Are Online and Offline Prices Similar? Evidence from Large Multi-Channel Retailers
首次大规模比较了10个国家56家大型多渠道零售商的网站和实体店价格，发现约72%的情况下价格相同，价格变化虽不同步但频率和平均幅度相似，对统计机构和线上数据使用者有参考价值。
Online prices are increasingly used for measurement and research applications, yet little is known about their relation to prices collected offline, where most retail transactions take place. I conduct the first large-scale comparison of prices simultaneously collected from the websites and physical stores of 56 large multi-channel retailers in 10 countries. I find that price levels are identical about 72 percent of the time. Price changes are not synchronized but have similar frequencies and average sizes. These results have implications for national statistical offices, researchers using online data, and anyone interested in the effect of the Internet on retail prices.