A Theory of Price Adjustment under Loss Aversion

  • We present a new partial equilibrium theory of price adjustment, based on consumer loss aversion. In line with prospect theory, the consumers’ perceived utility losses from price increases are weighted more heavily than the perceived utility gains from price decreases of equal magnitude. Price changes are evaluated relative to an endogenous reference price, which depends on the consumers’ rational price expectations from the recent past. By implication, demand responses are more elastic for price increases than for price decreases and thus firms face a downward-sloping demand curve that is kinked at the consumers’ reference price. Firms adjust their prices flexibly in response to variations in this demand curve, in the context of an otherwise standard dynamic neoclassical model of monopolistic competition. The resulting theory of price adjustment is starkly at variance with past theories. We find that – in line with the empirical evidence – prices are more sluggish upwards than downwards in response to temporary demand shocks, while they are more sluggish downwards than upwards in response to permanent demand shocks. The degree of these asymmetries, in turn, depends on the size of the shock.

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Metadaten
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Author(s):Dennis Snower, Steffen Ahrens, Inske Pirschel
Parent Title (English):Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization
Publication year:2017
Publishing Institution:Hertie School
First Page:78
Last Page:95
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2016.12.008
Release Date:2019/09/11
Tag:Price sluggishness Loss aversion State-dependent pricing
Volume:134
Licence of document (German):Metadaten / metadata
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