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The Determinants of Consumer Price Dispersion: Evidence from French Supermarkets

Author

Listed:
  • Nicoletta Berardi

    (Centre de recherche de la Banque de France - Banque de France)

  • Patrick Sevestre

    (GREQAM - Groupement de Recherche en Économie Quantitative d'Aix-Marseille - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - ECM - École Centrale de Marseille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Jonathan Thébault

Abstract

In this chapter, we characterize the dispersion of grocery prices in France based on a large original data set of prices in more than 1500 supermarkets across the country. On average across products, the 90 th percentile of relative prices is 17 percentage points higher than the 10 th . The mean absolute deviation from quarterly average product prices is 5% on average in the French retail sector, and the standard deviation of relative prices is 7%.We show that temporary sales and promotions offer a limited explanation of the observed price dispersion, while the permanent component of price dispersion largely dominates. We find that in France price dispersion across stores essentially results from persistent heterogeneity in retail chains' national pricing. Indeed, consumer prices are largely determined at a national level by retail groups' bargaining power with producers and by retail chains' positioning. We also show, however, that local conditions regarding demand and local competition between supermarkets do explain prices observed in local markets, though to a much lower extent.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicoletta Berardi & Patrick Sevestre & Jonathan Thébault, 2017. "The Determinants of Consumer Price Dispersion: Evidence from French Supermarkets," Post-Print hal-01685367, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01685367
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-60783-2_15
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    Cited by:

    1. repec:cpr:ceprdp:14514 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Antonio M. Salcedo & Gregorio Izquierdo Llanes, 2020. "Refining the Monetary Poverty Indicators Under a Join Income-Consumption Statistical Approach: An Application to Spain Based on Empirical Data," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 147(2), pages 501-516, January.
    3. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. Philip ME Garboden, 2019. "Sources and Types of Big Data for Macroeconomic Forecasting," Working Papers 2019-3, University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization, University of Hawaii at Manoa.
    6. Berardi Nicoletta, 2018. "Is price dispersion a concern for French consumers?," Rue de la Banque, Banque de France, issue 54, january.
    7. 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.
    8. Nicoletta Berardi & Federico Ravenna & Mario Samano, 2020. "Everyday Regular Prices," Working papers 746, Banque de France.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E31 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Price Level; Inflation; Deflation
    • D40 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - General

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