Why Do Retail Prices Fall During Seasonal Demand Peaks?
利用全国扫描数据，研究发现需求季节性显著且普遍，价格波动呈反周期但幅度小，需求高峰时弹性增大，反周期定价可由需求侧因素解释。
ABSTRACT Examining widely‐sold products across dozens of categories in a national scanner database, we find seasonality in demand is large—20 log points for the median category, and pervasive. At seasonal frequencies, price fluctuations are typically countercyclical but small—1.5 log points on average. For most categories, we find seasonality in demand is driven by extensive margin changes in households purchasing any product in the category, and coincides with demand becoming more elastic as it peaks. These patterns suggest countercyclical pricing can be accounted for by demand‐side factors instead of requiring supply‐side explanations, or cross‐category pricing motives (e.g., “loss leader”).