Are Online and Offline Prices Similar? Evidence from Large Multi-Channel Retailers
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aer.20160542.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
619.17 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
7cd81d1b7d46816b03d626d6584cc6ff
Author(s)
Cavallo, Alberto F.
Date Issued
January 2017
Journal
American Economic Review
Publisher
American Economic Association
Citation
Cavallo, Alberto. "Are Online and Offline Prices Similar? Evidence from Large Multi-channel Retailers." American Economic Review 107:1 (January 2017): 283-303 © 2017 Author
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Online prices are increasingly used for measurement and research applications, yet little is known about their relation to prices collected offline, where most retail transactions take place. I conduct the first large-scale comparison of prices simultaneously collected from the websites and physical stores of 56 large multi-channel retailers in 10 countries. I find that price levels are identical about 72 percent of the time. Price changes are not synchronized but have similar frequencies and average sizes. These results have implications for national statistical offices, researchers using online data, and anyone interested in the effect of the Internet on retail prices.
MIT Department
Sloan School of Management
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1257/AER.20160542
