Price Setting in Online Markets: Basic Facts, International Comparisons, and Cross-border Integration

Yuriy Gorodnichenko and Oleksandr Talavera ()

No 20406, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We document basic facts about prices in online markets in the U.S. and Canada, a rapidly growing segment of the retail sector. Relative to prices in regular stores, prices in online markets are more flexible as well as exhibit stronger pass-through (60-75 percent) and faster convergence (half-life less than 2 months) in response to movements of the nominal exchange rate. Multiple margins of adjustment (frequency of price changes, direction of price changes, size of price changes, exit of sellers) are active in the process of responding to nominal exchange rate shocks. Furthermore, we use the richness of our dataset to show that degree of competition, stickiness of prices, synchronization of price changes, reputation of sellers, and returns to search effort are important determinants of pass-through and speed of price adjustment for international price differentials.

JEL-codes: E3 F40 F41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-com, nep-ind, nep-mac, nep-mkt and nep-opm
Note: EFG IFM ME
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

Published as Yuriy Gorodnichenko & Oleksandr Talavera, 2017. "Price Setting in Online Markets: Basic Facts, International Comparisons, and Cross-Border Integration," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(1), pages 249-282, January.

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Related works:
Journal Article: Price Setting in Online Markets: Basic Facts, International Comparisons, and Cross-Border Integration (2017)
Working Paper: Price setting in online markets: Basic facts, international comparisons, and cross-border integration (2015)
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