IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finlet/v49y2022ics1544612322003865.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Online prices and inflation during the nationwide COVID-19 quarantine period: Evidence from 107 Chinese websites

Author

Listed:
  • Jiang, Tingfeng
  • Liu, Taoxiong
  • Tang, Ke
  • Zeng, Jiaqing

Abstract

Given the lack of activity in China's offline economy during the COVID-19 quarantine period, online prices provide new insights for analyzing the impacts of the pandemic on the economy. Using online prices from 107 websites in China and the DiD method to remove the Spring Festival effect, we show that the pandemic leads to a 0.4% surge in the overall inflation rate, a 20% decrease in the price change probability, and a 1% decline in the size of absolute price changes. Moreover, the pandemic had heterogeneous impacts on different sectors, leading to significant structural changes in inflation. Specifically, the pandemic hindered the price correction behavior after Spring Festival, and whether products could be consumed while customers stayed at home was an important factor affecting price adjustment and inflation dynamics.

Suggested Citation

  • Jiang, Tingfeng & Liu, Taoxiong & Tang, Ke & Zeng, Jiaqing, 2022. "Online prices and inflation during the nationwide COVID-19 quarantine period: Evidence from 107 Chinese websites," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:49:y:2022:i:c:s1544612322003865
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2022.103166
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1544612322003865
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.frl.2022.103166?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. Yuriy Gorodnichenko & Viacheslav Sheremirov & Oleksandr Talavera, 2018. "Price Setting in Online Markets: Does IT Click?," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 16(6), pages 1764-1811.
    2. Alberto Cavallo, 2017. "Are Online and Offline Prices Similar? Evidence from Large Multi-channel Retailers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(1), pages 283-303, January.
    3. Fang, Hanming & Wang, Long & Yang, Yang, 2020. "Human mobility restrictions and the spread of the Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in China," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    4. Haiqiang Chen & Wenlan Qian & Qiang Wen, 2021. "The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Consumption: Learning from High-Frequency Transaction Data," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 111, pages 307-311, May.
    5. Warwick McKibbin & Roshen Fernando, 2020. "Global macroeconomic scenarios of the COVID-19 pandemic," CAMA Working Papers 2020-62, Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
    6. Yang, Senyan & Ning, Lianju & Jiang, Tingfeng & He, Yingqi, 2021. "Dynamic impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on the regional express logistics: Evidence from China," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 111-124.
    7. Alberto Cavallo, 2024. "Inflation with Covid Consumption Baskets," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 72(2), pages 902-917, June.
    8. Jin, Chenglu & Lu, Xingyu & Zhang, Yihan, 2022. "Market reaction, COVID-19 pandemic and return distribution," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 47(PB).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hammouda, Amira & Saeed, Asif & Vidal, Marta & Vidal-García, Javier, 2023. "On the short-term persistence of mutual fund performance in Europe," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    2. Edoardo Beretta & Doris Neuberger, 2023. "Monetary aggregates in the US since 2020 and post-COVID-19 inflation: evidence from the equation of exchange," Economics and Business Letters, Oviedo University Press, vol. 12(4), pages 321-330.
    3. Bouri, Elie & Nekhili, Ramzi & Kinateder, Harald & Choudhury, Tonmoy, 2023. "Expected inflation and U.S. stock sector indices: A dynamic time-scale tale from inflationary and deflationary crisis periods," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 55(PA).
    4. Svetlana Fedoseeva & Ellen Van Droogenbroeck, 2023. "Pandemic pricing: Evidence from German grocery e‐commerce," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(4), pages 1139-1156, October.

