IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aecrev/v116y2026i2p710-48.html

A Theory of Supply Function Choice and Aggregate Supply

Author

Listed:
  • Joel P. Flynn
  • George Nikolakoudis
  • Karthik A. Sastry

Abstract

Modern theories of aggregate supply are built on the foundation that firms set prices and commit to producing whatever the market demands. We remove this strategic restriction and allow firms to choose supply functions, mappings that describe the prices charged at each quantity of production. Theoretically, we characterize firms' optimal supply function choices in general equilibrium and study the resulting implications for aggregate supply. Aggregate supply flattens under lower inflation uncertainty, higher idiosyncratic demand uncertainty, and less elastic demand. Quantitatively, our theory can rationalize the flattening of aggregate supply during the Great Moderation and steepening during the 1970s and 2020s.

Suggested Citation

  • Joel P. Flynn & George Nikolakoudis & Karthik A. Sastry, 2026. "A Theory of Supply Function Choice and Aggregate Supply," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 116(2), pages 710-748, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:116:y:2026:i:2:p:710-48
    DOI: 10.1257/aer.20240443
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/aer.20240443
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
    File URL: https://doi.org/10.3886/E237501V1
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/materials/24572
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/materials/24573
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1257/aer.20240443?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or

    for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mikhail Golosov & Robert E. Lucas Jr., 2007. "Menu Costs and Phillips Curves," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 115(2), pages 171-199.
    2. Lucas, Robert E, Jr, 1973. "Some International Evidence on Output-Inflation Tradeoffs," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 63(3), pages 326-334, June.
    3. Robert C. Feenstra & Robert Inklaar & Marcel P. Timmer, 2015. "The Next Generation of the Penn World Table," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(10), pages 3150-3182, October.
    4. Kimball, Miles S, 1995. "The Quantitative Analytics of the Basic Neomonetarist Model," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 27(4), pages 1241-1277, November.
    5. Bollerslev, Tim, 1990. "Modelling the Coherence in Short-run Nominal Exchange Rates: A Multivariate Generalized ARCH Model," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 72(3), pages 498-505, August.
    6. Nicholas Bloom & Max Floetotto & Nir Jaimovich & Itay Saporta†Eksten & Stephen J. Terry, 2018. "Really Uncertain Business Cycles," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 86(3), pages 1031-1065, May.
    7. Jonathon Hazell & Juan Herreño & Emi Nakamura & Jón Steinsson, 2022. "The Slope of the Phillips Curve: Evidence from U.S. States," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 137(3), pages 1299-1344.
    8. Laurence Ball & N. Gregory Mankiw & David Romer, 1988. "The New Keynsesian Economics and the Output-Inflation Trade-off," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 19(1), pages 1-82.
    9. Chris Edmond & Virgiliu Midrigan & Daniel Yi Xu, 2023. "How Costly Are Markups?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 131(7), pages 1619-1675.
    10. Luca Gagliardone & Mark Gertler & Simone Lenzu & Joris Tielens, 2025. "Anatomy of the Phillips Curve: Micro Evidence and Macro Implications," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 115(11), pages 3941-3974, November.
    11. Tse, Y K & Tsui, Albert K C, 2002. "A Multivariate Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity Model with Time-Varying Correlations," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 20(3), pages 351-362, July.
    12. Olivier Wang & Iván Werning, 2022. "Dynamic Oligopoly and Price Stickiness," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 112(8), pages 2815-2849, August.
    13. Jan De Loecker & Jan Eeckhout & Gabriel Unger, 2020. "The Rise of Market Power and the Macroeconomic Implications [“Econometric Tools for Analyzing Market Outcomes”]," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 135(2), pages 561-644.
    14. John Grigsby & Erik Hurst & Ahu Yildirmaz, 2021. "Aggregate Nominal Wage Adjustments: New Evidence from Administrative Payroll Data," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(2), pages 428-471, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Joel P. Flynn & George Nikolakoudis & Karthik A. Sastry, 2026. "Pricing and Production Without the Invisible Hand," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 2501, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    2. Matteo Bizzarri, 2026. "Multilateral Market Power in Input-Output Networks," Papers 2603.21932, arXiv.org.
    3. Hellwig, Christian & Venkateswaran, Venky, 2025. "Dispersed information, nominal rigidities and monetary business cycles: A Hayekian perspective," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 155(S).

