 Which price is right? A comparison of three standard approaches to measuring pricesJournal of Development Economics, 2023, vol. 163, issue C Abstract: Prices are fundamental to economists, but there is little guidance on how to collect accurate data on prices in developing countries. I compare antimalarial drug prices collected using three different approaches at outlets in Uganda: vendor inventory listings, prices reported by real customers, and standardized patient (“mystery shopper”, or SP) purchases. I find that prices collected from SPs and real customers are the same after accounting for the composition of drugs purchased, but prices reported by vendors are $0.29-$0.34 (17 percent) lower than the other two approaches. Price disagreement is correlated with vendors reporting fewer drugs on the inventory. The analysis suggests vendors adjust list prices based upon transaction-specific characteristics, but much price disagreement is unexplained. I conclude SP purchases are a preferred approach to price measurement: they accurately capture mean prices paid by customers, and other important transaction characteristics. Keywords: Prices; Methodology; Audit study; Antimalarial drugs (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:deveco:v:163:y:2023:i:c:s0304387823000615 DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2023.103106 Access Statistics for this article Journal of Development Economics is currently edited by M. R. Rosenzweig More articles in Journal of Development Economics from Elsevier |
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