Price dispersion, market competition and reputation: evidence from China's online electronic market

Abstract

I study price dispersion and the impact of market concentration and reputation using data collected from China’s online markets for consumer electronics. The data provides not only the price information but also the recent sales volume for each seller. It shows that price dispersion does not diminish over time. Although I draw the same conclusion as the research on US market using the gap measurement between the two lists with lowest prices, I find the gap measurement itself is not an effective indicator. Using proper measurement of price dispersion, I find the dispersion is larger in larger markets, which contradicts the findings from data which do not include sales information. Moreover, I find the reputation and services provided by online sellers has little impact on their prices, except for the registered sellers.