IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hum/wpaper/sfb649dp2011-019.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

What Drives the Relationship Between Inflation and Price Dispersion? Market Power vs. Price Rigidity

Author

Listed:
  • Sascha S. Becker

Abstract

Recent monetary search and Calvo-type models predict that the relationship between inflation and price dispersion is U-shaped, implying an optimal rate of inflation above zero. Moreover, monetary search models emphasize a critical dependence of the real effects of inflation on sellers’ market power, whereas Calvotype models suggest that the degree of price rigidity significantly affects the inflation - price dispersion nexus. Using a new set of highly disaggregated sectoral price data from a panel of European countries, this paper contributes to the literature by testing the empirical relevance of these two theoretical predictions. In line with monetary search theory, a U-shaped profile is found, provided that markups are sufficiently high, but the relationship breaks down under a more competitive environment. Contrarily, no evidence is found to support the contentions of Calvo-type models: U-shaped effects of inflation occur in product sectors with sticky as well as highly flexible prices.

Suggested Citation

  • Sascha S. Becker, 2011. "What Drives the Relationship Between Inflation and Price Dispersion? Market Power vs. Price Rigidity," SFB 649 Discussion Papers SFB649DP2011-019, Sonderforschungsbereich 649, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:hum:wpaper:sfb649dp2011-019
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://sfb649.wiwi.hu-berlin.de/papers/pdf/SFB649DP2011-019.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Becker, Sascha S. & Nautz, Dieter, 2012. "Inflation, price dispersion and market integration through the lens of a monetary search model," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(3), pages 624-634.
    2. Rebekka Christopoulou & Philip Vermeulen, 2012. "Markups in the Euro area and the US over the period 1981–2004: a comparison of 50 sectors," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 53-77, February.
    3. Allen Head & Alok Kumar & Beverly Lapham, 2010. "Market Power, Price Adjustment, And Inflation," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 51(1), pages 73-98, February.
    4. Christian Dreger & Konstantin Kholodilin & Kirsten Lommatzsch & JiÅí SlaÄálek & Przemyslaw Wozniak, 2008. "Price Convergence in an Enlarged Internal Market," Eastern European Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(5), pages 57-68, September.
    5. Lach, Saul & Tsiddon, Daniel, 1992. "The Behavior of Prices and Inflation: An Empirical Analysis of Disaggregated Price Data," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(2), pages 349-389, April.
    6. Luis J. Álvarez & Emmanuel Dhyne & Marco Hoeberichts & Claudia Kwapil & Hervé Le Bihan & Patrick Lünnemann & Fernando Martins & Roberto Sabbatini & Harald Stahl & Philip Vermeulen & Jouko Vilmunen, 2006. "Sticky Prices in the Euro Area: A Summary of New Micro-Evidence," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 4(2-3), pages 575-584, 04-05.
    7. Kiley, Michael T, 2000. "Endogenous Price Stickiness and Business Cycle Persistence," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 32(1), pages 28-53, February.
    8. Michael Aarstol, 1999. "Inflation, Inflation Uncertainty, and Relative Price Variability," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 66(2), pages 414-423, October.
    9. Emmanuel Dhyne & Luis J. Alvarez & Herve Le Bihan & Giovanni Veronese & Daniel Dias & Johannes Hoffmann & Nicole Jonker & Patrick Lunnemann & Fabio Rumler & Jouko Vilmunen, 2006. "Price Changes in the Euro Area and the United States: Some Facts from Individual Consumer Price Data," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 20(2), pages 171-192, Spring.
    10. Caglayan, Mustafa & Filiztekin, Alpay & Rauh, Michael T., 2008. "Inflation, price dispersion, and market structure," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(7), pages 1187-1208, October.
    11. Chi‐Young Choi, 2010. "Reconsidering the Relationship between Inflation and Relative Price Variability," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 42(5), pages 769-798, August.
    12. Joanna Wolszczak-Derlacz, 2008. "Price convergence in the EU—an aggregate and disaggregate approach," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 25-47, July.
    13. Reinsdorf, Marshall, 1994. "New Evidence on the Relation between Inflation and Price Dispersion," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(3), pages 720-731, June.
    14. Debelle, Guy & Lamont, Owen, 1997. "Relative Price Variability and Inflation: Evidence from U.S. Cities," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 105(1), pages 132-152, February.
    15. Mick Silver & Christos Ioannidis, 2001. "Intercountry Differences in the Relationship between Relative Price Variability and Average Prices," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 109(2), pages 355-374, April.
