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Alberto F. Cavallo

Alberto F. Cavallo

Edgerley Family Associate Professor of Business Administration

Edgerley Family Associate Professor of Business Administration

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Alberto Cavallo is the Edgerley Family Associate Professor at Harvard Business School, where he teaches in the Business, Government, and the International Economy (BGIE) unit, a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a member of the Technical Advisory Committee of the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Cavallo's research focuses on the behavior of prices and its implications for macroeconomic measurement, models and policies. He pioneered the use of online data to measure inflation and conduct research on high-frequency pricing dynamics during his Ph.D. at Harvard. He created Inflacion Verdadera in 2007 to measure the real inflation rate in Argentina and co-founded The Billion Prices Project in 2008 to expand the measurement of online inflation globally. He also co-founded PriceStats in 2011, the leading private source of inflation and PPP statistics in over 20 countries.

Cavallo earned a Bachelor of Science in Economics with summa cum laude from the Universidad of San Andres in Buenos Aires in 2000. In 2005, he earned a Masters in Business Administration from MIT, and in 2010 he earned a PhD in Economics from Harvard University.  He lives in Cambridge with his wife and two sons.

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Business, Government and the International Economy
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Alberto F. Cavallo
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Business, Government and the International Economy
Contact Information
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Featured Work Publications Awards & Honors
The International Price of Remote Work
NBER Working Paper 29437
We use data from a large web-based job platform to study how the price of remote work is determined in a globalized labor market. In the platform, workers located around the world compete for jobs that can be done remotely. We document that, despite the global nature of the marketplace, the worker's country accounts for almost a third of the variance in remote wages. The observed wage differences are strongly correlated to the GDP per capita in the worker's location. This correlation is not accounted for by differences in workers' observable characteristics, occupations, or differences in the employers' locations. Instead, data on wage-histories indicate that remote wages are partly determined by the conditions that workers face in their local labor markets. We also document that, as with internationally traded goods, remote wages expressed in local currency move strongly with the dollar exchange rate of the worker's country, and are highly sensitive to changes in the wages of foreign competitors.
What Can Stockouts Tell Us about Inflation? Evidence from Online Micro Data
NBER Working Paper 29209
We use a detailed micro dataset on product availability to construct a direct high-frequency measure of consumer product shortages during the 2020--2022 pandemic. We document a widespread multi-fold rise in shortages in nearly all sectors early in the pandemic. Over time, the composition of shortages evolved from many temporary stockouts to mostly discontinued products, concentrated in fewer sectors. We show that unexpected product shortages have significant inflationary effects within three months. These effects are larger and more persistent for imported goods and import-intensive sectors. We develop a model of inventories in a sector facing both demand and cost disturbances, and use the observed joint dynamics of stockouts and prices to show that these effects can be associated with elevated costs of replenishing inventories and higher exposure to trade.

This work has been mentioned in PBS NewsHour, MarketWatch 
Inflation with Covid Consumption Baskets
NBER Working Paper No. 27352
The Covid-19 Pandemic led to changes in expenditure patterns that can introduce significant bias in the measurement of Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation. Using publicly-available data on card transactions, I update the official CPI weights and re-calculate inflation with Covid consumption baskets. I find that the US CPI underestimated the Covid inflation rate, as consumers spent relatively more on food with positive inflation, and less on transportation and categories experiencing deflation. The bias peaked in  May, when US Covid annual inflation was 0.95% compared to just 0.13% in the CPI and low-income households were experiencing nearly twice as much inflation as those at the top of the income distribution. I find similar evidence of higher Covid inflation in 12 of 19 additional countries.

UPDATED GRAPHS AND DATA DOWNLOADS

This work has been mentioned in The New York Times, Bloomberg, Quartz, Financial Times, Financial Times II, Reuters, Washington Post, Folha de S Paolo, NPR, TIME, Bloomberg II,The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist II, The New York Times (opinion). 

Tariff Passthrough at the Border and at the Store: Evidence from U.S. Trade Policy
American Economic Review: Insights, Vol 3 Issue 1. March 2021
We use micro data collected at the border and the store to characterize the price impact of recent US trade policy on importers, exporters, and consumers. At the border, import tariff passthrough is much higher than exchange rate passthrough. Chinese exporters did not lower their dollar prices by much, despite the recent appreciation of the dollar. By contrast, US exporters significantly lowered prices affected by foreign retaliatory tariffs. In US stores, the price impact is more limited, suggesting that retail margins have fallen. Our results imply that, so far, the tariffs' incidence has fallen in large part on US firms.

