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Sales Spotter: An Algorithm to Identify Sale Prices in Point-of-Sale Data

Author

Listed:
  • Iqbal A. Syed

    (School of Economics and CAER, UNSW Business School, UNSW)

Abstract

This paper develops an algorithm, called the sales spotter, which identifies the sale prices in the transaction price series provided in point-of-sale data. The goal of the sales spotter is to identify the maximum number of sale prices while minimizing the incorrect attribution of non-sale price reductions to sale prices. The spotter is developed and the values of its parameters are selected by analysing around 7.5 million agged sales in a US supermarket scanner data. At the optimal values of the parameters, the spotter identifies 84% of authentic agged sale weeks in the data.

Suggested Citation

  • Iqbal A. Syed, 2015. "Sales Spotter: An Algorithm to Identify Sale Prices in Point-of-Sale Data," Discussion Papers 2015-13, School of Economics, The University of New South Wales.
    • Handle: RePEc:swe:wpaper:2015-13
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    File URL: http://research.economics.unsw.edu.au/RePEc/papers/2015-13.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    8. Jeffrey R. Campbell & Benjamin Eden, 2014. "Rigid Prices: Evidence From U.S. Scanner Data," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 55, pages 423-442, May.
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    Cited by:

    1. Levy, Daniel & Chen, Haipeng (Allan) & Ray, Sourav & Charette, Elliot & Ling, Xiao & Zhao, Weihong & Bergen, Mark & Snir, Avichai, 2025. "Asymmetric price adjustment over the business cycle," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 0, pages 112450-1124.
    2. Ray, Sourav & Snir, Avichai & Levy, Daniel, 2023. "Retail Pricing Format and Rigidity of Regular Prices," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, pages 1-1.
    3. Fox, Kevin J. & Syed, Iqbal A., 2016. "Price discounts and the measurement of inflation," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 191(2), pages 398-406.
    4. Kevin J, Fox. & Iqbal A. Syed, 2016. "Price Discounts and the Measurement of Inflation: Further Results," Discussion Papers 2016-05, School of Economics, The University of New South Wales.

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • E30 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)
    • M37 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Marketing and Advertising - - - Advertising

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