    16. Barro, Robert J., 1976. "Rational expectations and the role of monetary policy," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 2(1), pages 1-32, January.
    17. 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.
    18. Rotemberg, Julio J, 1983. "Aggregate Consequences of Fixed Costs of Price Adjustment [Sticky Prices and Disequilibrium Adjustment in a Rational Model of the Inflationary Process]," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 73(3), pages 433-436, June.
    19. Sascha S. Becker & Dieter Nautz, 2009. "Inflation and Relative Price Variability: New Evidence for the United States," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 76(1), pages 146-164, July.
    20. Matthias Lutz, 2004. "Price Convergence under EMU? First Estimates," International Economic Association Series, in: Alan V. Deardorff (ed.), The Past, Present and Future of the European Union, chapter 4, pages 48-73, Palgrave Macmillan.
    21. M. Hashem Pesaran, 2006. "Estimation and Inference in Large Heterogeneous Panels with a Multifactor Error Structure," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 74(4), pages 967-1012, July.
    22. Rogers, John H., 2007. "Monetary union, price level convergence, and inflation: How close is Europe to the USA?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(3), pages 785-796, April.
    23. Nigel F.B. Allington & Paul A. Kattuman & Florian A. Waldmann, 2005. "One Market, One Money, One Price?," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 1(3), December.
    24. Binder, Michael & Offermanns, Christian J., 2007. "International investment positions and exchange rate dynamics: a dynamic panel analysis," Discussion Paper Series 1: Economic Studies 2007,23, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    25. M. Angeles Caraballo & Carlos Dabus & Carlos Usabiaga, 2006. "Relative prices and inflation: new evidence from different inflationary contexts," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(16), pages 1931-1944.
    26. Joe Beaulieu & Joe Mattey, 1999. "The Effects Of General Inflation And Idiosyncratic Cost Shocks On Within-Commodity Price Dispersion: Evidence From Microdata," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 81(2), pages 205-216, May.
    27. Caglayan, Mustafa & Filiztekin, Alpay, 2003. "Nonlinear impact of inflation on relative price variability," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 79(2), pages 213-218, May.
    28. Hisham Foad, 2010. "Europe Without Borders? The Effect of the Euro on Price Convergence," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 33(1), pages 86-111, January.
    29. Parsley, David C, 1996. "Inflation and Relative Price Variability in the Short and Long Run: New Evidence from the United States," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 28(3), pages 323-341, August.
    30. Roeger, Werner, 1995. "Can Imperfect Competition Explain the Difference between Primal and Dual Productivity Measures? Estimates for U.S. Manufacturing," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 103(2), pages 316-330, April.
    31. Alexander Bick & Dieter Nautz, 2008. "Inflation Thresholds and Relative Price Variability: Evidence from U.S. Cities," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 4(3), pages 61-76, September.
    32. David Fielding & Paul Mizen, 2000. "Relative Price Variability and Inflation in Europe," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 67(265), pages 57-78, February.
    33. Parks, Richard W, 1978. "Inflation and Relative Price Variability," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 86(1), pages 79-95, February.
    34. Stephen Leybourne & Paul Newbold & Dimitrios Vougas, 1998. "Unit roots and smooth transitions," Journal of Time Series Analysis, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(1), pages 83-97, January.
    35. Allen Head & Alok Kumar, 2005. "Price Dispersion, Inflation, And Welfare," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 46(2), pages 533-572, May.
    36. Allington, Nigel FB & Kattuman, Paul A & Waldmann, Florian A, 2005. "One Market, One Money, One Price?," MPRA Paper 835, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    37. Jaramillo, Carlos Felipe, 1999. "Inflation and Relative Price Variability: Reinstating Parks' Results," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 31(3), pages 375-385, August.
    38. Danziger, Leif, 1987. "Inflation, Fixed Cost of Price Adjustment, and Measurement of Relative-Price Variability: Theory and Evidence," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 77(4), pages 704-713, September.
    39. Grier, Kevin B. & Perry, Mark J., 1996. "Inflation, inflation uncertainty, and relative price dispersion: Evidence from bivariate GARCH-M models," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 391-405, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. An empirical nail in the coffin of Calvo pricing
      by Economic Logician in Economic Logic on 2011-04-28 19:15:00