This work has been mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, IMF Blog, BBC News, HBS Working Knowledge, CNN (Jake Tapper's State of the Union), Forbes, The Wall Street Journal (2), and the Washington Post.  
More Amazon Effects: Online Competition and Pricing Behaviors
Jackson Hole Economic Symposium Conference Proceedings (Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City) - 2018

I study how online competition, with its algorithmic pricing technologies and the transparency of the Internet, can change the pricing behavior of large retailers and affect aggregate inflation dynamics. In particular, I show that online competition has raised both the frequency of price changes and the degree of uniform pricing across locations in the U.S. over the past 10 years. These changes make retail prices more sensitive to aggregate nationwide shocks, increasing the pass-through of both gas prices and nominal exchange rate fluctuations.

This work has been featured in The Economist, Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, HBS Working Knowledge, and Bloomberg.

Alberto Cavallo is the Edgerley Family Associate Professor at Harvard Business School, where he teaches in the Business, Government, and the International Economy (BGIE) unit, a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a member of the Technical Advisory Committee of the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Cavallo's research focuses on the behavior of prices and its implications for macroeconomic measurement, models and policies. He pioneered the use of online data to measure inflation and conduct research on high-frequency pricing dynamics during his Ph.D. at Harvard. He created Inflacion Verdadera in 2007 to measure the real inflation rate in Argentina and co-founded The Billion Prices Project in 2008 to expand the measurement of online inflation globally. He also co-founded PriceStats in 2011, the leading private source of inflation and PPP statistics in over 20 countries.

Cavallo earned a Bachelor of Science in Economics with summa cum laude from the Universidad of San Andres in Buenos Aires in 2000. In 2005, he earned a Masters in Business Administration from MIT, and in 2010 he earned a PhD in Economics from Harvard University.  He lives in Cambridge with his wife and two sons.

Featured Work
The International Price of Remote Work
NBER Working Paper 29437
We use data from a large web-based job platform to study how the price of remote work is determined in a globalized labor market. In the platform, workers located around the world compete for jobs that can be done remotely. We document that, despite the global nature of the marketplace, the worker's country accounts for almost a third of the variance in remote wages. The observed wage differences are strongly correlated to the GDP per capita in the worker's location. This correlation is not accounted for by differences in workers' observable characteristics, occupations, or differences in the employers' locations. Instead, data on wage-histories indicate that remote wages are partly determined by the conditions that workers face in their local labor markets. We also document that, as with internationally traded goods, remote wages expressed in local currency move strongly with the dollar exchange rate of the worker's country, and are highly sensitive to changes in the wages of foreign competitors.
What Can Stockouts Tell Us about Inflation? Evidence from Online Micro Data
NBER Working Paper 29209
We use a detailed micro dataset on product availability to construct a direct high-frequency measure of consumer product shortages during the 2020--2022 pandemic. We document a widespread multi-fold rise in shortages in nearly all sectors early in the pandemic. Over time, the composition of shortages evolved from many temporary stockouts to mostly discontinued products, concentrated in fewer sectors. We show that unexpected product shortages have significant inflationary effects within three months. These effects are larger and more persistent for imported goods and import-intensive sectors. We develop a model of inventories in a sector facing both demand and cost disturbances, and use the observed joint dynamics of stockouts and prices to show that these effects can be associated with elevated costs of replenishing inventories and higher exposure to trade.

This work has been mentioned in PBS NewsHour, MarketWatch 
Inflation with Covid Consumption Baskets
NBER Working Paper No. 27352
The Covid-19 Pandemic led to changes in expenditure patterns that can introduce significant bias in the measurement of Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation. Using publicly-available data on card transactions, I update the official CPI weights and re-calculate inflation with Covid consumption baskets. I find that the US CPI underestimated the Covid inflation rate, as consumers spent relatively more on food with positive inflation, and less on transportation and categories experiencing deflation. The bias peaked in  May, when US Covid annual inflation was 0.95% compared to just 0.13% in the CPI and low-income households were experiencing nearly twice as much inflation as those at the top of the income distribution. I find similar evidence of higher Covid inflation in 12 of 19 additional countries.

UPDATED GRAPHS AND DATA DOWNLOADS

This work has been mentioned in The New York Times, Bloomberg, Quartz, Financial Times, Financial Times II, Reuters, Washington Post, Folha de S Paolo, NPR, TIME, Bloomberg II,The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist II, The New York Times (opinion). 

Tariff Passthrough at the Border and at the Store: Evidence from U.S. Trade Policy
American Economic Review: Insights, Vol 3 Issue 1. March 2021
We use micro data collected at the border and the store to characterize the price impact of recent US trade policy on importers, exporters, and consumers. At the border, import tariff passthrough is much higher than exchange rate passthrough. Chinese exporters did not lower their dollar prices by much, despite the recent appreciation of the dollar. By contrast, US exporters significantly lowered prices affected by foreign retaliatory tariffs. In US stores, the price impact is more limited, suggesting that retail margins have fallen. Our results imply that, so far, the tariffs' incidence has fallen in large part on US firms.

