Price Setting in Online Markets: Does IT Click?
利用大型购物平台的日度价格和点击数据，研究了在线市场定价的特点，发现尽管价格变动频繁，但仍存在较长固定价格期，且价格刚性和分散程度与线下市场类似。
Abstract: Using a unique dataset of daily U.S. and U.K. price listings and the associated number of clicks for precisely defined goods from a major shopping platform, we shed new light on how prices are set in online markets, which have a number of special properties such as low search costs, low costs of monitoring competitors ’ prices, and low costs of nominal price adjustment. We document that although online prices change more frequently than offline prices, they nev-ertheless exhibit relatively long spells of fixed prices. By many metrics, such as large size and low synchronization of price changes, considerable cross-sectional dispersion, and low sensitiv-ity to predictable or unanticipated changes in demand conditions, online prices are as imperfect as offline prices. Our findings suggest a need for more research on the sources of price rigidi-ties and dispersion, as well as on the relative role of menu and search costs in online-pricing frictions.