Doctoral Dissertation Research: Inner-City Price Differentials Revisited

自20世纪60年代末以来，内城消费者面临的食品市场价格高于富裕人群的说法得到了不同的支持。最近对这一问题的调查似乎达成了一种共识，即穷人确实为食物支付了更多的钱。然而，这些研究利用的样本是基于对不公平定价策略的先验知识、志愿调查员的接近度或其他非随机方法。调查和抽样设计中的这些方法错误对所获结果的影响尚不清楚。本项目通过分析劳动统计局收集的未公布的价格水平数据来重新审视价格结构问题，这些数据用于计算消费者价格指数，以回答贫困城市社区的价格是否更高的问题。这个项目的贡献是分析了一个大的，在统计上有代表性的样本商店在穷人和富人的社区，并测试经验的主要论点支持的差异。 我们研究了被认为会导致歧视性定价策略的店主之间的寻租行为;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 This project revisits the issue of pricing structures by analyzing unpublished price level data collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics for use in computing the Consumer Price Index to answer the question of whether prices are higher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.