This work has been mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, IMF Blog, BBC News, HBS Working Knowledge, CNN (Jake Tapper's State of the Union), Forbes, The Wall Street Journal (2), and the Washington Post.  
More Amazon Effects: Online Competition and Pricing Behaviors
Jackson Hole Economic Symposium Conference Proceedings (Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City) - 2018

I study how online competition, with its algorithmic pricing technologies and the transparency of the Internet, can change the pricing behavior of large retailers and affect aggregate inflation dynamics. In particular, I show that online competition has raised both the frequency of price changes and the degree of uniform pricing across locations in the U.S. over the past 10 years. These changes make retail prices more sensitive to aggregate nationwide shocks, increasing the pass-through of both gas prices and nominal exchange rate fluctuations.

This work has been featured in The Economist, Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, HBS Working Knowledge, and Bloomberg.

Published Papers
  • Cavallo, Alberto, Robert C. Feenstra, and Robert Inklaar. "Product Variety, the Cost of Living, and Welfare Across Countries." American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics (forthcoming). View Details
  • Cavallo, Alberto, Gita Gopinath, Brent Neiman, and Jenny Tang. "Tariff Passthrough at the Border and at the Store: Evidence from U.S. Trade Policy." American Economic Review: Insights 3, no. 1 (March 2021). View Details
  • Cavallo, Alberto, and Diego Aparicio. "Targeted Price Controls on Supermarket Products." Review of Economics and Statistics 103, no. 1 (March 2021): 60–71. View Details
  • Cavallo, Alberto. "More Amazon Effects: Online Competition and Pricing Behaviors." Jackson Hole Economic Symposium Conference Proceedings (Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City) (2019). View Details
  • Cavallo, Alberto, Erwin Diewert, Robert C. Feenstra, Robert Inklaar, and Marcel P. Timmer. "Using Online Prices for Measuring Real Consumption Across Countries." AEA Papers and Proceedings 108 (May 2018): 483–487. View Details
  • Cavallo, Alberto. "Scraped Data and Sticky Prices." Review of Economics and Statistics 100, no. 1 (March 2018): 105–119. View Details
  • Cavallo, Alberto, Guillermo Cruces, and Ricardo Perez-Truglia. "Inflation Expectations, Learning, and Supermarket Prices: Evidence from Survey Experiments." American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics 9, no. 3 (July 2017): 1–35. View Details
  • Cavallo, Alberto. "Are Online and Offline Prices Similar? Evidence from Large Multi-Channel Retailers." American Economic Review 107, no. 1 (January 2017): 283–303. View Details
  • Cavallo, Alberto, and Roberto Rigobon. "The Billion Prices Project: Using Online Prices for Inflation Measurement and Research." Journal of Economic Perspectives 30, no. 2 (Spring 2016): 151–178. View Details
  • Cavallo, Alberto, Guillermo Cruces, and Ricardo Perez-Truglia. "Learning from Potentially Biased Statistics: Household Inflation Perceptions and Expectations in Argentina." Brookings Papers on Economic Activity (Spring 2016): 59–108. View Details
  • Cavallo, Alberto, Brent Neiman, and Roberto Rigobon. "The Price Impact of Joining a Currency Union: Evidence from Latvia." IMF Economic Review 63, no. 2 (September 2015): 281–297. View Details
  • Borraz, Fernando, Alberto Cavallo, Roberto Rigobon, and Leandro Zipitria. "Distance and Political Boundaries: Estimating Border Effects under Inequality Constraints." International Journal of Finance & Economics 21, no. 1 (January 2016): 3–35. View Details
  • Cavallo, Alberto, Brent Neiman, and Roberto Rigobon. "Currency Unions, Product Introductions, and the Real Exchange Rate." Quarterly Journal of Economics 129, no. 2 (May 2014): 529–595. View Details
  • Cavallo, Alberto, Eduardo A. Cavallo, and Roberto Rigobon. "Prices and Supply Disruptions during Natural Disasters." Review of Income and Wealth 60, no. S2 (November 2014): S449–S471. View Details
  • Cavallo, Alberto. "Online and Official Price Indexes: Measuring Argentina's Inflation." Journal of Monetary Economics 60, no. 2 (March 2013): 152–165. View Details
  • Bordo, Michael D., Alberto Cavallo, and Christopher Meissner. "Sudden Stops: Determinants and Output Effects in the First Era of Globalization, 1880–1913." Journal of Development Economics 91, no. 2 (March 2010): 227–241. View Details
  • Cavallo, Alberto, and Eduardo Cavallo. "Are Crises Good for Long-term Growth? The Role of Political Institutions." Journal of Macroeconomics 32, no. 3 (September 2010): 838–857. View Details
Working Papers
  • Brinatti, Agostina, Alberto Cavallo, Javier Cravino, and Andres Drenik. "The International Price of Remote Work." NBER Working Paper Series, No. 29437, October 2021. (Revised November 2022.) View Details
  • Cavallo, Alberto, and Oleksiy Kryvtsov. "What Can Stockouts Tell Us About Inflation? Evidence from Online Micro Data." NBER Working Paper Series, No. 29209, September 2021. View Details
  • Cavallo, Alberto. "Inflation with COVID Consumption Baskets." NBER Working Paper Series, No. 27352, June 2020. (Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 20-124, May 2020.) View Details
  • Cavallo, Alberto, Brent Neiman, and Roberto Rigobon. "Real Exchange Rate Behavior: New Evidence from Matched Retail Goods." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 20-040, January 2019. View Details
  • Alcedo, Joel, Alberto Cavallo, Bricklin Dwyer, Prachi Mishra, and Antonio Spilimbergo. "E-commerce During COVID: Stylized Facts from 47 Economies." NBER Working Paper Series, No. 29729, February 2022. View Details
  • Cavallo, Alberto. "Measuring Venezuela's Inflation Using Crowdsourcing and Mobile Phones." 2018. Mimeo. View Details
Case and Teaching Materials
  • Cavallo, Alberto, and Stacy Straaberg. "FIELD Immersion 2022: Albuquerque, New Mexico." Harvard Business School Background Note 722-060, June 2022. View Details
