Asymmetric price adjustment in the small

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Chen, Haipeng (Allan); Levy, Daniel; Ray, Sourav; Bergen, Mark
• 署名单位: Bar Ilan University; Texas A&M University System; Texas A&M University College Station; Mays Business School; McMaster University; University of Minnesota System; University of Minnesota Twin Cities; University of Bologna
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF MONETARY ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-3932
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jmoneco.2008.05.002
• 发表日期: 2008
• 页码: 728-737
• 关键词: Asymmetric price adjustment; price rigidity; inflation; rational inattention; monetary policy

摘要

Analyses of a large retail scanner price data set reveal a new and surprising regularity small price increases occur more frequently than small price decreases for price changes of up to 10 0. That is, we find asymmetric price adjustment in the small. Furthermore, it turns out that inflation offers only a partial explanation for the finding. Indeed, substantial proportion of the asymmetry remains unexplained, even after accounting for the inflation. For example, the asymmetry holds also after excluding periods of inflation from the data, and even for products whose price had not increased. The findings hold for different aggregate and disaggregate measures of inflation and also after allowing for lagged price adjustments. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.