Exchange Rate Shocks and Quality Adjustments
利用俄罗斯一家大型零售商的产品数据，研究发现2014年卢布大幅贬值后，企业因成本上升而减少高利润的高质量产品供应，转向低质量产品，导致平均汇率传导率下降26%。
Abstract Do firms respond to cost shocks by reducing the quality of their products? Using microdata from a large Russian retailer that refreshes its product line twice-yearly, we document that higher quality products are more profitable than lower quality ones, but that the number of high-quality products experiences a relative decrease after a large ruble devaluation in 2014. We show that rising firm costs—and not shrinking consumer incomes—explains the reallocation, and rationalize the data with a model that features consumer expenditure switching between high and low qualities. The reallocation to lower quality products reduces average pass-through by 26%.