    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. José Anson & Mauro Boffa, 2018. "Consumer Arbitrage in Cross-Border E-commerce," RSCAS Working Papers 2018/17, European University Institute.
    2. Alex Nikolsko‐Rzhevskyy & Oleksandr Talavera & Nam Vu, 2023. "The flood that caused a drought," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 61(4), pages 965-981, October.
    3. Drenik, Andrés & Perez, Diego J., 2020. "Price setting under uncertainty about inflation," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 23-38.
    4. Yiquan Gu & Leonardo Madio & Carlo Reggiani, 2019. "Exclusive Data, Price Manipulation and Market Leadership," CESifo Working Paper Series 7853, CESifo.
    5. Xavier Jaravel & Martin O'Connell, 2020. "High‐Frequency Changes in Shopping Behaviours, Promotions and the Measurement of Inflation: Evidence from the Great Lockdown," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 41(3), pages 733-755, September.
    6. Christoph Basten & Steven Ongena, 2019. "The Geography of Mortgage Lending in Times of FinTech," Swiss Finance Institute Research Paper Series 19-39, Swiss Finance Institute.
    7. Duch-Brown, Néstor & Grzybowski, Lukasz & Romahn, André & Verboven, Frank, 2021. "Are online markets more integrated than traditional markets? Evidence from consumer electronics," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    8. Aitor Lacuesta & Pau Roldan & Darío Serrano-Puente, 2020. "Effects of e-commerce on prices and business competition," Economic Bulletin, Banco de España, issue 4/2020.
    9. Chen, Joy & Cheng, Zijun & Gong, Robin Kaiji & Li, Jinlin, 2022. "Riding out the COVID-19 storm: How government policies affect SMEs in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    10. Marco Bonomo & Carlos Carvalho & Oleksiy Kryvtsov & Sigal Ribon & Rodolfo Rigato, 2020. "Multi-Product Pricing: Theory and Evidence from Large Retailers in Israel," Staff Working Papers 20-12, Bank of Canada.
    11. Santiago E. Alvarez & Sarah M. Lein, 2020. "Tracking inflation on a daily basis," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics, Springer;Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics, vol. 156(1), pages 1-13, December.
    12. Nagengast, Arne J. & Bursian, Dirk & Menz, Jan-Oliver, 2021. "Dynamic pricing and exchange rate pass-through: Evidence from transaction-level data," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    13. Dennis Bonam & Gabriele Galati & Irma Hindrayanto & Marco Hoeberichts & Anna Samarina & Irina Stanga, 2019. "Inflation in the euro area since the Global Financial Crisis," DNB Occasional Studies 1703, Netherlands Central Bank, Research Department.
    14. Jonathan Adams & Min Fang & Zheng Liu & Yajie Wang, 2024. "The Rise of AI Pricing: Trends, Driving Forces, and Implications for Firm Performance," Working Paper Series 2024-33, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
    15. Andrea Mantovani & Claudio Piga & Carlo Reggiani, 2019. "Much ado about nothing? Online platform price parity clauses and the EU Booking.com case," Economics Discussion Paper Series 1909, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    16. Zha, Wenbin & Ye, Qian & Li, Jian & Ozbay, Kaan, 2023. "A social media Data-Driven analysis for transport policy response to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in Wuhan, China," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    17. Agnese Carella & Valentina Michelangeli, 2021. "Information or persuasion in the mortgage market: the role of brand names," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 1340, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    18. Hillen, Judith & Fedoseeva, Svetlana, 2021. "E-commerce and the end of price rigidity?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 63-73.
    19. Barbara Baarsma & Jesse Groenewegen, 2021. "COVID-19 and the Demand for Online Grocery Shopping: Empirical Evidence from the Netherlands," De Economist, Springer, vol. 169(4), pages 407-421, November.
    20. Doris Ritzberger-Grünwald & Fabio Rumler, 2019. "Challenges for measuring inflation in a digital world from a monetary policy perspective," Monetary Policy & the Economy, Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian Central Bank), issue Q3/19, pages 42-53.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    COVID-19 pandemic; Online prices; Stay-at-home economy; Inflation; Price stickiness;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E31 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Price Level; Inflation; Deflation
    • E60 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - 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:eee:finlet:v:49:y:2022:i:c:s1544612322003865. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/frl .

    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.