  • Cavallo, Alberto. "International Macroeconomics with Global Crises." Harvard Business School Module Note 722-044, March 2022. View Details
  • Cavallo, Alberto, and Sophus A. Reinert. "The Global Great Depression, 1929-1939." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 722-054, March 2022. View Details
  • Cavallo, Alberto. "Getting Brexit Done." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 722-038, March 2022. View Details
  • Cavallo, Alberto. "Automercados Plaza's: Surviving Venezuela's Hyperinflation." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 722-043, March 2022. View Details
  • Cavallo, Alberto. "The Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic and the Global Economy (A) and (B)." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 722-039, March 2022. View Details
  • Cavallo, Alberto. "BGIE Macro Data Repository." Harvard Business School Technical Note 722-037, January 2022. View Details
  • Cavallo, Alberto, Sophus A. Reinert, and Federica Gabrieli. "The Global Great Depression, 1929-1939." Harvard Business School Case 722-034, November 2021. (Revised January 2023.) View Details
  • Cavallo, Alberto, and Christian Godwin. "The Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic and the Global Economy (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 721-434, February 2021. (Revised March 2022.) View Details
  • Cavallo, Alberto, and Tannya Cai. "HBS COVID-19 Global Policy Tracker." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 20-110, April 2020. (Available at www.globalpolicytracker.com.) View Details
  • Cavallo, Alberto, Mariana Cal, and Carla Larangeira. "Automercados Plaza's: Surviving Venezuela's Hyperinflation." Harvard Business School Case 721-014, October 2020. (Revised March 2022.) View Details
  • Cavallo, Alberto, and Christian Godwin. "The Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic and the Global Economy (A)." Harvard Business School Case 720-031, May 2020. (Revised March 2022.) View Details
  • Cavallo, Alberto. "Getting Brexit Done." Harvard Business School Case 720-023, February 2020. (Revised January 2022.) View Details
  • Cavallo, Alberto, Mariana Cal, and Anne Laski. "The U.S. – China Trade War." Harvard Business School Case 719-034, February 2019. (Revised January 2022.) View Details
  • Cavallo, Alberto. "The U.S. – China Trade War." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 720-012, September 2019. (Revised January 2022.) View Details
  • Cavallo, Alberto, Matthew Weinzierl, and Robert Scherf. "India: State Capacity and Unity in Diversity." Harvard Business School Case 719-061, February 2019. (Revised March 2021.) View Details
  • Cavallo, Alberto, Kristin Fabbe, Mattias Fibiger, Jeremy Friedman, Reshmaan Hussam, Vincent Pons, and Matthew Weinzierl. "The BGIE Twenty (2022 version)." Harvard Business School Technical Note 718-032, December 2017. (Revised January 2022.) View Details
  • Cavallo, Alberto, Anne Laski, and Florencia Hnilo. "Economic Growth." Harvard Business School Technical Note 719-033, November 2018. (Revised December 2020.) View Details
  • Cavallo, Alberto. "Aggregate Demand and Aggregate Supply." Harvard Business School Technical Note 719-032, November 2018. View Details
  • Cavallo, Alberto. "Exchange Rates and the Trilemma." Harvard Business School Technical Note 719-031, November 2018. View Details
  • Di Tella, Rafael, Alberto Cavallo, and Aldo Sesia. "Hank and Nancy: The Subprime Crisis, the Run on Lehman and the Shadow Banks, and the Decision to Bail Out Wall Street." Harvard Business School Case 718-022, October 2017. (Revised November 2021.) View Details
  • Cavallo, Alberto, and Rafael Di Tella. "Hank and Nancy: The Subprime Crisis, the Run on Lehman and the Shadow Banks, and the Decision to Bailout Wall Street." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 719-010, September 2018. (Revised January 2022.) View Details
Awards & Honors
Winner of the 2018 Economics in Central Banking Award with Roberto Rigobon for the "Impact of the Billion Prices Project and PriceStats on Central Bank Policymaking."
Received a National Science Foundation Trans-Atlantic Platform-Digging into Data Grant, 2017–2019.
Received a National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) Economics of Digitization Grant, 2015–2016.
Awarded the 2015 Roger F. Murray Prize from the Institute of Quantitative Finance.
Named Douglas Drane Career Development Chair in Information Technology and Management at MIT Sloan School of Management, 2015–2018.
Received a 3M Junior Faculty Grant from MIT Sloan School of Management, 2014–2016.
Named the Cecil and Ida Green Career Development Chair, MIT Sloan School of Management, 2012–2015.
Named BusinessWeek Innovator, February 2011.
Received a JFRAP Grant, MIT Sloan School of Management, 2011–2018.
Research selected for inclusion in the New York Times 10th Annual Year in Ideas Issue, 2010.
Received a Dissertation Completion Fellowship, Harvard University, 2009–2010.
Received the C.V. Starr Scholarship, Harvard University, 2009-2010.
Received a Real Estate Academic Initiative Grant, Harvard University, 2009.
Received a Warburg Funds Grant, Harvard University, Spring 2008–2009.
Received a Derek C. Bok Award for Excellence in Graduate Student Teaching of Undergraduates, Harvard University, Spring 2008.
Received a Derek C. Bok Award for Excellence in Graduate Student Teaching of Undergraduates, Harvard University, Fall 2007.
Additional Information
Research Projects
  • Covid CPI Inflation
  • The Billion Prices Project
  • InflacionVerdadera.com (Argentina and Venezuela)
  • HBS Covid-19 Global Policy Tracker
Links
  • Twitter
  • Media
  • Curriculum Vitae 2022
Teaching Links and Materials
  • Repository of BGIE Macro Exhibits (GUIDES and BOP)
  • Office Hours
  • Group Coffee Chats
Areas of Interest
  • big data
  • macroeconomics
In The News

