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Reference Prices and Nominal Rigidities

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Author Info
Eichenbaum, Martin
Jaimovich, Nir
Rebelo, Sérgio

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Abstract

We assess the importance of nominal rigidities using a new weekly scanner data set from a major U.S. retailer, that contains information on prices, quantities, and costs for over 1,000 stores. We find that nominal rigidities are important but do not take the form of sticky prices. Instead, nominal rigidities take the form of inertia in reference prices and costs, defined as the most common prices and costs within a given quarter. Weekly prices and costs fluctuate around reference values which tend to remain constant over extended periods of time. Reference prices are particularly inertial and have an average duration of roughly one year. So, nominal rigidities are present in our data, even though weekly prices change very frequently, roughly once every two weeks. We argue that the retailer chooses the frequency with which it resets references prices so as to keep the realized markups within plus/minus twenty percent of the desired markup over reference cost.

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Paper provided by C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers in its series CEPR Discussion Papers with number 6709.

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Date of creation: Feb 2008
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Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6709

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Related research
Keywords: markups; nominal cost inertia; nominal price inertia;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
E30 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Mark Bils & Peter J. Klenow, 2004. "Some Evidence on the Importance of Sticky Prices," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 112(5), pages 947-985, October.
    Other versions:
  2. Judith A. Chevalier & Anil K Kashyap & Peter E. Rossi, 2003. "Why Don't Prices Rise During Periods of Peak Demand? Evidence from Scanner Data," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(1), pages 15-37, March. [Downloadable!]
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  3. Burstein, Ariel Tomas & Hellwig, Christian, 2007. "Prices and Market Shares in a Menu Cost Model," CEPR Discussion Papers 6504, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  4. Patrick J. Kehoe & Virgiliu Midrigan, 2007. "Sales and the real effects of monetary policy," Working Papers 652, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. [Downloadable!]
  5. Emi Nakamura & Jón Steinsson, 2008. "Five Facts about Prices: A Reevaluation of Menu Cost Models," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 123(4), pages 1415-1464, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Gali, Jordi & Gertler, Mark, 1999. "Inflation dynamics: A structural econometric analysis," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(2), pages 195-222, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  7. Kimball, Miles S, 1995. "The Quantitative Analytics of the Basic Neomonetarist Model," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 27(4), pages 1241-77, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. Julio Rotemberg & Michael Woodford, 1997. "An Optimization-Based Econometric Framework for the Evaluation of Monetary Policy," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 1997, Volume 12, pages 297-361 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!]
  9. Lawrence J. Christiano & Martin Eichenbaum & Charles L. Evans, 2005. "Nominal Rigidities and the Dynamic Effects of a Shock to Monetary Policy," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 113(1), pages 1-45, February.
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  10. Jeffrey R. Campbell & Benjamin Eden, 2005. "Rigid prices: evidence from U.S. scanner data," Working Paper Series WP-05-08, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. [Downloadable!]
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  11. Robert Lucas & Mike Golosov, 2004. "Menu Costs and Phillips Curves," 2004 Meeting Papers 144, Society for Economic Dynamics. [Downloadable!]
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  12. Virgiliu Midrigan, 2005. "Menu Costs, Multi-Product Firms and Aggregate Fluctuations," Macroeconomics 0511004, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
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  13. Frank Smets & Raf Wouters, 2003. "An Estimated Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium Model of the Euro Area," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 1(5), pages 1123-1175, 09. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  14. Calvo, Guillermo A., 1983. "Staggered prices in a utility-maximizing framework," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 383-398, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Dora Gicheva & Justine Hastings & Sofia Villas-Boas, 2007. "Revisiting the Income Effect: Gasoline Prices and Grocery Purchases," NBER Working Papers 13614, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  2. Mikael Carlsson & Oskar Nordström Skans, 2009. "Evaluating microfoundations for aggregate price rigidities - evidence from matched firm-level data on product prices and unit labor cost," Working Paper Series 1083, European Central Bank. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
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