Why Don't Prices Rise During Periods of Peak Demand? Evidence from Scanner Data

Judith Chevalier, Anil Kashyap and Peter Rossi ()

American Economic Review, 2003, vol. 93, issue 1, 15-37

Abstract: We examine retail and wholesale prices for a large supermarket chain over seven and one-half years. We find that prices fall on average during seasonal demand peaks for a product, largely due to changes in retail margins. Retail margins for specific goods fall during peak demand periods for that good, even if these periods do not coincide with aggregate demand peaks for the retailer. This is consistent with "loss-leader" models of retailer competition. Models stressing cyclical demand elasticities or cyclical firm conduct are less consistent with our findings. Manufacturer behavior plays a limited role in the countercyclicality of prices.

Date: 2003
Note: DOI: 10.1257/000282803321455142
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (334)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/000282803321455142 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.

Related works:
Working Paper: Why Don't Prices Rise During Periods of Peak Demand? Evidence from Scanner Data (2002)
Working Paper: Why Don't Prices Rise During Periods of Peak Demand? Evidence from Scanner Data (2000)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:93:y:2003:i:1:p:15-37

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/subscriptions

Access Statistics for this article

American Economic Review is currently edited by Esther Duflo

More articles in American Economic Review from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert ().