Modern communication technologies make information more easily and quickly accessible, leading to more transparent and competitive markets. Based on a theoretical model, this paper provides new empirical evidence on the potential impact of online search intensity on asymmetric cost pass‐through. Prices often move as ‘rockets and feathers’: they rise quickly in response to cost increases and they fall slowly in response to cost reductions. A panel threshold error correction model is applied to weekly producer and retail prices of chicken and mutton in Iran. The results suggest that the volume of online searches is associated with a more complete and less asymmetric cost pass‐through from farmgate to retail prices. Thus, online platforms and search engines have the potential to increase competition by bringing prices closer together and reducing profit margins.

中文翻译：

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互联网是否使食品价格更加接近？探索伊朗的搜索引擎查询数据

现代通信技术使信息更容易、更快速地获取，从而形成更加透明和竞争激烈的市场。本文基于理论模型，为在线搜索强度对不对称成本传递的潜在影响提供了新的经验证据。价格通常像“火箭和羽毛”一样波动：随着成本的增加，价格迅速上涨，随着成本的降低，价格缓慢下降。面板阈值误差修正模型适用于伊朗鸡肉和羊肉的每周生产者和零售价格。结果表明，在线搜索量与从农场到零售价格的更完整且更少不对称的成本传递相关。因此，在线平台和搜索引擎有可能通过拉近价格并降低利润率来增加竞争。