This paper analyzes the price setting behavior of firms using data from a large panel of quarterly firm surveys from 1984 to 2006. These data allow to track changes in firms’ prices, their price expectations and several other firm-specific developments such as changes in costs for input...

There is a growing interest in studying the disagreement of economic agents. Most studies, however, focus on the disagreement regarding one specific variable, hereby neglecting that disagreement may be comoving with disagreement on other variables. In this paper we explore to which extent...

This paper documents nominal stability in Switzerland from 1805 to 2013 using a data set on annual price, wage and nominal GDP changes. The trends of these indicators are estimated by an unobserved-components stochastic-volatility model in order to control for short-term fluctuations and...

This paper assesses the probability method for quantifying EU consumer survey data on perceived and expected inflation. Based on micro-data from the Swedish consumer survey that asks for both qualitative and quantitative responses, I find that the theoretical assumptions of the method do not...

This paper investigates persistence of Swiss consumer price inflation using aggregate and disaggregate inflation data covering 1983{2008. We document that persistence of sectoral inflation rates is below persistence of aggregate inflation. Our main finding is that inflation persistence...

This paper investigates the effects of media coverage and macroeconomic con- ditions on inflation forecast disagreement of German households and professional forecasters. We adopt a Bayesian learning model in which media coverage of infla- tion affects forecast disagreement by influencing...

The paper summarises and advances arguments made earlier by staff members of the Swiss Institute for Business Cycle Research in the current debate over the reasons for growth in Switzerland being weak. It is shown that the assessment of the speed of productivity growth crucially depends on how...

In a recent paper I argued that Baumol’s (1967) model of ‘unbalanced growth’ offers a ready explanation for the observed secular rise in health care expenditure (HCE) in rich countries (HARTWIG 2006). Baumol’s model implies that HCE is driven by wage increases in excess of productivity...

This paper presents some empirical facts on the dynamics of perceived inflation rates for EU countries. First, we find that perceptions are inefficient and highly heteroge- neous, yet contemporaneously related to the actual rate of inflation. Second, similar to studies on inflation expectations,...

The paper reviews the sources of «Upward bias» and «Downward bias» in the USConsumer Price Index (CPI) and discusses the changes the Bureau of Labor Statistics has introduced in order to eliminate them. The remaining biases are quantified. Also, the question is raised how much the changes to...