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Accounting for Incomplete Pass-Through

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Author Info
Emi Nakamura
Dawit Zerom

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Abstract

Recent theoretical work has suggested a number of potentially important factors in causing incomplete pass-through of exchange rates to prices, including markup adjustment, local costs and barriers to price adjustment. We empirically analyze the determinants of incomplete pass-through in the coffee industry. The observed pass-through in this industry replicates key features of pass-through documented in aggregate data: prices respond sluggishly and incompletely to changes in costs. We use microdata on sales and prices to uncover the role of markup adjustment, local costs, and barriers to price adjustment in determining incomplete pass-through using a structural oligopoly model that nests all three potential factors. The implied pricing model explains the main dynamic features of short and long-run pass-through. Local costs reduce long-run pass-through (after 6 quarters) by a factor of 59% relative to a CES benchmark. Markup adjustment reduces pass-through by an additional factor of 33%, where the extent of markup adjustment depends on the estimated "super-elasticity" of demand. The estimated menu costs are small 0.23% of revenue) and have a negligible effect on long-run pass-through, but are quantitatively successful in explaining the delayed response of prices to costs. The estimated strategic complementarities in pricing do not, therefore, substantially delay the response of prices to costs. We find that delayed pass-through in the coffee industry occurs almost entirely at the wholesale rather than the retail level.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 15255.

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Date of creation: Aug 2009
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:15255

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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)
F10 - International Economics - - Trade - - - General
L11 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms
L16 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Industrial Organization and Macroeconomics; Macroeconomic Industrial Structure

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Full references

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. 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)
    Other versions:
  2. Pinelopi K. Goldberg & Rebecca Hellerstein, 2007. "A framework for identifying the sources of local currency price stability with an empirical application," Staff Reports 287, Federal Reserve Bank of New York. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Frederic S. Mishkin, 2008. "Exchange Rate Pass-Through And Monetary Policy," NBER Working Papers 13889, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Emi Nakamura & Jón Steinsson, 2009. "Lost in Transit: Product Replacement Bias and Pricing to Market," NBER Working Papers 15359, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Morten Ravn & Stephanie Schmitt-Grohe & Martin Uribe, 2008. "Incomplete Cost Pass-Through Under Deep Habits," Economics Working Papers ECO2008/06, European University Institute. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  6. Christian Hellwig, . "Prices and Market Shares in a Menu Cost Model (March 2007, with Ariel Burstein)," UCLA Economics Online Papers 415, UCLA Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  7. Emi Nakamura, 2008. "Pass-Through in Retail and Wholesale," NBER Working Papers 13965, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  8. Kólver Hernández & Asli Leblebicioglu, 2008. "A Regime Switching Analysis of Exchange Rate Pass-through," Working Papers 08-17, University of Delaware, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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