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Yesterday's Bad Times Are Today's Good Old Times: Retail Price Changes Are More Frequent Today Than in the 1890s

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  • ALAN KACKMEISTER

Abstract

This paper documents differences in the nominal rigidity of retail prices across two 28-month periods: 1889-91 and 1997-99. The most striking finding is that prices changed much less frequently in 1889-91. In the late-1800s when price changes did occur they were smaller on average and more narrowly distributed with fewer small or large price changes. Further, price changes were more permanent 100-plus years ago. These differences are consistent with a high occurrence of temporary price shocks and a higher cost of changing prices in 1889-91 than in 1997-99. Copyright 2007 The Ohio State University.

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  • Alan Kackmeister, 2007. "Yesterday's Bad Times Are Today's Good Old Times: Retail Price Changes Are More Frequent Today Than in the 1890s," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 39(8), pages 1987-2020, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:mcb:jmoncb:v:39:y:2007:i:8:p:1987-2020
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    Cited by:

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    2. Cavallo, Alberto & Rigobon, Roberto, 2011. "The Distribution of the Size of Price Changes," Working Papers 2011-011, Banco Central de Reserva del Perú.
    3. Eyster, Erik & Madarász, Kristóf & Michaillat, Pascal, 2014. "The Curse of Inflation," CEPR Discussion Papers 10286, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. Luca Benati, 2008. "Investigating Inflation Persistence Across Monetary Regimes," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 123(3), pages 1005-1060.
    5. Chen, Haipeng (Allan) & Levy, Daniel & Ray, Sourav & Bergen, Mark, 2008. "Asymmetric Price Adjustment in the Small," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 55(4), pages 728-737.
    6. Knotek II, Edward S., 2008. "Convenient prices, currency, and nominal rigidity: Theory with evidence from newspaper prices," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(7), pages 1303-1316, October.
    7. Visockytė Ligita, 2018. "Price Rigidity in Norway in the Nineteenth Century," Ekonomika (Economics), Sciendo, vol. 97(1), pages 32-46, January.
    8. Emi Nakamura & Jón Steinsson, 2008. "Five Facts about Prices: A Reevaluation of Menu Cost Models," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 123(4), pages 1415-1464.
    9. Ross D. Hickey & David S. Jacks, 2011. "Nominal rigidities and retail price dispersion in Canada over the twentieth century," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 44(3), pages 749-780, August.
    10. Chen, Yao & Ward, Felix, 2019. "When do fixed exchange rates work? Evidence from the Gold Standard," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 158-172.
    11. Eyster, Erik & Madarász, Kristóf & Michaillat, Pascal, 2015. "Preferences for fair prices, cursed inferences, and the nonneutrality of money," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 60845, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    12. Ward, Felix & Chen, Yao, 2016. "Rigid relations: External adjustment under the Gold Standard (1880-1913)," VfS Annual Conference 2016 (Augsburg): Demographic Change 145930, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.

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