What is the Price of Tea in China? Towards the Relative Cost of Living in Chinese and U.S. Cities
Kilts Center for Marketing Nielsen Data Research Working Paper Series
44 Pages Posted: 1 Mar 2017 Last revised: 3 Mar 2017
There are 2 versions of this paper
What is the Price of Tea in China? Towards the Relative Cost of Living in Chinese and U.S. Cities
What is the Price of Tea in China? Towards the Relative Cost of Living in Chinese and U.S. Cities
Date Written: February 28, 2017
Abstract
Abstract We examine the price and variety of products at the barcode level in cities within China and the United States. In both countries, there is a greater variety of products in larger cities. But in China, unlike the United States, the prices of products tend to be lower in larger cities. We attribute the lower prices to a pro-competitive effect, whereby large cities attract more firms which leads to lower markups and prices. Combining the effect of greater variety and lower prices, it follows that the cost-of-living for grocery-store products in China is lower in larger cities. We further compare the cost-of-living indexes for particular product categories between China and the United States. In product categories with a significant presence of U.S. brands in the Chinese market, the availability of additional Chinese brands leads to greater variety than in the United States, and therefore lower Chinese price indexes for that reason. In product categories with much less presence of U.S. brands in the Chinese market, however, the observed prices differences between the countries (usually lower prices in China) are partially or fully offset by the variety differences (less variety in China), so that the cost of living in China is not as low as the price differences suggest, especially in smaller cities.
Keywords: exact price index, variety, scanner data, pro-competitive
JEL Classification: D12, E01, L13
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation