외식시장의 가격분산에 관한 연구

A Study on the Price Dispersion of the Restaurant Market: Focusing on the Restaurant Menu Items included in the Consumer Price Index

This paper provides an exploratory study of price dispersion in the restaurant market and checks for the application of the existing concepts of price dispersion. Three research problems are studied: To what extent are the actual price dispersion in restaurant menu items?, To what extent does the customers perceive price dispersion in restaurant menu items? And what are the differences and characteristics between these two types of price dispersion? Twenty-seven menu items were used for the current study. The results showed that the actual price dispersion were in the range of 1.75 and 11.67 whereas the perceived price dispersion had wider range of numbers between 1.43 and 5.2. Based on these two types of price dispersion, 27 menu items were classified into 4 groups where each group implying different search cost and customer welfare.