Doctoral Dissertation Research: Inner-City Price Differentials Revisited

自20世纪60年代末以来，市中心消费者面临的食品市场价格高于更富裕的消费者的说法，得到了褒贬不一的支持。最近对这个问题的调查似乎达成了一个共识，即穷人确实为食物支付了更高的费用。然而，这些研究使用的样本是基于对不公平定价策略的先验知识、志愿者调查员的接近程度或其他非随机方法。调查和样本设计中的这些方法错误对所获得的结果的影响尚不清楚。这个项目通过分析劳工统计局收集的未公布的价格水平数据来重新探讨价格结构的问题，这些数据用于计算消费者价格指数，以回答贫穷的城市社区的价格是否更高的问题。这个项目的贡献是对贫困和富裕社区中具有统计代表性的大样本商店进行分析，并对支持差异的主要论点进行实证检验。我们考察了被认为导致歧视性定价策略的店主之间的寻租；商店运营成本、交通限制和缺乏竞争对价格的影响；以及集中贫困对定价策略的影响。

The assertion that inner city consumers face higher market prices for food than their more affluent counterparts has received mixed support since the late 1960s. Recent inquiries into this question appear to reach a consensus that the poor indeed pay more for food. However, these studies utilize samples drawn on the basis of prior knowledge of unfair pricing strategies, proximity of volunteer surveyors, or another nonrandom method. The effect of these methodological errors in survey and sample design on the results obtained is unknown. This project revisits the issue of pricing structures by analyzing unpublished price level data collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics for use in computing the Consumer Price Index to answer the question of whether prices are higher in poor, urban neighborhoods. The contribution of this project is to analyze a large, statistically representative sample of stores in poor and affluent neighborhoods, and to test empirically the major arguments in support of a differential. We examine rent seeking among store owners that is believed to result in discriminatory pricing strategies; the effect of store operating costs, transportation constraints, and lack of competition on prices; and the effect of concentrated poverty on pricing strategies.