More frequent price changes for goods and a rise in the consistency of pricing due to the growth of online retailers may be affecting inflation, according to an academic paper presented on August 25 to some of the world’s top central bankers.
“In the past 10 years online competition has raised both the frequency of price changes and the degree of uniform pricing across locations,” said Alberto Cavallo, an associate professor at Harvard Business School, who analyzed how so-called multi-channel retailers - those with brick-and-mortar and online outlets - such as Walmart Inc have reacted to the rise of Amazon.com Inc .
