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Price Dispersion and Informational Frictions: Evidence from Supermarket Purchases

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  • Dubois, Pierre
  • Perrone, Helena

Abstract

Traditional demand models assume that consumers are perfectly informed about product characteristics, including price. However, this assumption may be too strong. Unannounced sales are a common supermarket practice. As we show, retailers frequently change position in the price rankings, thus making it unlikely that consumers are aware of all deals offered in each period. Further empirical evidence on consumer behavior is also consistent with a model with price information frictions. We develop such a model for horizontally differentiated products and structurally estimate the search cost distribution. The results show that in equilibrium, consumers observe a very limited number of prices before making a purchase decision, which implies that imperfect information is indeed important and that local market power is potentially high. We also show that a full information demand model yields severely biased price elasticities.

Suggested Citation

  • Dubois, Pierre & Perrone, Helena, 2015. "Price Dispersion and Informational Frictions: Evidence from Supermarket Purchases," TSE Working Papers 15-606, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE), revised Sep 2017.
  • Handle: RePEc:tse:wpaper:29838
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. 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.
    3. Florez-Acosta, Jorge & Herrera-Araujo, Daniel, 2020. "Multiproduct retailing and consumer shopping behavior: The role of shopping costs," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    4. Haan, Marco A. & Moraga-González, José L. & Petrikaitė, Vaiva, 2018. "A model of directed consumer search," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 223-255.
    5. Nicoletta Berardi & Patrick Sevestre & Jonathan Thébault, 2017. "The Determinants of Consumer Price Dispersion: Evidence from French Supermarkets," Post-Print hal-01685367, HAL.
    6. Maarten Janssen & Edona Reshidi, 2023. "Discriminatory Trade Promotions in Consumer Search Markets," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 42(2), pages 401-422, March.
    7. Jorge Florez-Acosta & Daniel Herrera-Araujo, 2017. "Multiproduct retailing and buyer power: The effects of product delisting on consumer shopping behavior," PSE Working Papers halshs-01518146, HAL.
    8. Günter J. Hitsch & Ali Hortaçsu & Xiliang Lin, 2019. "Prices and Promotions in U.S. Retail Markets: Evidence from Big Data," NBER Working Papers 26306, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Noel, Michael D. & Qiang, Hongjie, 2019. "The role of information in retail gasoline price dispersion," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 173-187.
    10. Rickert, Dennis, 2016. "Consumer state dependence, switching costs, and forward-looking producers. A dynamic discrete choice model applied to the diaper market," VfS Annual Conference 2016 (Augsburg): Demographic Change 145672, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    11. Mariana Cunha & António Osório & Ricardo Ribeiro, 2016. "Endogenous product design and quality with rationally inattentive consumers," Working Papers de Economia (Economics Working Papers) 03, Católica Porto Business School, Universidade Católica Portuguesa.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    imperfect information; price dispersion; sales; search costs; product dif- ferentiation; consumer behavior; demand estimation; price elasticities;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D4 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • L11 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms
    • L66 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - Food; Beverages; Cosmetics; Tobacco

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