In The News

    • 16 Feb 2023
    • Economist

    Lots of Investors Think Inflation Is under Control. Not So Fast

    • 08 Jan 2023
    • Economist

    How Technology Is Redrawing the Boundaries of the Firm

    • 11 Oct 2022
    • PBS

    The Major Factors Driving up the Cost of Food

    • 12 Sep 2022
    • Wall Street Journal

    Inflation Showed Signs of Easing in Several Industries in August

    • 11 Aug 2022
    • Bloomberg

    These Families Thought Food Inflation Was Bad in 2021. It Only Got Worse

→More News for Alberto F. Cavallo

Alberto F. Cavallo In the News

News

16 Feb 2023
Economist
Lots of Investors Think Inflation Is under Control. Not So Fast

08 Jan 2023
Economist
How Technology Is Redrawing the Boundaries of the Firm

11 Oct 2022
PBS
The Major Factors Driving up the Cost of Food

12 Sep 2022
Wall Street Journal
Inflation Showed Signs of Easing in Several Industries in August

11 Aug 2022
Bloomberg
These Families Thought Food Inflation Was Bad in 2021. It Only Got Worse

03 Aug 2022
MarketWatch
Opinion: Food Inflation Remains Stubbornly High in U.S. and Europe

01 Aug 2022
Food Inflation in the U.S. and Abroad

12 Apr 2022
Harvard University
What Does the Pandemic Have to Do With Inflation?

17 Mar 2022
International Monetary Fund
Pandemic’s E-Commerce Surge Proves Less Persistent, More Varied

11 Feb 2022
New York Times
Inflation May Have Already Peaked. The Fed Needs to Step Gingerly.

10 Feb 2022
HBS Working Knowledge
Why Are Prices So High Right Now—and Will They Ever Return to Normal?

30 Dec 2021
New York Times
The Missing Data in the Inflation Debate

29 Dec 2021
CNBC
Economists Warn of Inflation Inequality as Poor Get Slammed by Rising Prices

29 Dec 2021
CNBC
Economists warn of inflation inequality as poor get slammed by rising prices

10 Nov 2021
PBS Newshour
How the Pandemic has Affected the Economy, From Empty Shelves to Higher Prices

13 Oct 2021
Economist
What’s Wrong with America’s Consumer-Price Index?

12 Jul 2021
Wall Street Journal
Inflation Threat May Be Boosted by Changes in Globalization, Demographics and E-Commerce

24 Jun 2021
Economist
COVID-19 Has Stymied Governments’ Efforts to Collect Data

20 May 2021
Wall Street Journal
Inflation Rate Calculator: Customize Your Own Consumer-Price Index

17 May 2021
Bloomberg
Key Inflation Gauge Overstating Prices, Harvard’s Cavallo Says

15 May 2021
Harvard Gazette
Is Inflation a Problem Now? Maybe, but More Likely Not

23 Apr 2021
New York Times
Now That Everyone Is Bullish, Be Cautious

25 Mar 2021
Bloomberg
Pandemic Shopping Habits Are Giving Inflation Experts a Headache

30 Oct 2020
TIME
The Pandemic Is Costing Americans More Money Than Official Numbers Suggest

21 Sep 2020
Folha de S. Paolo
Brasileiro é dos que mais sentem a 'inflação da Covid', aponta estudo

11 Sep 2020
NPR
More Groceries, Less Gas: The Pandemic Is Shaking Up The Cost Of Living

02 Sep 2020
New York Times
Inflation Is Higher Than the Numbers Say

13 Aug 2020
Washington Post
Inflation Is Actually a Lot Higher Than You Think

13 Jul 2020
Financial Times
Inflation: baskets of plenty

28 Jun 2020
Financial Times
Prices are rising faster than official figures suggest

19 Jun 2020
Financial Times
Inflation Is Higher Than the Official Numbers

19 Jun 2020
Reuters
Pandemic Prises Open Inflation Information Gap

17 Jun 2020
Quartz
Covid-19 is distorting inflation numbers around the world

22 May 2020
Bloomberg
In the Lockdown Economy, Old Measures of Inflation Get It Wrong

28 Apr 2020
Harvard Gazette
American economy on the bubble

05 Mar 2020
Economist
What one game show reveals about the American economy

17 Jan 2020
Washington Post
Trump’s China tariffs have not caused Americans to pay $1,000 more a year. Here’s why.

12 Jan 2020
Wall Street Journal
Trade War With China Took Toll on U.S., but Not Big One

16 Oct 2019
New York Times
Trump’s China Deal Leaves the Global Economy as Uncertain as Ever

10 Oct 2019
Economist
Technology is making inflation statistics an unreliable guide to the economy

10 Sep 2019
BBC
Trump’s tariffs puts Apple’s golden goose at risk

12 Aug 2019
Forbes
Trump Still Doesn't Know Who Pays Tariffs

27 Jun 2019
Associated Press
Low online prices are great for shoppers. But they're killing small businesses

24 Apr 2019
HBS Working Knowledge
The 'Amazon Effect' Is Changing Online Price Competition—and the Fed Needs to Pay Attention

