We describe a case of web scraping data-based price indices implemented in a mid-size city in a moderate inflationary country. Full consumer price (CPI) and construction cost (CCI) indices were implemented for an entire city obtaining efficient results compared to statistics using traditional data collection methods. We state that web scraping combined with big data techniques will allow estimating more individualized and efficient metrics comparable in quality to official statistics. Web scraping technologies empower civil society and small research groups alike by allowing them gather and interpret socioeconomic data. It also helps to create new dimensions of analysis by allowing changes in frequency and focus on specific groups of products and services.

Purpose The purpose of the study is to investigate micro determinants for dynamic wine pricing in Argentina. We test whether attributes and time affect the price rate of change. The rate of change is selected given the inflationary context of the country. The analysis provides valuable information for wine marketing decisions. Design/methodology/approach The modeling approach relies on panel data analysis for exploiting the data cross-section and time dimension. The contribution explores a massive price dataset at a weekly frequency. The dependent variable is the weekly price variation rate for product/wine and covariates are attributes, time and nominal variables. Given that endogeneity issues arose, the estimations rely on a two-stage least squares and instrumental variables with cluster-robust errors. Findings Estimations show that attributes, time and cost variables are statistically significant, with clear seasonal patterns and quality segmentation affecting pricing: wines made out of specific grapes such as Chenin, Merlot and Seedling or composing a broad category such as red wine, exhibit price undershooting (price rate of change below average). On the other hand, wines out of grapes such as Bonarda, Margaux, Mistela, Moscatel, Oporto, Tannat and Sauvignon Blanc show price overshooting (rate of change above average). In summary, wine made from determined grapes and specific wineries show divergent pricing. Research limitations/implications Covariates such as alcohol content, label descriptor information, winery history, substitute competition and vintage, among others, have not been considered given that the research analyzes more than 750 wine products. Another limitation is that the work does not explore many time-series covariates, such as promotions and idiosyncratic shocks. Practical implications The contribution presents new information on wine pricing patterns affected by weeks, months and years, including the effect of the prolonged 2020 Argentine lockdown. It also analyzes estimations on pricing at the level of grape/blend and wineries previously unknown in this market. The information can influence inventory decisions on the side of the sellers and purchase decisions on the side of consumers. Social implications The analysis includes fine but also low-cost wines that form part of the diet of low-income families in the country. The work detects a divergent pattern in pricing divided by the quality/price of the wine. It also presents information on price timing that may help consumers in the best moment to buy. Originality/value The contribution analyzes unprecedented information on weekly wine prices and presents evidence of pricing tactics from a point-of-sale perspective: It identifies different adjustment speeds related to product features and time effects.

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Damages for personal injuries is a field prone to gender biases. Empirical exploration of the issue, however, is far from being simple, especially in Civil Law countries, given a pervasive lack of transparency and explicitness on the details of reasoning and treatment of numerical values. Accounting for that feature, our research sketches a canon of analysis that goes beyond the words. To deal with risks of cherry picking and inaccurate sample design, our database encompasses all the decisions made during the span time selected (more than 20,000) by an Appellate Court. Scrapers designed ad hoc have been instrumental to that aim. In our case study, the well-known earnings gap, usually assumed a cause of other, second order gaps, ought not to be mirrored in magnitude by pecuniary damages, because the “shadow price” of non-remunerated activities must be computed together with earnings lost, what should counterbalance the latter derivative gap. Nonpecuniary damages, in turn, must be independent of earnings, being theoretically free from that effect. Nonetheless, we found differences with statistical significance in any of them, in favor of men. Some reverse engineering in search of the primary source of the gap leads to find a systematic bias in percentages of disability against women, even in cases where the predictable result should be the opposite. In more general terms, the said obscurity on the treatment of numerical values, usually covered by rhetoric, renders difficult any honest scrutiny of systematic biases on the matter without the assistance of high technology and some sophistication, and shields decisions to criticism. Accordingly, it helps perpetuate gaps whenever existed.