Did the Internet make international markets more integrated? To address this question, we study long-term international price differences and their speed of convergence, based on a unique data base for identical goods sold in both online and traditional “brick-and-mortar” distribution channels, covering ten European countries. We find that long-term international price differences are closely comparable between both distribution channels. Furthermore, international price differences converge only slightly faster online than offline, and the differences in the international price differences between online and offline converge at a very fast rate. Finally, regardless of the distribution channel, long-term price differences are lower and converge faster within the same currency union. Our findings imply that online markets are currently not more integrated than traditional markets.

互联网使国际市场更加一体化了吗？为了解决这个问题，我们基于一个独特的数据库来研究长期的国际价格差异及其收敛速度，该数据库是通过在线和传统的“实体零售”分销渠道销售的相同商品的数据库，覆盖了十个欧洲国家。我们发现，两个分销渠道之间长期的国际价格差异具有可比性。此外，国际价格差异在线收敛的速度仅比离线速度快，在线和离线之间的国际价格差异的收敛速度非常快。最后，无论分销渠道如何，长期价格差异都较小，并且在同一货币联盟内收敛得更快。