科学研究

Luca Macedoni is an Associate Professor (with tenure) at University of Milan (UNIMI) and a CESifo, CEFAU, and Luca D’Agliano Research Affiliate. Before joining UNIMI, he was an associate professor at the Arhus University. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California, Davis in 2017. Macedoni’s research focuses on international trade and industrial organization. He has specific interests in the effects of regulations in international markets and the role played by superstar firms and multi-product firms. His work has been published in the American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, Journal of International Economics, International Economic Review, and Journal of Development Economics.

Using barcode-level data from the NielsenIQ Homescan Consumer Panel, we study how income inequality affects the prices of identical goods across US counties. We find that higher inequality reduces prices for products with low market shares but increases prices for products with high market shares. With higher inequality, larger firms, which sell more high-market-share goods, tend to raise prices, while smaller firms lower them. We find a similar pattern using Chinese export data across countries. To interpret these findings, we develop a model where a mean-preserving spread in income affects pricing through the convexity of demand and the convexity of the price derivative of demand with respect to income. We derive conditions under which inequality raises the price elasticity for low-market-share products and lowers it for high-market-share products, matching our empirical results.