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Are Poor Cities Cheap for Everyone? Non‐Homotheticity and the Cost of Living Across U.S. Cities

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  • Jessie Handbury

Abstract

This paper shows that the products and prices offered in markets are correlated with local income‐specific tastes. To quantify the welfare impact of this variation, I calculate local price indexes micro‐founded by a model of non‐homothetic demand over thousands of grocery products. These indexes reveal large differences in how wealthy and poor households perceive the choice sets available in wealthy and poor cities. Relative to low‐income households, high‐income households enjoy 40 percent higher utility per dollar expenditure in wealthy cities, relative to poor cities. Similar patterns are observed across stores in different neighborhoods. Most of this variation is explained by differences in the product assortment offered, rather than the relative prices charged, by chains that operate in different markets.

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  • Jessie Handbury, 2021. "Are Poor Cities Cheap for Everyone? Non‐Homotheticity and the Cost of Living Across U.S. Cities," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 89(6), pages 2679-2715, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:emetrp:v:89:y:2021:i:6:p:2679-2715
    DOI: 10.3982/ECTA11738
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    2. Takeda, Kohei, 2022. "The geography of structural transformation: effects on inequality and mobility," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 118050, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Colicev, Anatoli & Hoste, Joris & Konings, Jozef, 2022. "The Impact of a Large Depreciation on the Cost of Living of Rich and Poor Consumers," CEPR Discussion Papers 16869, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. Fally, Thibault, 2022. "Generalized separability and integrability: Consumer demand with a price aggregator," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).
    5. Nicoletta Berardi, 2023. "The Elusive Law of One Retail Chain Price," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 261-281, December.
    6. Su, Yichen, 2022. "Measuring the Value of Urban Consumption Amenities: A Time-Use Approach," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    7. Mahajan, Avichal, 2024. "Highways and segregation," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    8. Messner, Teresa & Rumler, Fabio & Strasser, Georg, 2022. "Cross-country price and inflation dispersion: Retail network or national border," Single Market Economics Papers WP2022/11, Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (European Commission), Chief Economist Team.
    9. Andrea Batch & Benjamin R. Bridgman & Abe C. Dunn & Mahsa Gholizadeh, 2023. "Consumption Zones," BEA Papers 0114, Bureau of Economic Analysis.
    10. Murphy, Daniel, 2024. "Housing cycles and gentrification," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
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    12. Bhardwaj,Abhishek & Ghose,Devaki & Mukherjee,Saptarshi & Singh,Manpreet, 2022. "Million Dollar Plants and Retail Prices," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9995, The World Bank.

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