IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/mgtdec/v28y2007i7p701-712.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Why do prices rise faster than they fall? With an application to mortgage rates

Author

Listed:
  • Linda A. Toolsema

    (University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands)

  • Jan P. A. M. Jacobs

    (University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands)

Abstract

Empirical literature shows that prices respond asymmetrically to cost changes in many markets, rising faster than falling. An example is the mortgage rate, which follows an increase in capital market rates faster than a decrease. We examine various theoretical explanations for asymmetric price adjustments in general and discuss their validity for the mortgage rate. We show that in The Netherlands mortgage rates indeed respond asymmetrically to changes in capital market rates and consider the relevance of theoretical explanations for this particular market. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Suggested Citation

  • Linda A. Toolsema & Jan P. A. M. Jacobs, 2007. "Why do prices rise faster than they fall? With an application to mortgage rates," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(7), pages 701-712.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:mgtdec:v:28:y:2007:i:7:p:701-712
    DOI: 10.1002/mde.1382
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1002/mde.1382
    File Function: Link to full text; subscription required
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/mde.1382?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
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Erwin Charlier & Arjan Van Bussel, 2003. "Prepayment Behavior of Dutch Mortgagors: An Empirical Analysis," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 31(2), pages 165-204, June.
    2. Levy, Daniel & Bergen, Mark & Dutta, Shantanu & Venable, Robert, 1997. "The Magnitude of Menu Costs: Direct Evidence from Large U.S. Supermarket Chains," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 112(3), pages 791-824.
    3. Shirvani, Hassan & Wilbratte, Barry, 1999. "The Asymmetric Response of Domestic Prices to Changes in Import Prices: A Cointegration Test of the Rachet Effect," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 381-396, April.
    4. Thomas E. Cooper, 1986. "Most-Favored-Customer Pricing and Tacit Collusion," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 17(3), pages 377-388, Autumn.
    5. Daniel Levy & Shantanu Dutta & Mark Bergen & Robert Venable, 1998. "Price adjustment at multiproduct retailers," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(2), pages 81-120.
    6. David Neumark & Steven A. Sharpe, 1992. "Market Structure and the Nature of Price Rigidity: Evidence from the Market for Consumer Deposits," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 107(2), pages 657-680.
    7. W.H.J. Hassink & M. van Leuvensteijn, 2003. "Price-settings and Price Dispersion in the Dutch Mortgage Market," Working Papers 03-07, Utrecht School of Economics.
    8. Frost, Denise & Bowden, Roger, 1999. "An Asymmetry Generator for Error-Correction Mechanisms, with Application to Bank Mortgage-Rate Dynamics," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 17(2), pages 253-263, April.
    9. Sam Peltzman, 2000. "Prices Rise Faster than They Fall," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 108(3), pages 466-502, June.
    10. Richard Damania & Bill Z. Yang, 1998. "Price Rigidity and Asymmetric Price Adjustment in a Repeated Oligopoly," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 154(4), pages 659-659, December.
    11. Leo Haan & Elmer Sterken, 2011. "Bank-Specific Daily Interest Rate Adjustment in the Dutch Mortgage Market," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 39(3), pages 145-159, June.
    12. Godby, Rob & Lintner, Anastasia M. & Stengos, Thanasis & Wandschneider, Bo, 2000. "Testing for asymmetric pricing in the Canadian retail gasoline market," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 349-368, June.
    13. Alan S. Blinder, 1994. "On Sticky Prices: Academic Theories Meet the Real World," NBER Chapters, in: Monetary Policy, pages 117-154, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Stephen P. A. Brown & Mine K. Yücel, 2000. "Gasoline and crude oil prices: why the asymmetry?," Economic and Financial Policy Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, issue Q3, pages 23-29.
    15. Hannan, Timothy H & Berger, Allen N, 1991. "The Rigidity of Prices: Evidence from the Banking Industry," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(4), pages 938-945, September.
    16. Severin Borenstein & A. Colin Cameron & Richard Gilbert, 1997. "Do Gasoline Prices Respond Asymmetrically to Crude Oil Price Changes?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(1), pages 305-339.
