IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/mcd/mcddps/2016_05.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Relative Price Dispersion and In flation: Evidence for the UK and the US

Author

Listed:
  • Gulnihal Aksoy

    (University College Dublin, IRELAND)

  • Don Bredin

    (University College Dublin, IRELAND)

  • Deirdre Corcoran

    (Galway Mayo Institute of Technology, IRELAND)

  • Stilianos Fountas

    (University of Macedonia, GREECE)

Abstract

One potential real effect of infl ation is its infl uence on the dispersion of relative prices in the economy which affects economic efficiency and aggregate output. Using a novel data set for the US and UK and a VARMA asymmetric bivariate GARCH-M model of in flation and relative price dispersion, we test for the effects of infl ation and infl ation uncertainty on relative price dispersion. We obtain two main results: First, infl ation affects relative price dispersion positively in the US supporting the menu costs model and negatively in the UK supporting the monetary search model. Second, there is no evidence for the role of infl ation uncertainty in explaining relative price dispersion, either for the US or the UK.

Suggested Citation

  • Gulnihal Aksoy & Don Bredin & Deirdre Corcoran & Stilianos Fountas, 2016. "Relative Price Dispersion and In flation: Evidence for the UK and the US," Discussion Paper Series 2016_05, Department of Economics, University of Macedonia, revised Dec 2016.
    • Handle: RePEc:mcd:mcddps:2016_05
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://aphrodite.uom.gr/econwp/pdf/dp052016.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Vining, Daniel R, Jr & Elwertowski, Thomas C, 1976. "The Relationship between Relative Prices and the General Price Level," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 66(4), pages 699-708, September.
    2. Reinsdorf, Marshall, 1994. "New Evidence on the Relation between Inflation and Price Dispersion," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(3), pages 720-731, June.
    3. David Fielding & Paul Mizen, 2008. "Evidence on the Functional Relationship between Relative Price Variability and Inflation with Implications for Monetary Policy," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 75(300), pages 683-699, November.
    4. Caglayan, Mustafa & Filiztekin, Alpay, 2003. "Nonlinear impact of inflation on relative price variability," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 79(2), pages 213-218, May.
    5. Parsley, David C, 1996. "Inflation and Relative Price Variability in the Short and Long Run: New Evidence from the United States," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 28(3), pages 323-341, August.
    6. Allen Head & Alok Kumar, 2005. "Price Dispersion, Inflation, And Welfare," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 46(2), pages 533-572, May.
    7. J. Ulyses Balderas & Hiranya Nath, 2007. "Inflation and relative price variability in Mexico: the role of remittances," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(3), pages 181-185.
    8. Nelson, Daniel B, 1991. "Conditional Heteroskedasticity in Asset Returns: A New Approach," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(2), pages 347-370, March.
    9. Cukierman, Alex, 1979. "The Relationship between Relative Prices and the General Price Level: A Suggested Interpretation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 69(3), pages 444-447, June.
    10. Taylor, John B., 1981. "On the relation between the variability of inflation and the average inflation rate," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 57-85, January.
    11. Benjamin Eden, 2001. "Inflation and Price Adjustment: An Analysis of Microdata," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 4(3), pages 607-636, July.
    12. Debelle, Guy & Lamont, Owen, 1997. "Relative Price Variability and Inflation: Evidence from U.S. Cities," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 105(1), pages 132-152, February.
    13. Rotemberg, Julio J, 1983. "Aggregate Consequences of Fixed Costs of Price Adjustment [Sticky Prices and Disequilibrium Adjustment in a Rational Model of the Inflationary Process]," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 73(3), pages 433-436, June.
    14. Bredin, Don & Fountas, Stilianos, 2009. "Macroeconomic uncertainty and performance in the European Union," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(6), pages 972-986, October.
    15. Bomberger, William A & Makinen, Gail E, 1993. "Inflation and Relative Price Variability: Parks' Study Reexamined," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 25(4), pages 854-861, November.
    16. Konieczny, Jerzy D. & Skrzypacz, Andrzej, 2005. "Inflation and price setting in a natural experiment," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(3), pages 621-632, April.
    17. Michael Aarstol, 1999. "Inflation, Inflation Uncertainty, and Relative Price Variability," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 66(2), pages 414-423, October.
    18. Glosten, Lawrence R & Jagannathan, Ravi & Runkle, David E, 1993. "On the Relation between the Expected Value and the Volatility of the Nominal Excess Return on Stocks," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 48(5), pages 1779-1801, December.
    19. Mick Silver & Christos Ioannidis, 2001. "Intercountry Differences in the Relationship between Relative Price Variability and Average Prices," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 109(2), pages 355-374, April.
    20. Sascha S. Becker & Dieter Nautz, 2009. "Inflation and Relative Price Variability: New Evidence for the United States," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 76(1), pages 146-164, July.
