Rational inattention, menu costs, and multi-product firms: Micro evidence and aggregate implications

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Yang, Choongryul
• 署名单位: Federal Reserve System - USA; Federal Reserve System Board of Governors
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF MONETARY ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-3932
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jmoneco.2022.04.004
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: 105-123
• 关键词: Inflation expectations; Monetary non-neutrality; rational inattention; menu costs; Multi-product firms; economies of scope

摘要

Using a New Zealand firm-level survey, I show that firms producing more goods have both better information about inflation and more frequent but smaller price changes. To explain these empirical findings, I develop a general equilibrium menu cost model with rationally inattentive multi-product firms. I show that the interaction of nominal and informational rigidities leads to a new selection effect: Price adjusters are better informed than non-adjusters. This selection endogenously generates a leptokurtic distribution of desired price changes, which amplifies monetary non-neutrality. Compared to a one-product baseline, the real effects of monetary shocks are 12 percent smaller in a two-product model. (C) 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.