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A Structural Approach to Identifying the Sources of Local-Currency Price Stability

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  • Pinelopi K. Goldberg
  • Rebecca Hellerstein

Abstract

The inertia of the local-currency prices of traded goods in the face of exchange-rate changes is a well-documented phenomenon in International Economics. This paper develops a structural model to identify the sources of this local-currency price stability and applies it to micro data from the beer market. The empirical procedure exploits manufacturers' and retailers' first-order conditions in conjunction with detailed information on the frequency of price adjustments following exchange-rate changes to quantify the relative importance of local non-traded cost components, markup adjustment by manufacturers and retailers, and nominal price rigidities in the incomplete transmission of such changes to prices. We find that, on average, approximately 60% of the incomplete exchange rate pass-through is due to local non-traded costs; 8% to markup adjustment; 30% to the existence of own-brand price adjustment costs, and 1% to the indirect/strategic effect of such costs, though these results vary considerably across individual brands according to their market shares.

Suggested Citation

  • Pinelopi K. Goldberg & Rebecca Hellerstein, 2007. "A Structural Approach to Identifying the Sources of Local-Currency Price Stability," NBER Working Papers 13183, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13183
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E30 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)
    • F10 - International Economics - - Trade - - - General
    • F30 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - General
    • L10 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - General

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