Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/206837 
Year of Publication: 
2006
Citation: 
[Journal:] Marketing Science [ISSN:] 1526-548X [Volume:] 25 [Issue:] 2 [Publisher:] Informs [Place:] Catonsville [Year:] 2006 [Pages:] 109-201
Publisher: 
Informs, Catonsville
Abstract: 
Asymmetric pricing or asymmetric price adjustment is the phenomenon where prices rise more readily than they fall. We offer and provide empirical support for a new theory of asymmetric pricing in wholesale prices. Wholesale prices may adjust asymmetrically in the small but symmetrically in the large, when retailers face cost of price adjustment. Such retailers will not adjust prices for small changes in their costs. Manufacturers then see a region of inelastic demand where small wholesale price changes do not translate into commensurate retail price changes. The implication is asymmetric—a small wholesale price increase is more profitable because manufacturers will not lose customers from higher retail prices; yet, a small decrease is less profitable, because it will not lower retail prices; hence, there is no extra revenue from greater sales. For larger changes, this asymmetry in the behavior of wholesale price vanishes as the price adjustment cost is compensated by the increase in retailers’ revenue resulting from correspondingly large retail price changes. We present a formal economic model of a channel with forward-looking retailers and cost of price adjustment, test the derived propositions on the behavior of manufacturer prices using a large supermarket scanner data set, and find that the results are consistent with the predictions of our theory. We then discuss the implications for asymmetric pricing, channels, and cost of price adjustment literatures, as well as public policy.
Subjects: 
Asymmetric Pricing
Channel Pricing
Costs of Price Adjustment
Menu Costs
Wholesale Prices
Channels of Distribution
Retailing
Economic Model
Scanner Data
JEL: 
E31
E12
L11
L16
L22
L81
M21
M31
Published Version’s DOI: 
Document Type: 
Article
Document Version: 
Accepted Manuscript (Postprint)
Appears in Collections:

Files in This Item:
File
Size
1.21 MB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.