University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

The Pricing of Pharmaceuticals by Online and Traditional Retailers: An Empirical Examination

Lee, Michael Jae Woo

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Description

Title
The Pricing of Pharmaceuticals by Online and Traditional Retailers: An Empirical Examination
Author(s)
Lee, Michael Jae Woo
Issue Date
2001
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Michael R. Ward
Department of Study
Economics
Discipline
Economics
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Economics, General
Language
eng
Abstract
Unlike the previous research, the principal findings of this thesis support the premise that retail marketplace on the Internet is more competitive than the brick-and-mortar marketplace. For the retail pharmacy market, I found that online price levels were lower for both over-the-counter and prescription drugs; the prices for the former were more dispersed online, while the prices for latter were less. As predicted, however, prices for pharmaceutical products changed less frequently online. It is not entirely clear, however, that the reduction in price volatilities in the Internet retail market is the result of the reduction of online retailers' ability to price discriminate, even though a test of relative ranks provides some evidence that this may be so. Lastly, mixed evidence supporting menu cost theory was found.
Graduation Semester
2001
Type of Resource
text
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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/85510

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