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Law of One Price, Distance, and Borders

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  • Borraz, Fernando
  • Zipitría, Leandro

Abstract

We propose a decomposition of the border effect in international trade by controlling for differences in competition in local markets. An extension of the Hotelling (1929) model shows that the availability of local substitutes increases price dispersion and biases the estimation of the border effect. We test these predictions using detailed price database at the supermarket level for Uruguay. This stylized setting makes it possible to control for other potential explanations of the border effect (i.e., exchange rates, taxes, or transport costs). We find that for those goods without local competitors the border estimation increases substantially, while for those goods that do have local competitors the effect of border is negligible. As the literature suggests, results should be even larger for different countries than for different cities. The methodology developed in the paper allows a finer explanation for understanding the relevance of borders in price dispersion.

Suggested Citation

  • Borraz, Fernando & Zipitría, Leandro, 2017. "Law of One Price, Distance, and Borders," GLO Discussion Paper Series 87, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
  • Handle: RePEc:zbw:glodps:87
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Engel, Charles & Rogers, John H, 1996. "How Wide Is the Border?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(5), pages 1112-1125, December.
    2. Fernando Borraz & Alberto Cavallo & Roberto Rigobon & Leandro Zipitria, 2016. "Distance and Political Boundaries: Estimating Border Effects under Inequality Constraints," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(1), pages 3-35, January.
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    5. Thierry Mayer & Keith Head, 2002. "Illusory Border Effects: Distance Mismeasurement Inflates Estimates of Home Bias in Trade," Working Papers 2002-01, CEPII research center.
    6. 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.
    7. Janet Ceglowski, 2003. "The law of one price: intranational evidence for Canada," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 36(2), pages 373-400, May.
    8. Dixit, Avinash K & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1977. "Monopolistic Competition and Optimum Product Diversity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(3), pages 297-308, June.
    9. Irmen, Andreas & Thisse, Jacques-Francois, 1998. "Competition in Multi-characteristics Spaces: Hotelling Was Almost Right," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 78(1), pages 76-102, January.
    10. Fernando Borraz & Leandro Zipitría, 2012. "Retail Price Setting in Uruguay," Economía Journal, The Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association - LACEA, vol. 0(Spring 20), pages 77-109, January.
    11. Peter J. Klenow & Oleksiy Kryvtsov, 2008. "State-Dependent or Time-Dependent Pricing: Does it Matter for Recent U.S. Inflation?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 123(3), pages 863-904.
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    Cited by:

    1. Andrés Bonino Gayoso, 2019. "Convergencia de precios en el largo plazo en Uruguay. Evidencia empírica para 4 bienes," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 0119, Department of Economics - dECON.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    border effect; price dispersion; competition;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • F15 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Economic Integration
    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets

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