    17. Jean Tirole, 1988. "The Theory of Industrial Organization," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262200716, December.
    18. Rockoff, Hugh, 1998. "The Peace Dividend in Historical Perspective," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(2), pages 46-50, May.
    19. Reagan, Patricia B. & Weitzman, Martin L., 1982. "Asymmetries in price and quantity adjustments by the competitive firm," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 410-420, August.
    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. Quynh Chau Pham Holland & Benjamin Liu & Eduardo Roca, 2019. "International funding cost and heterogeneous mortgage interest-rate pass-through: a bank-level analysis," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 57(4), pages 1255-1289, October.
    2. Levy, Daniel, 2007. "Price Rigidity and Flexibility: New Empirical Evidence - Introduction to the Special Issue," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 28(7 (Specia), pages 639-647.
    3. Abbas Valadkhani & Sajid Anwar & Amir Arjonandi, 2012. "How to capture the full extent of price stickiness in credit card interest rates?," Economics Working Papers wp12-02, School of Economics, University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia.
    4. Craigwell, Roland & Moore, Winston & Worrell, DeLisle, 2011. "Does Consumer Price Rigidity Exist in Barbados?," MPRA Paper 40928, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Diego Escobari, 2013. "Asymmetric Price Adjustments in Airlines," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(2), pages 74-85, March.
    6. Valadkhani, Abbas, 2013. "The pricing behaviour of Australian banks and building societies in the residential mortgage market," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 133-151.
    7. Abbas Valadkhani & Sajid Anwar, 2012. "Interest Rate Pass-Through and the Asymmetric Relationship between the Cash Rate and the Mortgage Rate," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 88(282), pages 341-350, September.
    8. Wolter Hassink & Michiel Leuvensteijn, 2007. "Measuring Transparency in the Dutch Mortgage Market," De Economist, Springer, vol. 155(1), pages 23-47, March.
    9. Daniel Levy, 2007. "Price rigidity and flexibility: new empirical evidence," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(7), pages 639-647.
    10. Elmer Sterken, 2006. "Competition in the Dutch Mortgage Market," De Economist, Springer, vol. 154(4), pages 587-600, December.
    11. Michiel van Leuvensteijn & Wolter Hassink, 2003. "Price-setting and price dispersion in the Dutch mortgage market," CPB Discussion Paper 21, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    12. Leo Haan & Elmer Sterken, 2011. "Bank-Specific Daily Interest Rate Adjustment in the Dutch Mortgage Market," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 39(3), pages 145-159, June.
    13. Katarina Lukacsy, 2009. "Price Rigidity in Slovakia: Some Facts and Causes," Research in Economics and Business: Central and Eastern Europe, Tallinn School of Economics and Business Administration, Tallinn University of Technology, vol. 1(2).
    14. Fitri Ami Handayani & Febrio Nathan Kacaribu, 2019. "Asymmetric Transmission of the Monetary Policy: Empirical Evidence from the Consumer Credit Rates in Indonesia," LPEM FEBUI Working Papers 201938, LPEM, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Indonesia, revised 2019.
    15. Mark Dijkstra & Maarten Pieter Schinkel, 2019. "State-aided Price Coordination in the Dutch Mortgage Market," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 19-014/VII, Tinbergen Institute, revised 13 Jul 2019.
    16. Valadkhani, Abbas & Worthington, Andrew, 2014. "Asymmetric behavior of Australia's Big-4 banks in the mortgage market," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 57-66.
    17. Jason Allen & Darcey McVanel, 2009. "Price Movements in the Canadian Residential Mortgage Market," Staff Working Papers 09-13, Bank of Canada.
    18. repec:use:tkiwps:077 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Abbas Valadkhani & Sajid Anwar & Amir Arjomandi, 2014. "Downward stickiness of interest rates in the Australian credit card market," Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(1), pages 52-65, January.
    20. Abbas Valadkhani & Amir Arjomandi & Martin O'Brien, 2013. "Does the interest rate for business loans respond asymmetrically to changes in the cash rate?," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(9), pages 869-874, June.
    21. Sjölander, Pär, 2013. "A ridge bootstrap method for analyzing APT effects on the mortgage loan market," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 844-855.

