Search Results
Working Paper
Mega Firms and New Technological Trajectories in the U.S.
We provide evidence that mega firms have played an increasingly important role in shaping new technological trajectories in recent years. While the share of novel patents---defined as patents introducing new combinations of technological components---produced by mega firms declined until around 2000, it has rebounded sharply since then. Furthermore, we find that the technological impact and knowledge diffusion of novel patents by mega firms have grown relative to those by non-mega firms after 2001. We also explore potential drivers of this trend, presenting evidence that the rise in novel ...
Working Paper
Geospatial Heterogeneity in Inflation: A Market Concentration Story
We study how inflation varies across regions with different income levels and the role of retailer market structure. Using NielsenIQ Retail Scanner and Business Dynamics Statistics data, we document new stylized facts of spatial heterogeneity in food inflation and retailer market structure. From 2006 to 2020, poorer metropolitan statistical areas experienced annualized food inflation that was 0.46 percentage points higher than that of richer ones—amounting to a cumulative difference of 8.8 percentage points over the period. Poorer areas also had fewer goods, fewer retailers, and higher ...
Journal Article
Geographic Inequality in Food Inflation
Using NielsenIQ Retail Scanner data, we study how food inflation varies across regions with different income levels and the role of retailer market structure. From 2006 to 2020, for the average consumer, food prices—as measured by the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index for food and beverages—rose by by about 1.8 percent per year. However, this aggregate increase masked substantial spatial heterogeneity. Poorer metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) experienced annualized food inflation that was half a percentage point higher than that of richer ones—amounting to a ...