Are Online and Offline Prices Similar? Evidence from Large Multi-Channel Retailers

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...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Cavallo, Alberto F. (Author)
Other Authors: Sloan School of Management (Contributor)
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: American Economic Association, 2020-05-14T18:56:05Z.
Subjects:
Online Access:Get fulltext
LEADER 01218 am a22001693u 4500
001 125241
042 |a dc 
100 1 0 |a Cavallo, Alberto F.  |e author 
100 1 0 |a Sloan School of Management  |e contributor 
245 0 0 |a Are Online and Offline Prices Similar? Evidence from Large Multi-Channel Retailers 
260 |b American Economic Association,   |c 2020-05-14T18:56:05Z. 
856 |z Get fulltext  |u https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/125241 
520 |a 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. 
546 |a en 
655 7 |a Article 
773 |t 10.1257/AER.20160542 
773 |t American Economic Review