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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Albrecht, Brian C., Whitmeyer, Mark
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.17964
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author Albrecht, Brian C.
Whitmeyer, Mark
author_facet Albrecht, Brian C.
Whitmeyer, Mark
contents How do cost shocks pass through to prices in markets with price dispersion? We decompose the problem into two layers. In the competition layer, consumers' consideration sets determine equilibrium distributions of normalized margins. In the curvature layer, demand elasticity maps these margins into prices and pass-through rates. We prove the pricing game is strategically equivalent to a game over normalized margins, so equilibrium margin distributions are invariant to demand and costs. This separation yields closed-form pass-through formulas at each quantile of the price distribution, robust bounds across demand specifications, and sharp comparative statics linking market structure to incidence.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_17964
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Pass-through with Price Dispersion
Albrecht, Brian C.
Whitmeyer, Mark
Theoretical Economics
How do cost shocks pass through to prices in markets with price dispersion? We decompose the problem into two layers. In the competition layer, consumers' consideration sets determine equilibrium distributions of normalized margins. In the curvature layer, demand elasticity maps these margins into prices and pass-through rates. We prove the pricing game is strategically equivalent to a game over normalized margins, so equilibrium margin distributions are invariant to demand and costs. This separation yields closed-form pass-through formulas at each quantile of the price distribution, robust bounds across demand specifications, and sharp comparative statics linking market structure to incidence.
title Pass-through with Price Dispersion
topic Theoretical Economics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.17964