    21. M. Angeles Caraballo & Carlos Dabus & Carlos Usabiaga, 2006. "Relative prices and inflation: new evidence from different inflationary contexts," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(16), pages 1931-1944.
    22. Parks, Richard W, 1978. "Inflation and Relative Price Variability," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 86(1), pages 79-95, February.
    23. Barro, Robert J., 1976. "Rational expectations and the role of monetary policy," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 2(1), pages 1-32, January.
    24. Lucas, Robert Jr., 1972. "Expectations and the neutrality of money," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 4(2), pages 103-124, April.
    25. Eytan Sheshinski & Yoram Weiss, 1977. "Inflation and Costs of Price Adjustment," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 44(2), pages 287-303.
    26. Jaramillo, Carlos Felipe, 1999. "Inflation and Relative Price Variability: Reinstating Parks' Results," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 31(3), pages 375-385, August.
    27. Grier, Kevin B. & Perry, Mark J., 1996. "Inflation, inflation uncertainty, and relative price dispersion: Evidence from bivariate GARCH-M models," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 391-405, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. 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.
    2. Sascha S. Becker, 2011. "What Drives the Relationship Between Inflation and Price Dispersion? Market Power vs. Price Rigidity," SFB 649 Discussion Papers SFB649DP2011-019, Sonderforschungsbereich 649, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany.
    3. Baglan, Deniz & Ege Yazgan, M. & Yilmazkuday, Hakan, 2016. "Relative price variability and inflation: New evidence," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 263-282.
    4. Dieter Nautz & Juliane Scharff, 2012. "Inflation and relative price variability in the euro area: evidence from a panel threshold model," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(4), pages 449-460, February.
    5. 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.
    6. André Binette & Sylvain Martel, 2005. "Inflation and Relative Price Dispersion in Canada: An Empirical Assessment," Staff Working Papers 05-28, Bank of Canada.
    7. 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.
    8. 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.
    9. Alexander Bick & Dieter Nautz, 2008. "Inflation Thresholds and Relative Price Variability: Evidence from U.S. Cities," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 4(3), pages 61-76, September.
    10. Chi-Young Choi, 2010. "Reconsidering the Relationship between Inflation and Relative Price Variability," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 42(5), pages 769-798, August.
    11. Caglayan, Mustafa & Filiztekin, Alpay & Rauh, Michael T., 2008. "Inflation, price dispersion, and market structure," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(7), pages 1187-1208, October.
    12. Richard Ashley & Haichun Ye, 2012. "On the Granger causality between median inflation and price dispersion," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(32), pages 4221-4238, November.
    13. Banerjee, Anindya & Mizen, Paul & Russell, Bill, 2007. "Inflation, relative price variability and the markup: Evidence from the United States and the United Kingdom," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 82-100, January.
    14. Cleomar Gomes da Silva & Gilberto O. Boaretto, 2018. "Inflation and Relative Price Variability in Brazil: A Time-Varying Parameter Approach," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 38(4), pages 1947-1956.
    15. Becker, Sascha S. & Nautz, Dieter, 2012. "Inflation, price dispersion and market integration through the lens of a monetary search model," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(3), pages 624-634.
    16. María Ángeles Caraballo & Carlos Dabús., 2008. "The Determinants of Relative Price Variability: Further Evidence from Argentina," Latin American Journal of Economics-formerly Cuadernos de Economía, Instituto de Economía. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile., vol. 45(132), pages 235-255.
    17. Michael Aarstol, 1999. "Inflation, Inflation Uncertainty, and Relative Price Variability," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 66(2), pages 414-423, October.
    18. Debelle, Guy & Lamont, Owen, 1997. "Relative Price Variability and Inflation: Evidence from U.S. Cities," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 105(1), pages 132-152, February.
    19. Bill Russell, 2002. "The Long Run Relationships among Price Variability, Inflation and the Markup," Dundee Discussion Papers in Economics 127, Economic Studies, University of Dundee.
    20. Nebiye Yamak & Sinem Kocak & Fatma Kolcu, 2016. "Causal Relationship Between Relative Price Variability and Inflation in Turkey: Evidence from Panel Data," Romanian Economic Journal, Department of International Business and Economics from the Academy of Economic Studies Bucharest, vol. 19(61), pages 193-210, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    GARCH-M; Relative Price Dispersion; Infl ation.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C32 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Time-Series Models; Dynamic Quantile Regressions; Dynamic Treatment Effect Models; Diffusion Processes; State Space Models
    • E31 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Price Level; Inflation; Deflation

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:mcd:mcddps:2016_05. 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: Theodore Panagiotidis or Anastasia Litina (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.uom.gr/index.php?tmima=3 .

    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.