Lack of Uniform Prices or Lack of Uniform Retailers?

Seula Kim and Michael A. Navarrete

AEA Papers and Proceedings, 2026, vol. 116, 568-572

Abstract: Standard models assume uniform pricing across stores (DellaVigna and Gentzkow 2019). We show that uniform pricing varies across products within food categories. Even when product-chain prices are nearly uniform, cross-market differences in retailer and product composition generate spatial dispersion in effective price levels. Poorer metropolitan statistical areas are served by fewer chains, have a higher share of large national retailers, and exhibit lower product variety across and within retailers. Ignoring this heterogeneity understates price-level gaps between poor and rich areas. These results complement Kim and Navarrete (2025), who identify retail market structure as a key driver of spatial inflation heterogeneity.

JEL-codes: L13 L81 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20261063

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