Econ Papers Daily / 期刊论文
产品异质性、价格指数偏差及其与省级城市规模的关联：来自中国城市饮料市场的证据
Product heterogeneity, price index bias, and their link to provincial urban size: Evidence from urban China's beverage market
摘要
Conventional price indexes partially address product heterogeneity. This paper considers the variety and quality of products in each market, the combination of region and year, and constructs panel price indexes using household scanner data on non‐alcoholic beverages in urban China. By comparing our panel price indexes to a conventional one, we find that ignoring product heterogeneity could largely underestimate the cross‐market price differences for non‐alcoholic beverages. We also find that product variety increases with urban population and income per capita, but that quality decreases with urban population, suggesting that wealthier provincial urban markets tend to have higher consumer welfare.
中文摘要
摘要 传统价格指数仅部分解决了产品异质性问题。本文考虑每个市场（即地区与年份的组合）中产品的品种与质量，利用中国城市非酒精饮料的家庭扫描数据构建了面板价格指数。通过将我们的面板价格指数与传统价格指数进行比较，我们发现忽略产品异质性可能会严重低估非酒精饮料的跨市场价格差异。研究还发现，产品品种随城市人口和人均收入增加而增加，但质量随城市人口增加而下降，这表明更富裕的省级城市市场往往具有更高的消费者福利。