18 Apr 2019
Economist
Mauricio Macri freezes prices

15 Nov 2018
Economist
Technology firms are both the friend and the foe of competition

12 Oct 2018
Bloomberg
The ‘Amazon Effect’ Can Drive Prices Up, Too

10 Oct 2018
Marketwatch
How Amazon is killing comparison shopping

24 Sep 2018
El País
El ‘efecto Amazon’ cambia la economía

30 Aug 2018
Economist
Central bankers grapple with the changing nature of competition

25 Aug 2018
Financial Times
Growth of online retail is changing inflation

25 Aug 2018
Wall Street Journal
The Other Amazon Effect: How Prices Have Become Less Insulated From Supply Shocks

25 Aug 2018
New York Times
Are Superstar Firms and Amazon Effects Reshaping the Economy?

25 Aug 2018
Bloomberg
`Amazon Effect' May Make Central Bank Job Harder

25 Aug 2018
Reuters
'Amazon effect' could have impact on inflation dynamics: paper

01 Feb 2018
Financial Times
Can big data revolutionise policymaking by governments?

26 Jan 2018
Financial Times
Investing in UK retailers: Bargains or basket cases?

24 Jan 2018
Central Banking
Economics in Central Banking Award 2018: BPP and PriceStats

11 Dec 2017
Wall Street Journal
As the Fed Deliberates, Amazon Is Making Its Job More Difficult

08 Nov 2017
Infobae
The democracy of data: how Venezuelans can stand up to government lies

31 Jul 2017
MIT News
Intermittent attention, poor memory shape public perceptions of inflation

21 Jul 2017
American Economic Association
Tomorrow's Prices

01 Jun 2017
Data Made to Matter
Don't Lie to Me Argentina

07 Mar 2017
Sky News
UK prices rising faster after Brexit vote

07 Feb 2017
Boston Globe
Online prices cheaper than in store? Not so fast

31 Jan 2017
MIT News
A fair price to pay?

28 Dec 2016
American Economic Association
Retail price reality check

15 Nov 2016
The Times
Britain’s inflation data needs to be dragged out of the stone age

13 May 2016
Financial Times
A billion prices can't be wrong

04 Apr 2016
Financial Times
Data Collection is the Ultimate Public Good

14 May 2015
Project Syndicate
An Economics to Fit the Facts

17 Mar 2015
Huffington Post
The Success of Monitoring the Economy With Big Data

13 Mar 2015
Wall Street Journal
The Billion Prices Project Thinks Inflation May Have Turned a Sharp Corner

Additional Information

Research Projects

Covid CPI Inflation
The Billion Prices Project
InflacionVerdadera.com (Argentina and Venezuela)
 More
HBS Covid-19 Global Policy Tracker
 Less

Links

Twitter
Media
Curriculum Vitae 2022

Teaching Links and Materials

Repository of BGIE Macro Exhibits (GUIDES and BOP)
Office Hours
Group Coffee Chats

