sociology of price
Teppo
Here’s a nice piece by Mark Zbaracki from a recent issue of Managerial and Decision Economics — the piece advocates a grounded and sociological methodology for understanding price and price adjustment. In short, Zbaracki argues that there is a need to understand process and practice: presently the dynamics of price adjustment apparently are a black box.
And, here’s another upshot:
…the evidence from grounded studies of price adjustment suggest that managerial behavior is embedded not just in social ties, but also in complex cognitive structures and in ongoing social dynamics. The challenge is to understand how the combination of social relations, cognitive structures, and market dynamics affects behavior. To do this, we must take seriously economic theory, not necessarily because it is right, but because it is part of and contributes to the social dynamics of change.
Sounds quite complementary to the Economics-As-Engine-Not-Camera type of intuition (though, I admittedly struggle with that). The sociology of price seems like an area worth further investigation in economic sociology.
Update: Here’s a recent paper by Zbaracki et al - the Anatomy of a Price Cut - in the above vein.
