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Relative price and inflation variability in a simple consumer search model

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  • Hajzler, Christopher
  • Fielding, David

Abstract

There is a large empirical literature on the effect of aggregate inflation on both price-level dispersion (relative price variability, RPV) and inflation rate dispersion (relative inflation variability, RIV) across goods or locations. Early empirical work of RIV has an explicit theoretical foundation in signal-extraction models. However, recent empirical work on RPV has produced results inconsistent with signal-extraction models. In particular, while RIV is increasing in the absolute value of inflation shocks, RPV is a negative monotonic function of inflation shocks. We show that consumer search theory offers a potential explanation for these apparently contradictory observations.

Suggested Citation

  • Hajzler, Christopher & Fielding, David, 2014. "Relative price and inflation variability in a simple consumer search model," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 123(1), pages 17-22.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:123:y:2014:i:1:p:17-22
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2014.01.018
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. Maya Malinda & Jo-Hui Chen, 2022. "The forecasting of consumer exchange-traded funds (ETFs) via grey relational analysis (GRA) and artificial neural network (ANN)," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 62(2), pages 779-823, February.
    6. 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.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Relative price variability; Inflation; Search models;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

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

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