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Price-setting behaviour in Belgium - what can be learned from an ad hoc survey?

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Author Info
Luc Aucremanne () (Banque Nationale de Belgique, Research Department, Boulevard de Berlaimont 14, B-1000 Brussels, Belgium.)
Martine Druant () (Banque Nationale de Belgique, Research Department, Boulevard de Berlaimont 14, B-1000 Brussels, Belgium.)
Abstract

This paper reports the results of an ad hoc survey on price-setting behaviour conducted in February 2004 among 2,000 Belgian firms. The reported results clearly deviate from a situation of perfect competition and show that firms have some market power. Pricing-to-market is applied by a majority of industrial firms. Prices are rather sticky. The average duration between two consecutive price reviews is 10 months, whereas it amounts to 13 months between two consecutive price changes. Most firms adopt time-dependent price-reviewing under normal circumstances. However, when specific events occur, the majority will adopt a state-dependent behaviour. Evidence is found in favour of both nominal (mainly implicit and explicit contracts) and real rigidities (including flat marginal costs and counter-cyclical movements in desired mark-ups). The survey results point to a non-negligible degree of non-optimal price-setting.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by European Central Bank in its series Working Paper Series with number 448.

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Length: 60 pages
Date of creation: Mar 2005
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20050448

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Related research
Keywords: Price-setting behaviour; price rigidity; nominal rigidity; real rigidity; survey; timedependent pricing; state-dependent pricing; pricing-to-market.;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
D40 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure and Pricing - - - General
E31 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Price Level; Inflation; Deflation
L11 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms

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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. Blanchard, Olivier Jean & Kiyotaki, Nobuhiro, 1987. "Monopolistic Competition and the Effects of Aggregate Demand," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 77(4), pages 647-66, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Luc Aucremanne & Guy Brys & Mia Hubert & Peter J. Rousseeuw & Anja Struyf, 2002. "Inflation, relative prices and nominal rigidities," Research series 200205-1, National Bank of Belgium. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Tamim Bayoumi & Douglas Laxton & Paolo Pesenti, 2004. "Benefits and spillovers of greater competition in Europe: a macroeconomic assessment," Staff Reports 182, Federal Reserve Bank of New York. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Apel, Mikael & Friberg, Richard & Hallsten, Kerstin, 2001. "Micro Foundations of Macroeconomic Price Adjustment: Survey Evidence from Swedish Firms," Working Paper Series 128, Sveriges Riksbank (Central Bank of Sweden). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. Luc Aucremann & David Cornille, 2001. "Attractive prices and euro-rounding effects on inflation," Documents series 200111, National Bank of Belgium. [Downloadable!]
  6. Chevalier, Judith A & Scharfstein, David S, 1996. "Capital-Market Imperfections and Countercyclical Markups: Theory and Evidence," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(4), pages 703-25, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  7. Lawrence J. Christiano & Martin Eichenbaum & Charles Evans, 2001. "Nominal Rigidities and the Dynamic Effects of a Shock to Monetary Policy," NBER Working Papers 8403, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. V. V. Chari & Patrick J. Kehoe & Ellen R. McGrattan, 1998. "Sticky price models of the business cycle: can the contract multiplier solve the persistence problem?," Staff Report 217, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. [Downloadable!]
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  9. Aucremanne, L. & Cornille, D., 2001. "Attractive Prices and Euro-Rounding Effects on Inflation," Papers 17, Warwick - Development Economics Research Centre.
  10. 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. S. Fabiani & M. Druant & I. Hernando & C. Kwapil & B. Landau & C. Loupias & F. Martins & T. Mathä & R. Sabbatini & H. Stahl & A. Stokman, 2005. "The pricing behaviour of firms in the euro area : new survey evidence," Research series 200511-1, National Bank of Belgium. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Luis J. Álvarez & Ignacio Hernando, 2005. "The price setting behaviour of spanish firms - evidence from survey data," Working Paper Series 538, European Central Bank. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Emmanuel Dhyne, 2009. "A global assessment of the degree of price stickiness – results from the NBB business survey," Research series 200907-04, National Bank of Belgium. [Downloadable!]
  4. Fernando Martins, 2005. "The price setting behaviour of Portuguese firms - evidence from survey data," Working Paper Series 562, European Central Bank. [Downloadable!]
  5. Luis J. Álvarez, 2007. "What do micro price data tell us on the validity of the New Keynesian Phillips Curve?," Banco de España Working Papers 0728, Banco de España. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
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