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Berkson errors are commonplace in empirical microeconomics. In consumer demand, this form of measurement error occurs when the price an individual pays is measured by the (weighted) average price paid by individuals in a group (e.g., a county) rather than the true transaction price. We show the importance of Berkson errors for demand estimation with nonseparable unobserved heterogeneity. We develop a consistent estimator using external information on the true price distribution. Examining gasoline demand in the United States, we document substantial within-market price variability. Accounting for Berkson errors is quantitatively important. Imposing the Slutsky shape constraint reduces sensitivity to Berkson errors.
Authors

CPP Co-Director
Richard is Co-Director of the Centre for the Microeconomic Analysis of Public Policy (CPP) and Senior Research Fellow at IFS.

Northwestern University

Research Fellow University of Surrey
Matthias is a research Fellow of the IFS, a Professor in the School of Economics at the University of Surrey and a Research Fellow at the IZA.
Journal article details
- DOI
- 10.1162/rest_a_01018
- Publisher
- The Review of Economics and Statistics
- Issue
- Volume 104, Issue 5, September 2022, pages 877-889
Suggested citation
R, Blundell and J, Horowitz and M, Parey. (2022). 'Estimation of a heterogeneous demand function with Berkson errors' 104(5/2022), pp.877–889.
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