    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. Hashmat Khan & Sergio Lago Alves, 2025. "Are New Keynesian Models Useful When Trend Inflation is Not Very Low?," Carleton Economic Papers 25-01, Carleton University, Department of Economics.
    2. Sergio Lago Alves & Hashmat Khan, 2024. "Are New Keynesian Models Useful When Trend Inflation is Not Low?," Working Papers 24-08, Chair in macroeconomics and forecasting, University of Quebec in Montreal's School of Management, revised Aug 2024.
    3. Ángelo Gutiérrez-Daza, 2024. "Business Cycles when Consumers Learn by Shopping," Working Papers 2024-12, Banco de México.
    4. Dudley Cooke & Tatiana Damjanovic, 2020. "Optimal Fiscal Policy in a Model of Firm Entry with Financial Frictions," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 35, pages 74-96, January.
    5. Viral V. Acharya & Matteo Crosignani & Tim Eisert & Christian Eufinger, 2024. "Zombie Credit and (Dis‐)Inflation: Evidence from Europe," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 79(3), pages 1883-1929, June.
    6. Paulie, Charlotte, 2019. "Does Inflation Targeting Reduce the Dispersion of Price Setters’ Inflation Expectations?," Working Paper Series 2018:16, Uppsala University, Department of Economics.
    7. Paulie, Charlotte, 2019. "Does Inflation Targeting Reduce the Dispersion of Price Setters’ Inflation Expectations?," Working Paper Series 370, Sveriges Riksbank (Central Bank of Sweden).
    8. Isaac Baley & Andrés Blanco, 2021. "Aggregate Dynamics in Lumpy Economies," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 89(3), pages 1235-1264, May.
    9. Francesca Crucitti & Lorenza Rossi, 2022. "Labor Share Decline and Productivity Slowdown: A Micro-Macro Analysis," Working Papers 350577481, Lancaster University Management School, Economics Department.
    10. Greg Kaplan & Piotr Zoch, 2020. "Markups, Labor Market Inequality and the Nature of Work," Working Papers 2020-09, Becker Friedman Institute for Research In Economics.
    11. Kishaba, Yui & Okuda, Tatsushi, 2025. "The slope of the Phillips curve for service prices in Japan: Regional panel data approach," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    12. Apostolos Serletis & Jinan Liu, 2022. "Inflation and economic activity in advanced and emerging economies," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(4), pages 4196-4223, October.
    13. Kurozumi, Takushi & Van Zandweghe, Willem, 2022. "Macroeconomic changes with declining trend inflation: Complementarity with the superstar firm hypothesis," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    14. Nickel, Christiane & Kilponen, Juha & Moral-Benito, Enrique & Koester, Gerrit & Ciccarelli, Matteo & Enders, Almira & Holton, Sarah & Landau, Bettina & Venditti, Fabrizio & Bobeica, Elena & Brand, Cla, 2025. "A strategic view on the economic and inflation environment in the euro area," Occasional Paper Series 371, European Central Bank.
    15. Ko, Eunmi, 2025. "Markup polarization and efficacy of monetary policy: A tale of two firms," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    16. Stefano Gnocchi & Fanny McKellips & Rodrigo Sekkel & Laure Simon & Yinxi Xie & Yang Zhang, 2024. "The Output-Inflation Trade-off in Canada," Discussion Papers 2024-07, Bank of Canada.
    17. Anastasia Burya & Rui Mano & Mr. Yannick Timmer & Miss Anke Weber, 2022. "Monetary Policy Under Labor Market Power," IMF Working Papers 2022/128, International Monetary Fund.
    18. Ahrens, Steffen & Pirschel, Inske & Snower, Dennis J., 2017. "A theory of price adjustment under loss aversion," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 78-95.
    19. Sebastian Di Tella & Robert E. Hall, 2020. "Risk Premium Shocks Can Create Inefficient Recessions," NBER Working Papers 26721, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Kurozumi, Takushi & Van Zandweghe, Willem, 2024. "Output-inflation trade-offs and the optimal inflation rate," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D21 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Theory
    • D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection
    • E13 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General Aggregative Models - - - Neoclassical
    • E23 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Production
    • E31 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Price Level; Inflation; Deflation
    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles

    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:aea:aecrev:v:116:y:2026:i:2:p:710-48. 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: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.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.