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Why Are Prices Sticky? The Dynamics of Wholesale Gasoline Prices

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Michael C. Davis
James D. Hamilton

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Abstract

The menu-cost interpretation of sticky prices implies that the probability of a price change should depend on the past history of prices and fundamentals only through the gap between the current price and the frictionless price. We find that this prediction is broadly consistent with the behavior of 9 Philadelphia gasoline wholesalers. We nevertheless reject the menu-cost model as a literal description of these firms' behavior, arguing instead that price stickiness arises from strategic considerations of how customers and competitors will react to price changes.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 9741.

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Date of creation: Jun 2003
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:9741

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E3 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles

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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. Douglas D. Davis & Oleg Korenok, 2005. "Posted - Offer Markets In Near Continuous Time: an Experimental Investigation," Working Papers 0504, VCU School of Business, Department of Economics, revised 2007. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Levy, Daniel & Young, Andrew, 2004. "The Real Thing: Nominal Price Rigidity of the Nickel Coke, 1886–1959," MPRA Paper 1046, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Emi Nakamura & Dawit Zerom, 2009. "Accounting for Incomplete Pass-Through," NBER Working Papers 15255, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  4. Levy, Daniel & Lee, Dongwon & Chen, Allan (Haipeng) & Kauffman, Robert & Bergen, Mark, 2007. "Price Points and Price Rigidity," MPRA Paper 1472, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. Ekaterina V. Peneva, 2009. "Factor intensity and price rigidity: evidence and theory," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2009-07, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.). [Downloadable!]
  6. Leon Bettendorf & Stephanie van der Geest & Gerard Kuper, 2005. "Do Daily Retail Gasoline Prices adjust Asymmetrically?," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 05-040/2, Tinbergen Institute. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  7. Muehlegger, Erich, 2006. "Gasoline Price Spikes and Regional Gasoline Content Regulation: A Structural Approach," Working Paper Series rwp06-015, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government. [Downloadable!]
  8. Peter J. Klenow & Oleksiy Kryvtsov, 2005. "State-Dependent or Time-Dependent Pricing: Does it Matter for Recent U.S. Inflation?," NBER Working Papers 11043, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  9. Arto Kovanen, 2006. "Why Do Prices in Sierra Leone Change So Often? A Case Study Using Micro-level Price Data," IMF Working Papers 06/53, International Monetary Fund. [Downloadable!]
  10. Bakytzhanova Zhuldyz, 2005. "Asymmetric fuel pricing in transition economies: The case of Moscow," EERC Working Paper Series 05-18e, EERC Research Network, Russia and CIS. [Downloadable!]
  11. Kilian, Lutz, 2008. "Why Does Gasoline Cost so Much? A Joint Model of the Global Crude Oil Market and the U.S. Retail Gasoline Market," CEPR Discussion Papers 6919, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Jose De Gregorio. & Oscar Landerretche. & Christopher Neilson., 2007. "Another Pass-Through Bites the Dust? Oil Prices and Inflation," Working Papers Central Bank of Chile 417, Central Bank of Chile. [Downloadable!]
  13. Erich J. Muehlegger, 2004. "Gasoline Price Spikes and Regional Gasoline Content Regulations - A Structural Approach," Working Papers 0421, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research. [Downloadable!]
  14. Shanjun Li & Roger von Haefen & Christopher Timmins, 2008. "How Do Gasoline Prices Affect Fleet Fuel Economy?," NBER Working Papers 14450, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  15. Andrew T. Young & Alexander K. Blue, 2007. "Retail prices during a change in monetary regimes: evidence from Sears, Roebuck catalogs, 1938-1951," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(7), pages 763-775. [Downloadable!]
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