Large-scale barcode scanner data, for example, are an alternative avenue that researchers at the ECB have explored in the past to investigate factors that determine prices and the degree of price dispersion, much in the tradition of our long-standing efforts under the umbrella of the Eurosystem Inflation Persistence Network.15 The data, which consist of 3.5 million observations on the price and quantity of individual products sold, have confirmed that competition at producer and retail level is a key factor affecting micro price-setting.
Insights gained from the use of online and scanner data have also encouraged the ECB to make micro-price research a strategic research priority between 2018 and 2020.