A Penny Saved: Prices and the Timing of Paycheck Receipt

Timothy Beatty

No 61008, 2010 Annual Meeting, July 25-27, 2010, Denver, Colorado from Agricultural and Applied Economics Association

Abstract: This paper explores a puzzling empirical regularity: households pay less for foods as the time since receipt of their last paycheck increases. I leverage randomization with regard to paycheck timing to causally identify the effect of time since paycheck receipt on prices. Estimates of the decline in prices range between 5% and 6% percent, over the course of a month. I investigate several potential explanations for this behavior, including credit constraints and stockpiling. I find evidence that the effect is driven by low-income households and exacerbated by stockpiling behavior.

Keywords: Consumer/Household; Economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 23
Date: 2010
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/61008/files/pennysaved_aaea.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
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:ags:aaea10:61008

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.61008

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in 2010 Annual Meeting, July 25-27, 2010, Denver, Colorado from Agricultural and Applied Economics Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().