PRICE DISPERSION IN THE SMALL AND IN THE LARGE: EVIDENCE FROM AN INTERNET PRICE COMPARISON SITE

Michael Baye, John Morgan and Patrick Scholten

Journal of Industrial Economics, 2004, vol. 52, issue 4, 463-496

Abstract: This paper examines four million daily price observations for more than 1,000 consumer electronics products on the price comparison site http://Shopper.com. We find little support for the notion that prices on the Internet are converging to the ‘law of one price.’ In addition, observed levels of price dispersion vary systematically with the number of firms listing prices. The difference between the two lowest prices (the ‘gap’) averages 23 per cent when two firms list prices, and falls to 3.5 per cent in markets where 17 firms list prices. These empirical results are an implication of a general ‘clearinghouse’ model of equilibrium price dispersion.

Date: 2004
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (228)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0022-1821.2004.00236.x

Related works:
Working Paper: Price Dispersion in the Small and in the Large: Evidence from an Internet Price Comparison Site (2004)
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:52:y:2004:i:4:p:463-496

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 ().