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mohammad Ali Kafaie & Amir Mohammad Moshref, 2013. "Inflation and Relative Price Dispersion: Evidence for Iran," Iranian Economic Review (IER), Faculty of Economics,University of Tehran.Tehran,Iran, vol. 18(1), pages 93-104, winter.
    2. Baglan, Deniz & Ege Yazgan, M. & Yilmazkuday, Hakan, 2016. "Relative price variability and inflation: New evidence," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 263-282.
    3. Lucas Herrenbrueck, 2017. "An Open-Economy Model With Money, Endogenous Search, And Heterogeneous Firms," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 55(4), pages 1648-1670, October.
    4. Saghir Pervaiz Ghauri & Rizwan Raheem Ahmed & Jolita Vveinhardt & Dalia Streimikiene, 2017. "Estimation of Relationship between Inflation and Relative Price Variability: Granger Causality and ARDL Modelling Approach," The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 19(44), pages 249-249, February.
    5. Hasan Engin Duran, 2015. "Regional Inflation Convergence In Turkey," Working Papers 2015/10, Turkish Economic Association.
    6. Makarentseva, Alla (Макаренцева, Алла) & Khasanova, Ramilya (Хасанова, Рамиля), 2018. "Mortality and Life Expectancy of the Population of Russia [Смертность И Продолжительность Жизни Населения России]," Working Papers 041830, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Becker, Sascha S. & Nautz, Dieter, 2012. "Inflation, price dispersion and market integration through the lens of a monetary search model," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(3), pages 624-634.
    2. David Fielding & Christopher Hajzler & James (Jim) C. MacGee, 2017. "Price-Level Dispersion versus Inflation-Rate Dispersion: Evidence from Three Countries," Staff Working Papers 17-3, Bank of Canada.
    3. Baglan, Deniz & Ege Yazgan, M. & Yilmazkuday, Hakan, 2016. "Relative price variability and inflation: New evidence," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 263-282.
    4. Gulnihal Aksoy & Don Bredin & Deirdre Corcoran & Stilianos Fountas, 2016. "Relative Price Dispersion and In flation: Evidence for the UK and the US," Discussion Paper Series 2016_05, Department of Economics, University of Macedonia, revised Dec 2016.
    5. Saghir Pervaiz Ghauri & Rizwan Raheem Ahmed & Jolita Vveinhardt & Dalia Streimikiene, 2017. "Estimation of Relationship between Inflation and Relative Price Variability: Granger Causality and ARDL Modelling Approach," The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 19(44), pages 249-249, February.
    6. Hiranya K. Nath & Jayanta Sarkar, 2019. "Inflation and relative price variability: new evidence from survey-based measures of inflation expectations in Australia," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 56(6), pages 2001-2024, June.
    7. Dieter Nautz & Juliane Scharff, 2012. "Inflation and relative price variability in the euro area: evidence from a panel threshold model," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(4), pages 449-460, February.
    8. Alexander Bick & Dieter Nautz, 2008. "Inflation Thresholds and Relative Price Variability: Evidence from U.S. Cities," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 4(3), pages 61-76, September.
    9. Chi-Young Choi, 2010. "Reconsidering the Relationship between Inflation and Relative Price Variability," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 42(5), pages 769-798, August.
    10. Cleomar Gomes da Silva & Gilberto O. Boaretto, 2018. "Inflation and Relative Price Variability in Brazil: A Time-Varying Parameter Approach," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 38(4), pages 1947-1956.
    11. Mª Ángeles Caraballo Pou & Carlos Dabús & Diego Caramuta, 2006. "A Non-linear "Inflation-Relative Prices Variability" Relationship: Evidence from Latin America," Economic Working Papers at Centro de Estudios Andaluces E2006/09, Centro de Estudios Andaluces.
    12. Rodrigo Cerda & Alvaro Silva & Rolf Lüders, 2021. "Price controls, hyperinflation, and the inflation–relative price variability relationship," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 61(4), pages 1725-1748, October.
    13. Monir Uddin Ahmed & Md. Moniruzzaman Muzib & Md. Mahedi Hasan, 2016. "Inflation, inflation uncertainty and relative price variability in Bangladesh," Eurasian Economic Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 6(3), pages 389-427, December.
    14. María Ángeles Caraballo & Carlos Dabús., 2008. "The Determinants of Relative Price Variability: Further Evidence from Argentina," Latin American Journal of Economics-formerly Cuadernos de Economía, Instituto de Economía. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile., vol. 45(132), pages 235-255.
    15. Sheremirov, Viacheslav, 2020. "Price dispersion and inflation: New facts and theoretical implications," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 59-70.
    16. Banerjee, Anindya & Mizen, Paul & Russell, Bill, 2007. "Inflation, relative price variability and the markup: Evidence from the United States and the United Kingdom," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 82-100, January.
    17. Nebiye Yamak & Sinem Kocak & Fatma Kolcu, 2016. "Causal Relationship Between Relative Price Variability and Inflation in Turkey: Evidence from Panel Data," Romanian Economic Journal, Department of International Business and Economics from the Academy of Economic Studies Bucharest, vol. 19(61), pages 193-210, September.
    18. Caglayan, Mustafa & Filiztekin, Alpay & Rauh, Michael T., 2008. "Inflation, price dispersion, and market structure," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(7), pages 1187-1208, October.
    19. Juliane Scharff & Sven Schreiber, 2012. "Evidence on the effects of inflation on price dispersion under indexation," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 43(1), pages 291-311, August.
    20. Chi-Young Choi & Young Se Kim & Róisín O'Sullivan, 2011. "Inflation Targeting and Relative Price Variability: What Difference Does Inflation Targeting Make?," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 77(4), pages 934-957, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Inflation; Relative price variability; Price level index; Euro-area; Market structure; Monetary search model; Dynamic panel data models;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • D40 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - General
    • E31 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Price Level; Inflation; Deflation
    • F15 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Economic Integration

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Lists

    This item is featured on the following reading lists, Wikipedia, or ReplicationWiki pages:
    1. Economic Logic blog

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hum:wpaper:sfb649dp2011-019. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: RDC-Team (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/sohubde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.