WHAT IS THE PRICE OF TEA IN CHINA? GOODS PRICES AND AVAILABILITY IN CHINESE CITIES

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Feenstra, Robert C.; Xu, Mingzhi; Antoniades, Alexis
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California Davis; National Bureau of Economic Research; Peking University; Georgetown University
• 刊物名称: ECONOMIC JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0013-0133
• DOI: 10.1093/ej/ueaa066
• 发表日期: 2020
• 页码: 2438-2467
• 关键词: market; COSTS

摘要

We examine the price and variety of a sample of consumer goods at the barcode level in cities within China. Unlike the position in the United States, in China the prices of goods tend to be lower in larger cities. We explain that difference between the countries by the more uneven spatial distribution of manufacturers' sales and retailers in China, and we confirm the pro-competitive effect of city size on reducing markups there. In both countries, there is a greater variety of goods in larger cities, but that effect is more pronounced in China. Combining the lower prices and greater variety, the price indexes in China for the goods we study fall with city size by around seven times more than in the United States.