Areas of Interest

big data
macroeconomics

In The News

    • 16 Feb 2023
    • Economist

    Lots of Investors Think Inflation Is under Control. Not So Fast

    • 08 Jan 2023
    • Economist

    How Technology Is Redrawing the Boundaries of the Firm

    • 11 Oct 2022
    • PBS

    The Major Factors Driving up the Cost of Food

    • 12 Sep 2022
    • Wall Street Journal

    Inflation Showed Signs of Easing in Several Industries in August

    • 11 Aug 2022
    • Bloomberg

    These Families Thought Food Inflation Was Bad in 2021. It Only Got Worse

→More News for Alberto F. Cavallo

Alberto F. Cavallo In the News

News

16 Feb 2023
Economist
Lots of Investors Think Inflation Is under Control. Not So Fast

08 Jan 2023
Economist
How Technology Is Redrawing the Boundaries of the Firm

11 Oct 2022
PBS
The Major Factors Driving up the Cost of Food

12 Sep 2022
Wall Street Journal
Inflation Showed Signs of Easing in Several Industries in August

11 Aug 2022
Bloomberg
These Families Thought Food Inflation Was Bad in 2021. It Only Got Worse

03 Aug 2022
MarketWatch
Opinion: Food Inflation Remains Stubbornly High in U.S. and Europe

01 Aug 2022
Food Inflation in the U.S. and Abroad

12 Apr 2022
Harvard University
What Does the Pandemic Have to Do With Inflation?

17 Mar 2022
International Monetary Fund
Pandemic’s E-Commerce Surge Proves Less Persistent, More Varied

11 Feb 2022
New York Times
Inflation May Have Already Peaked. The Fed Needs to Step Gingerly.

10 Feb 2022
HBS Working Knowledge
Why Are Prices So High Right Now—and Will They Ever Return to Normal?

30 Dec 2021
New York Times
The Missing Data in the Inflation Debate

29 Dec 2021
CNBC
Economists Warn of Inflation Inequality as Poor Get Slammed by Rising Prices

29 Dec 2021
CNBC
Economists warn of inflation inequality as poor get slammed by rising prices

10 Nov 2021
PBS Newshour
How the Pandemic has Affected the Economy, From Empty Shelves to Higher Prices

13 Oct 2021
Economist
What’s Wrong with America’s Consumer-Price Index?

12 Jul 2021
Wall Street Journal
Inflation Threat May Be Boosted by Changes in Globalization, Demographics and E-Commerce

24 Jun 2021
Economist
COVID-19 Has Stymied Governments’ Efforts to Collect Data

20 May 2021
Wall Street Journal
Inflation Rate Calculator: Customize Your Own Consumer-Price Index

17 May 2021
Bloomberg
Key Inflation Gauge Overstating Prices, Harvard’s Cavallo Says

15 May 2021
Harvard Gazette
Is Inflation a Problem Now? Maybe, but More Likely Not

23 Apr 2021
New York Times
Now That Everyone Is Bullish, Be Cautious

25 Mar 2021
Bloomberg
Pandemic Shopping Habits Are Giving Inflation Experts a Headache

30 Oct 2020
TIME
The Pandemic Is Costing Americans More Money Than Official Numbers Suggest

21 Sep 2020
Folha de S. Paolo
Brasileiro é dos que mais sentem a 'inflação da Covid', aponta estudo

11 Sep 2020
NPR
More Groceries, Less Gas: The Pandemic Is Shaking Up The Cost Of Living

02 Sep 2020
New York Times
Inflation Is Higher Than the Numbers Say

13 Aug 2020
Washington Post
Inflation Is Actually a Lot Higher Than You Think

13 Jul 2020
Financial Times
Inflation: baskets of plenty

28 Jun 2020
Financial Times
Prices are rising faster than official figures suggest

19 Jun 2020
Financial Times
Inflation Is Higher Than the Official Numbers

19 Jun 2020
Reuters
Pandemic Prises Open Inflation Information Gap

