Firm Heterogeneity in Consumption Baskets: Evidence from Home and Store Scanner Data
中文摘要
越来越多的文献记录了部门内企业异质性对名义收入不平等的作用。本文探讨这种异质性对收入分布中不同位置家庭的价格指数有何影响。利用详细且相互匹配的美国家庭与商店扫描微观数据，我们提供证据表明，在细分产品组内，富裕家庭与贫困家庭从不同规模企业购买消费品的方式存在差异。我们利用这些数据考察其他可能的解释，提出一个易于处理、具有双边异质性的定量模型，以解释观测到的统计矩，并对模型进行校准，以探索一般均衡反事实。我们发现，规模更大、生产率更高的企业通过分选迎合更富裕家庭的偏好，由此对家庭价格指数产生非对称效应。我们在政策反事实情景下量化这些效应：这些政策或影响需求侧的可支配收入分布，或影响供给侧的企业间利润分布。
Abstract
Abstract A growing literature has documented the role of firm heterogeneity within sectors for nominal income inequality. This article explores the implications for household price indices across the income distribution. Using detailed matched U.S. home and store scanner microdata, we present evidence that rich and poor households source their consumption differently across the firm size distribution within disaggregated product groups. We use the data to examine alternative explanations, propose a tractable quantitative model with two-sided heterogeneity that rationalizes the observed moments, and calibrate it to explore general equilibrium counterfactuals. We find that larger, more productive firms sort into catering to the taste of richer households, and that this gives rise to asymmetric effects on household price indices. We quantify these effects in the context of policy counterfactuals that affect the distribution of disposable incomes on the demand side or profits across firms on the supply side.