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The mechanics of price adjustment: new evidence on the (un)importance of menu costs

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  • Rajesh Chakrabarti

    (Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, India)

  • Barry Scholnick

    (University of Alberta, Canada)

Abstract

This paper examines nominal price rigidities in an environment, e-commerce, where literal menu costs can be assumed not to exist. We argue that if we can empirically show that nominal rigidities do still exist in the e-commerce environment, then it implies that other kinds of costs besides menu costs, such as management costs, must be causing these nominal rigidities. This evidence is of importance because of the central role that menu costs play in Keynesian macroeconomics. In this paper we examine the price changing behavior of two leading online booksellers-Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com-and find strong evidence that nominal price rigidities do indeed persist on the Internet. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Suggested Citation

  • Rajesh Chakrabarti & Barry Scholnick, 2007. "The mechanics of price adjustment: new evidence on the (un)importance of menu costs," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(7), pages 657-668.
  • Handle: RePEc:wly:mgtdec:v:28:y:2007:i:7:p:657-668
    DOI: 10.1002/mde.1374
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. N. Gregory Mankiw & Ricardo Reis, 2002. "Sticky Information versus Sticky Prices: A Proposal to Replace the New Keynesian Phillips Curve," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 117(4), pages 1295-1328.
    2. Craigwell, Roland & Moore, Winston & Worrell, DeLisle, 2011. "Does Consumer Price Rigidity Exist in Barbados?," MPRA Paper 40928, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Emmanuel Dhyne & Jerzy Konieczny, 2014. "Aggregation And The Staggering Of Price Changes," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 52(2), pages 732-756, April.
    4. Fernando Alvarez & Hervé Le Bihan & Francesco Lippi, 2013. "Small and Large Price Changes and the Propagation of Monetary Shocks," EIEF Working Papers Series 1318, Einaudi Institute for Economics and Finance (EIEF), revised Aug 2013.
    5. Böheim, René & Hackl, Franz & Hölzl-Leitner, Michael, 2021. "The impact of price adjustment costs on price dispersion in e-commerce," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).

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