The Effects of Price Comparison Websites: Evidence from Austrian Food Retail

Antonio Amores, Raffael Speitmann () and Daniel Stoehlker ()
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Raffael Speitmann: European Commission - JRC, https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/index_en
Daniel Stoehlker: European Commission - JRC, https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/index_en

No JRC137127, JRC Research Reports from Joint Research Centre

Abstract: In May 2023, the Austrian government announced to set up a new online database to help people compare retail prices across supermarkets and find the cheapest offers in an effort to fight soaring food prices. While plans for a government-built website have been abandoned, private developers released a handful of easy to navigate price comparison websites by June 2023, comprising the assortments of all main supermarket chains in Austria. This brief analyses the extent to which price transparency led to an effective reduction in final consumer prices. To this end, we compare the prices of listed products in Austria with those of the exact same products in Germany, where such price comparison websites are not available. Our results indicate that retail prices of affected products have not decreased since the availability of such websites, potentially due to a low up-take of the service.

Date: 2024-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-com, nep-eur and nep-reg
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