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Closely Competing Firms and Price Adjustment: Some Findings from an Online Marketplace

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  • Takayuki Mizuno
  • Makoto Nirei
  • Tsutomu Watanabe

Abstract

We investigate retailers' price‐setting behavior using a unique dataset containing by‐the‐second records of prices offered by closely competing retailers on a major Japanese price‐comparison website. First, we find that, when the average price of a product across retailers falls rapidly, the frequency of price adjustments increases, and the size of price adjustments becomes larger. Second, we find positive autocorrelation in the frequency of price adjustments, implying that there tends to be clustering where price adjustments occur in succession. In contrast, there is no such autocorrelation in the size of price adjustments. These two findings indicate that the behavior of competing retailers is characterized by state‐dependent pricing rather than time‐dependent pricing.

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  • Takayuki Mizuno & Makoto Nirei & Tsutomu Watanabe, 2010. "Closely Competing Firms and Price Adjustment: Some Findings from an Online Marketplace," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 112(4), pages 673-696, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:scandj:v:112:y:2010:i:4:p:673-696
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9442.2010.01626.x
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    Cited by:

    1. Kota Watanabe & Tsutomu Watanabe, 2017. "Price Rigidity at Near-Zero Inflation Rates: Evidence from Japan," UTokyo Price Project Working Paper Series 076, University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Economics.
    2. Ko Munakata & Takeshi Shinohara & Shigenori Shiratsuka & Nao Sudo & Tsutomu Watanabe, 2023. "On the Source of Seasonality in Price Changes: The Role of Seasonality in Menu Costs," Keio-IES Discussion Paper Series 2023-016, Institute for Economics Studies, Keio University.
    3. Nobuhiro Abe & Yojiro Ito & Ko Munakata & Shinsuke Ohyama & Kimiaki Shinozaki, 2016. "Pricing Patterns over Product Life-Cycle and Quality Growth at Product Turnover: Empirical Evidence from Japan," Bank of Japan Working Paper Series 16-E-5, Bank of Japan.
    4. Carsten Herbes & Lorenz Braun & Dennis Rube, 2016. "Pricing of Biomethane Products Targeted at Private Households in Germany—Product Attributes and Providers’ Pricing Strategies," Energies, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-15, March.
    5. Lindgren, Charlie & Daunfeldt, Sven-Olov & Rudholm, Niklas, 2021. "Pricing In Retail Markets With Low Search Costs: Evidence From A Price Comparison Website," HFI Working Papers 18, Institute of Retail Economics (Handelns Forskningsinstitut).
    6. Nao Sudo & Kozo Ueda & Kota Watanabe, 2014. "Micro Price Dynamics during Japan's Lost Decades," Asian Economic Policy Review, Japan Center for Economic Research, vol. 9(1), pages 44-64, January.
    7. Yuji Aruka & Yoshihiro Nakajima & Naoki Mori, 2019. "An examination of market mechanism with redundancies motivated by Turing’s rule selection," Evolutionary and Institutional Economics Review, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 19-42, June.

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