Quantum prices

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Aparicio, Diego; Rigobon, Roberto
• 署名单位: University of Navarra; IESE Business School; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-1996
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jinteco.2023.103770
• 发表日期: 2023
• 关键词: Behavioral pricing; Price frictions; SALIENCE; recall; Cross-country retail

摘要

Many retailers practice an extreme form of discrete pricing defined as quantum prices: differentiated products are priced using few and sparse price buckets. To show this, online data was collected for 350,000 products from over 65 fashion retailers in the U.S. and the U.K. This pricing strategy is observed within categories and across categories (i.e., similar or even disparately distinct products like jeans and bags have an identical price), as well as in product introductions, where new products come in at previous price buckets. Normalized indices indicate substantial price clustering after controlling for popular prices, convenient prices, assortment size, or digit endings. Quantum prices have implications for price adjustments through product shares, markdown prices, and for the law-of-one-price. A behavioral model of price salience and recall is discussed.& COPY; 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).