Sales and Consumer Inventory / Igal Hendel, Aviv Nevo.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hendel, Igal.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Nevo, Aviv.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w9048.

NBER working paper series no. w9048

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2002.

Summary:

Temporary price reductions (sales) are common for many goods and naturally result in large increase in the quantity sold. We explore whether the data support the hypothesis that these increases are, at least partly, due to dynamic consumer behavior: at low prices consumers stockpile for future consumption. This effect, if present, renders standard static demand estimates misleading, which has broad economic implications. We construct a dynamic model of consumer choice, use it to derive testable predictions and test these predictions using two years of scanner data on the purchasing behavior of a panel of households. The results support the existence of household stockpiling behavior and suggest that static demand estimates, which neglect dynamics, may overestimate price sensitiveness by up to a factor of 2 to 6.

Notes:

Print version record

July 2002.