IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/bejeap/v16y2016i3p1585-1597n10.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Why Don’t Prices Rise during Periods of Peak Demand? Synchronize Demand to Relax Competition

Author

Listed:
  • Miao Chun-Hui

    (Department of Economics, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, United States of America)

Abstract

During periods of peak demand, frequent markdowns present an empirical puzzle. Based on the idea that stores face capacity constraints in times of high shopping volume, we show that stores keep their off-season prices high in order to lure all consumers to shop around the same time. This relaxes competition and allows stores to raise prices. Due to binding capacity constraints, stores randomize their prices. Thus, our model offers a unified explanation for both the countercyclicality and the high frequency of price changes during periods of peak demand.

Suggested Citation

  • Miao Chun-Hui, 2016. "Why Don’t Prices Rise during Periods of Peak Demand? Synchronize Demand to Relax Competition," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 16(3), pages 1585-1597, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:bejeap:v:16:y:2016:i:3:p:1585-1597:n:10
    DOI: 10.1515/bejeap-2015-0238
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/bejeap-2015-0238
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1515/bejeap-2015-0238?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Levy, Daniel & Müller, Georg & Chen, Haipeng (Allan) & Bergen, Mark & Dutta, Shantanu, 2010. "Holiday Price Rigidity and Cost of Price Adjustment," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 77(305), pages 172-198.
    2. James M. MacDonald, 2000. "Demand, Information, and Competition: Why Do Food Prices Fall at Seasonal Demand Peaks?," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1), pages 27-45, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Laura Birg & Anna Goeddeke, 2016. "Christmas Economics—A Sleigh Ride," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 54(4), pages 1980-1984, October.
    2. Luttmann, Alexander & Gaggero, Alberto A, 2020. "Purchase discounts and travel premiums during holiday periods: Evidence from the airline industry," MPRA Paper 104863, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Li, Chenguang & Sexton, Richard J., 2009. "Impacts of Retailers’ Pricing Strategies for Produce Commodities on Farmer Welfare," 2009 Conference, August 16-22, 2009, Beijing, China 51720, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    4. Volpe III, Rickard James, 2014. "National Brands, Private Labels, and Food Price Inflation," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Southern Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 46(4), pages 1-16, November.
    5. Snir, Avichai & Levy, Daniel, 2021. "If You Think 9-Ending Prices Are Low, Think Again," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 6(1 (Forthc).
    6. Rumler, Fabio & Konieczny, Jerzy (Jurek) D., 2006. "Regular adjustment: theory and evidence," Working Paper Series 669, European Central Bank.
    7. Levy, Daniel & Snir, Avichai & Gotler, Alex & Chen, Haipeng (Allan), 2020. "Not all price endings are created equal: Price points and asymmetric price rigidity," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, issue forthcomi.
    8. Ray, Sourav & Snir, Avichai & Levy, Daniel, 2023. "Retail Pricing Format and Rigidity of Regular Prices," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, pages 1-1.
    9. Joshua Sherman & Avi Weiss, 2017. "On Fruitful And Futile Tests Of The Relationship Between Search And Price Dispersion," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 55(4), pages 1898-1918, October.
    10. Sergio Meza & K. Sudhir, 2006. "Pass-through timing," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 4(4), pages 351-382, December.
    11. DeGraba, Patrick, 2006. "The loss leader is a turkey: Targeted discounts from multi-product competitors," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 613-628, May.
    12. Adi Schnytzer & Janez Sustersic, 2011. "The Regression Tournament: A Novel Approach To Prediction Model Assessment," Journal of Prediction Markets, University of Buckingham Press, vol. 5(2), pages 32-43.
    13. Guler, Ali Umut & Misra, Kanishka & Vilcassim, Naufel, 2014. "Countercyclical pricing: A consumer heterogeneity explanation," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 122(2), pages 343-347.
    14. Ellingsen, Tore & Hassler, John & Friberg, Richard, 2006. "Menu Costs and Asymmetric Price Adjustment," CEPR Discussion Papers 5749, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    15. Adi Schnytzer & Sara Westreich, 2011. "Information and Attitudes to Risk at the Track," Working Papers 2011-16, Bar-Ilan University, Department of Economics.
    16. Bogomolova, Svetlana & Dunn, Steven & Trinh, Giang & Taylor, Jennifer & Volpe, Richard J., 2015. "Price promotion landscape in the US and UK: Depicting retail practice to inform future research agenda," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 1-11.
    17. Ferto, Imre & Bakucs, Lajos Zoltan, 2009. "The patterns of retail price variation. The case of milk products," 2009 Conference, August 16-22, 2009, Beijing, China 51670, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    18. Alexander L. Wolman, 2007. "The frequency and costs of individual price adjustment," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(6), pages 531-552.
    19. Saul Lach, 2007. "Immigration and Prices," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 115(4), pages 548-587, August.
    20. Etienne Gagnon & David López-Salido, 2020. "Small Price Responses to Large Demand Shocks," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 18(2), pages 792-828.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    capacity constraint; peak demand; price competition;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D00 - Microeconomics - - General - - - General
    • L00 - Industrial Organization - - General - - - General
    • L40 - Industrial Organization - - Antitrust Issues and Policies - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bpj:bejeap:v:16:y:2016:i:3:p:1585-1597:n:10. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyter.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.