    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. Leo Haan & Elmer Sterken, 2011. "Bank-Specific Daily Interest Rate Adjustment in the Dutch Mortgage Market," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 39(3), pages 145-159, June.
    2. Dutta, Shantanu & Bergen, Mark & Levy, Daniel, 2002. "Price Flexibility in Channels of Distribution: Evidence from Scanner Data," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 26(11), pages 1845-1900.
    3. Mohammad J Alam & Raghbendra Jha, 2016. "Asymmetric threshold vertical price transmission in wheat and flour markets in Dhaka (Bangladesh): seemingly unrelated regression analysis," ASARC Working Papers 2016-03, The Australian National University, Australia South Asia Research Centre.
    4. Ray, Sourav & Chen, Haipeng (Allan) & Bergen, Mark & Levy, Daniel, 2006. "Asymmetric Wholesale Pricing: Theory and Evidence," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 25(2), pages 109-201.
    5. Obradovits, Martin, 2014. "Asymmetric Pricing Caused by Collusion," MPRA Paper 58889, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. María Torrado & Álvaro Escribano, 2020. "European gasoline markets: price transmission asymmetries in mean and variance," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(42), pages 4621-4638, September.
    7. Mariano Tappata, 2009. "Rockets and feathers: Understanding asymmetric pricing," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 40(4), pages 673-687, December.
    8. Ralph-C Bayer & Changxia Ke, 2010. "Rockets and Feathers in the Laboratory," School of Economics and Public Policy Working Papers 2010-20, University of Adelaide, School of Economics and Public Policy.
    9. Chen, Haipeng (Allan) & Levy, Daniel & Ray, Sourav & Bergen, Mark, 2008. "Asymmetric Price Adjustment in the Small," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 55(4), pages 728-737.
    10. Arbatskaya, Maria & Baye, Michael R., 2004. "Are prices 'sticky' online? Market structure effects and asymmetric responses to cost shocks in online mortgage markets," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 22(10), pages 1443-1462, December.
    11. Michael Fung, 2014. "Ocean Carriers’ Collusion Under Antitrust Immunity: Evidence of Asymmetric Pass-Through," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 45(1), pages 59-77, August.
    12. Bayer, Ralph-C & Ke, Changxia, 2018. "What causes rockets and feathers? An experimental investigation," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 223-237.
    13. Joshua Sherman & Avi Weiss, 2015. "Price Response, Asymmetric Information and Competition," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 125(589), pages 2077-2115, December.
    14. David S. Scharfstein & Adi Sunderam, 2013. "Concentration in Mortgage Lending, Refinancing Activity and Mortgage Rates," NBER Working Papers 19156, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Ralph-C Bayer & Changxia Ke, 2011. "Are "Rockets and Feathers" Caused by Search or Informational Frictions," Working Papers are_rockets_and_feathers_, Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance.
    16. Georg Müller & Sourav Ray, 2007. "Asymmetric price adjustment: evidence from weekly product-level scanner price data," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(7), pages 723-736.
    17. Brewer, Jedidiah & Nelson, David M. & Overstreet, George, 2014. "The economic significance of gasoline wholesale price volatility to retailers," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 274-283.
    18. G. R. Chen, 2016. "Dynamic Model for Market Competition and Price Rigidity," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(36), pages 3485-3496, August.
    19. Jason Allen & Darcey McVanel, 2009. "Price Movements in the Canadian Residential Mortgage Market," Staff Working Papers 09-13, Bank of Canada.
    20. Bastianin, Andrea & Galeotti, Marzio & Manera, Matteo, 2014. "Forecasting the oil–gasoline price relationship: Do asymmetries help?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(S1), pages 44-56.

    More about this item

    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:wly:mgtdec:v:28:y:2007:i:7:p:701-712. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/7976 .

    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.