IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eco/journ1/2023-05-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Price Distribution of Consumer Goods in Retail Markets

Author

Listed:
  • Joachim Kaldasch

    (International School of Management, Hauptstraße 27, 10827, Berlin, Germany.)

Abstract

Derived is an analytic dynamic model of the price distribution of consumer goods in retail markets. The stationary price distribution is established from the conservation equation of offered units and two simplifying assumptions. Under the condition that independent traders make small random price variations around a nearly constant supply price, the stationary price distribution of a good must have the form of a fat-tailed Laplace distribution. The standard deviation of the distribution is determined by the price volatility of the goods. Also, the price distribution of an ensemble of goods is established and applied to empirical data with good quantitative agreement.

Suggested Citation

  • Joachim Kaldasch, 2023. "The Price Distribution of Consumer Goods in Retail Markets," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 13(5), pages 52-58, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:eco:journ1:2023-05-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econjournals.com/index.php/ijefi/article/download/14595/7486
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.econjournals.com/index.php/ijefi/article/view/14595
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Greg Kaplan & Guido Menzio, 2015. "The Morphology Of Price Dispersion," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 56, pages 1165-1206, November.
    2. Donna, Javier D. & Schenone, Pablo & Veramendi, Gregory F., 2020. "Networks, frictions, and price dispersion," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 406-431.
    3. John Conlisk & Eitan Gerstner & Joel Sobel, 1984. "Cyclic Pricing by a Durable Goods Monopolist," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 99(3), pages 489-505.
    4. Saul Lach, 2002. "Existence And Persistence Of Price Dispersion: An Empirical Analysis," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 84(3), pages 433-444, August.
    5. Alex Coad, 2009. "On the distribution of product price and quality," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 589-604, August.
    6. James Albrecht & Fabien Postel‐Vinay & Susan Vroman, 2013. "An Equilibrium Search Model Of Synchronized Sales," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 54(2), pages 473-493, May.
    7. Burdett, Kenneth & Judd, Kenneth L, 1983. "Equilibrium Price Dispersion," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 51(4), pages 955-969, July.
    8. Nicoletta Berardi & Patrick Sevestre & Jonathan Thébault, 2017. "The Determinants of Consumer Price Dispersion: Evidence from French Supermarkets," Post-Print hal-01685367, HAL.
    9. Greg Kaplan & Guido Menzio, 2015. "The Morphology Of Price Dispersion," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 56(4), pages 1165-1206, November.
    10. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/11qd47gdim8v799d6edke9i68q is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Xulia González & Daniel Miles-Touya, 2018. "Price dispersion, chain heterogeneity, and search in online grocery markets," SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 9(1), pages 115-139, March.
    12. Alan T. Sorensen, 2000. "Equilibrium Price Dispersion in Retail Markets for Prescription Drugs," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 108(4), pages 833-862, August.
    13. Gerard R. Butters, 1977. "Equilibrium Distributions of Sales and Advertising Prices," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 44(3), pages 465-491.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Joachim Kaldasch, 2015. "Dynamic Model of the Price Dispersion of Homogeneous Goods," Papers 1509.01216, arXiv.org.
    2. Greg Kaplan & Guido Menzio & Leena Rudanko & Nicholas Trachter, 2019. "Relative Price Dispersion: Evidence and Theory," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(3), pages 68-124, August.
    3. Greg Kaplan & Guido Menzio, 2015. "The Morphology Of Price Dispersion," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 56(4), pages 1165-1206, November.
    4. Sofronis Clerides & Pascal Courty & Yupei Ma, 2023. "Store expensiveness and consumer saving: Insights from a new decomposition of price dispersion," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 65-94, March.
    5. Mark Armstrong & John Vickers, 2022. "Patterns of Competitive Interaction," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 90(1), pages 153-191, January.
    6. Espen R. Moen & Fredrik Wulfsberg & Øyvind Aas, 2020. "Price Dispersion and the Role of Stores," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 122(3), pages 1181-1206, July.
    7. Luigi Paciello & Andrea Pozzi & Nicholas Trachter, 2019. "Price Dynamics With Customer Markets," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 60(1), pages 413-446, February.
    8. Sheremirov, Viacheslav, 2020. "Price dispersion and inflation: New facts and theoretical implications," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 59-70.
    9. Pau Roldan & Sophia Gilbukh, 2017. "Firm Dynamics and Pricing under Customer Capital Accumulation," 2017 Meeting Papers 1235, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    10. Anania, Giovanni & Nisticò, Rosanna, 2014. "Price dispersion and seller heterogeneity in retail food markets," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 190-201.
    11. Anania, Giovanni & Nistico, Rosanna, 2012. "Price dispersion, search costs and consumers and sellers heterogeneity in retail food markets," 2012 Conference, August 18-24, 2012, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil 125594, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    12. Hao Lan & Tim Lloyd & Wyn Morgan & Paul W. Dobson, 2022. "Are food price promotions predictable? The hazard function of supermarket discounts," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 73(1), pages 64-85, February.
    13. Günter J. Hitsch & Ali Hortaçsu & Xiliang Lin, 2021. "Prices and promotions in U.S. retail markets," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 289-368, December.
    14. Christophe Muller, 2022. "Poverty Measurement under Income and Price Dispersions," Working Papers hal-03612841, HAL.
    15. Menzio, Guido & Trachter, Nicholas, 2015. "Equilibrium price dispersion with sequential search," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 188-215.
    16. Byrne, David P. & Martin, Leslie A., 2021. "Consumer search and income inequality," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    17. Lindgren, Charlie & Daunfeldt, Sven-Olov & Rudholm, Niklas, 2021. "Pricing In Retail Markets With Low Search Costs: Evidence From A Price Comparison Website," HFI Working Papers 18, Institute of Retail Economics (Handelns Forskningsinstitut).
    18. Fishman, Arthur & Simhon, Avi, 2003. "Can Income Equality Increase Competitiveness?," Discussion Papers 14983, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Department of Agricultural Economics and Management.
    19. Christophe Muller, 2022. "Poverty Measurement under Income and Price Dispersions," AMSE Working Papers 2204, Aix-Marseille School of Economics, France.
    20. Edgardo Arturo Ayala Gaytán, 2009. "Social network externalities and price dispersion in online markets," Ensayos Revista de Economia, Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon, Facultad de Economia, vol. 0(2), pages 1-28, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Price Dispersion; Consumer Goods; Retail Markets; Market Dynamics; Laplace Distribution;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D0 - Microeconomics - - General
    • E3 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles
    • F0 - International Economics - - General

    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:eco:journ1:2023-05-7. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Ilhan Ozturk (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.econjournals.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.