CEPAL Review no. 117

Revista CEPAL no. 117

Results of the International Comparison Program (ICP) 2011 for Latin America and the Caribbean

The International Comparison Programme (ICP) is a worldwide statistical project whose purpose is to collect comparative price data from a broad list or basket of products and to compile detailed values for spending-side gross domestic product (GDP) in order to calculate purchasing power parities (PPPs). Using PPPs, rather than market exchange rates, to convert macroeconomic aggregates aids comparison of production across economies and of the well-being of populations in real terms, insofar as they are compared on the basis of the purchasing power of each of the participant countries.…

Resultados del Programa de Comparación Internacional (PCI) de 2011 para América Latina y el Caribe

El Programa de Comparación Internacional (PCI) es un proyecto estadístico mundial cuyo objetivo consiste en recolectar datos comparables sobre precios de una amplia canasta de productos y compilar valores detallados del producto interno bruto (PIB) relativos al gasto para calcular las paridades de poder adquisitivo (PPA). Al utilizarse las PPA en lugar de los tipos de cambio de mercado para convertir los agregados macroeconómicos, es posible comparar la producción de las economías y el bienestar de sus habitantes en términos reales, es decir, teniendo en consideración la capacidad de compra en…

Is price dispersion always an indication of price discrimination?

It has been established for a long time that there is significant dispersion in prices charged for seemingly homogeneous goods. This may happen in competitive markets because the world is not frictionless, and certainly in other markets where price discrimination is carried out by firms with oligopolistic power. This paper is the first survey of the economic literature on price dispersion that addresses the following three key issues: i) its characteristics as a result of optimizing search behavior; ii) its relevance as a reflection of price discrimination and its consequences for social welfa…