Reference prices and nominal rigidities
By: Martin Eichenbaum, Nir Jaimovich, Sergio Rebelo.
Contributors: Jaimovich, Nir.; Rebelo, Sergio.; National Bureau of Economic Research.
Series: NBER working paper series -- working paper 13829; Working paper series (National Bureau of Economic Research : Online) -- working paper no. 13829.
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research
Published: 2008
Place of publication: Cambridge, MA
Language: eng
Format: Electronic resource
Description: "We assess the importance of nominal rigidities using a new weekly scanner data set from a major U.S.  retailer, that contains information on prices, quantities, and costs for over 1,000 stores.  We find that nominal rigidities are important but do not take the form of sticky prices.  Instead, nominal rigidities take the form of inertia in reference prices and costs, defined as the most common prices and costs within a given quarter.  Weekly prices and costs fluctuate around reference values which tend to remain constant over extended periods of time.  Reference prices are particularly inertial and have an average duration of roughly one year.  So, nominal rigidities are present in our data, even though weekly prices change very frequently, roughly once every two weeks.  We argue that the retailer chooses the frequency with which it resets references prices so as to keep the realized markups within plus/minus twenty percent of the desired markup over reference cost"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.
Notes: Title from PDF file as viewed on 6/13/2008.

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