dc.creator | Yuen, Jonah Jung Hao | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2020-08-22T00:45:04Z | |
dc.date.available | 2018-05-31 | |
dc.date.issued | 2018-05-31 | |
dc.identifier.uri | https://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/etd-05212018-171304 | |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/1803/12356 | |
dc.description.abstract | Prices play a critical role in economics by guiding the efficient allocation of resources in market-based economies. In this dissertation I address two puzzles regarding prices: why so many prices end in 99 cents, which is a type of psychological pricing, and why the same product may have different prices in the same location, a phenomenon known as price dispersion. First, I test whether a model of inattentive consumers can explain why many, but not all, prices end in 99 cents. Data suggest the model can explain some of the variation in 99-cent price endings at the microeconomic level but generally fails at the macroeconomic level. I then address the puzzle of price dispersion by testing the empirical validity of the assumption that lower prices motivate search. I find that consumers who undertake additional shopping trips do not save much relative to average prices, which is at odds with many models of price dispersion. I also present jointly-written work proposing a model incorporating search and storage to explain observed behavior after splitting product-store pairs into high and low-priced bins. We show that price and quantity variation over time is lower for high-priced bins and also characterize the responsiveness of high-price bin quantity to lower-price bin price and quantity. In a broader context, these results guide how to refine models attempting to explain the existence of psychological pricing and price dispersion given the empirical deficiencies of existing theories. | |
dc.format.mimetype | application/pdf | |
dc.subject | price dispersion | |
dc.title | The 99¢ Dissertation: Essays on Psychological Pricing and Search | |
dc.type | dissertation | |
dc.contributor.committeeMember | Robert Driskill | |
dc.contributor.committeeMember | Kathryn Anderson | |
dc.contributor.committeeMember | Hyunseung Oh | |
dc.contributor.committeeMember | Paige Skiba | |
dc.type.material | text | |
thesis.degree.name | PHD | |
thesis.degree.level | dissertation | |
thesis.degree.discipline | Economics | |
thesis.degree.grantor | Vanderbilt University | |
local.embargo.terms | 2018-05-31 | |
local.embargo.lift | 2018-05-31 | |
dc.contributor.committeeChair | Benjamin Eden | |