment - theory and practice," Working Paper Series 669, European Central Bank. [Downloadable!]
  8. Georg Müller & Mark Bergen & Shantanu Dutta & Daniel Levy, 2007. "Non-price rigidity and cost of adjustment," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(7), pages 817-832. [Downloadable!]
  9. Matthias R. Fengler & Joachim K. Winter, 2007. "Price variability and price dispersion in a stable monetary environment: evidence from German retail markets," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(7), pages 789-801. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  10. D. Cornille & M. Dossche, 2006. "The Patterns and Determinants of Price Setting in the Belgian Industry," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 06/386, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  11. Jerzy Konieczny & Fabio Rumler, 2007. "Regular Adjustment. Theory and Evidence," Kiel Working Papers 1352, Kiel Institute for the World Economy. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  12. Alexander L. Wolman, 2007. "The frequency and costs of individual price adjustment," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(6), pages 531-552. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
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