Prices and Price Dispersion on the Web: Evidence from the Online Book Industry

Karen Clay, Ramayya Krishnan and Eric Wolff

Journal of Industrial Economics, 2001, vol. 49, issue 4, 521-539

Abstract: Using data collected between August, 1999, and January, 2000, covering 399 books, we examine pricing by thirty‐two online United States‐based bookstores. At the aggregate level, we find that both advertising and competitive structure had the predicted effects. More competition led to lower prices and to lower price dispersion. Holding competitive structure constant, more widely advertised items also had lower prices. At the firm level, we observe considerable heterogeneity in behavior. Firms had differentiated (or attempted to differentiate) on dimensions such as brand, price, and selection.

Date: 2001
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (138)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6451.00161

Related works:
Chapter: Prices and Price Dispersion on the Web: Evidence from the Online Book Industry (2001)
Working Paper: Prices and Price Dispersion on the Web: Evidence from the Online Book Industry (2001)
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:bla:jindec:v:49:y:2001:i:4:p:521-539

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0022-1821

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Industrial Economics is currently edited by Pierre Regibeau, Yeon-Koo Che, Kenneth Corts, Thomas Hubbard, Patrick Legros and Frank Verboven

More articles in Journal of Industrial Economics from Wiley Blackwell
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().