17 Jun 2020
Quartz
Covid-19 is distorting inflation numbers around the world

22 May 2020
Bloomberg
In the Lockdown Economy, Old Measures of Inflation Get It Wrong

28 Apr 2020
Harvard Gazette
American economy on the bubble

05 Mar 2020
Economist
What one game show reveals about the American economy

17 Jan 2020
Washington Post
Trump’s China tariffs have not caused Americans to pay $1,000 more a year. Here’s why.

12 Jan 2020
Wall Street Journal
Trade War With China Took Toll on U.S., but Not Big One

16 Oct 2019
New York Times
Trump’s China Deal Leaves the Global Economy as Uncertain as Ever

10 Oct 2019
Economist
Technology is making inflation statistics an unreliable guide to the economy

10 Sep 2019
BBC
Trump’s tariffs puts Apple’s golden goose at risk

12 Aug 2019
Forbes
Trump Still Doesn't Know Who Pays Tariffs

27 Jun 2019
Associated Press
Low online prices are great for shoppers. But they're killing small businesses

24 Apr 2019
HBS Working Knowledge
The 'Amazon Effect' Is Changing Online Price Competition—and the Fed Needs to Pay Attention

18 Apr 2019
Economist
Mauricio Macri freezes prices

15 Nov 2018
Economist
Technology firms are both the friend and the foe of competition

12 Oct 2018
Bloomberg
The ‘Amazon Effect’ Can Drive Prices Up, Too

10 Oct 2018
Marketwatch
How Amazon is killing comparison shopping

24 Sep 2018
El País
El ‘efecto Amazon’ cambia la economía

30 Aug 2018
Economist
Central bankers grapple with the changing nature of competition

25 Aug 2018
Financial Times
Growth of online retail is changing inflation

25 Aug 2018
Wall Street Journal
The Other Amazon Effect: How Prices Have Become Less Insulated From Supply Shocks

25 Aug 2018
New York Times
Are Superstar Firms and Amazon Effects Reshaping the Economy?

25 Aug 2018
Bloomberg
`Amazon Effect' May Make Central Bank Job Harder

25 Aug 2018
Reuters
'Amazon effect' could have impact on inflation dynamics: paper

01 Feb 2018
Financial Times
Can big data revolutionise policymaking by governments?

26 Jan 2018
Financial Times
Investing in UK retailers: Bargains or basket cases?

24 Jan 2018
Central Banking
Economics in Central Banking Award 2018: BPP and PriceStats

11 Dec 2017
Wall Street Journal
As the Fed Deliberates, Amazon Is Making Its Job More Difficult

08 Nov 2017
Infobae
The democracy of data: how Venezuelans can stand up to government lies

31 Jul 2017
MIT News
Intermittent attention, poor memory shape public perceptions of inflation

21 Jul 2017
American Economic Association
Tomorrow's Prices

01 Jun 2017
Data Made to Matter
Don't Lie to Me Argentina

07 Mar 2017
Sky News
UK prices rising faster after Brexit vote

07 Feb 2017
Boston Globe
Online prices cheaper than in store? Not so fast

31 Jan 2017
MIT News
A fair price to pay?

28 Dec 2016
American Economic Association
Retail price reality check

15 Nov 2016
The Times
Britain’s inflation data needs to be dragged out of the stone age

13 May 2016
Financial Times
A billion prices can't be wrong

04 Apr 2016
Financial Times
Data Collection is the Ultimate Public Good

14 May 2015
Project Syndicate
An Economics to Fit the Facts

17 Mar 2015
Huffington Post
The Success of Monitoring the Economy With Big Data

13 Mar 2015
Wall Street Journal
The Billion Prices Project Thinks Inflation May Have Turned a Sharp Corner

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