Price dispersion in Argentina
Date
2019-08
Authors
Perrotta, Fernanda Analía
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Albornoz, Facundo
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Universidad de San Andrés. Departamento de Economía
Abstract
We investigate how the structure of price dispersion is in Argentina. We use daily data reported by supermarkets and we measure price dispersion at the bar code level in order to analyze whether supermarkets set prices differently, whether those price differences are spatial or temporal, and whether a large devaluation shock affects pricing behavior. We use more than 9 million prices and we calculate the dispersion of weekly prices relative to the average monthly price per product. We found that on average across products the 90th percentile of relative prices is 10 percentage points higher than the 10th and the mean absolute deviation from monthly average product prices is 2%. Price dispersion across stores in Argentina is heterogeneous among retail chains but local conditions regarding demand or competition contribute significantly but they have small impact. Furthermore, we tested that supermarkets pricing behavior remains within its essence after a large devaluation shock.
Description
Fil: Perrotta, Fernanda Analía. Universidad de San Andrés. Departamento de Economía; Argentina.
Keywords
Citation
Perrotta, F. A. (2019). Price dispersion in Argentina. [Tesis de maestría, Universidad de San Andrés. Departamento de Economía]. Repositorio Digital San Andrés. http://hdl.handle.net/10908/17696