In this study, we explain the driving forces behind the secular stagnation associated with a persistent decrease in interest rates. To do so, we employ a model that incorporates a crisis risk triggered by an accumulation of government debt. The model shows that the fear of large-scale taxation...

In this study, we evaluate the effects of product turnover on a welfare-based cost-of-living index. We first present several facts about price and quantity changes over the product cycle employing scanner data for Japan for the years 1988-2013, which cover the deflationary period that started in...

Consumers hold inventory for future uses. This study investigates how such intertemporal decisions influence the cost-of-living index (COLI). To this end, I construct a simple dynamic model, in which goods are storable and nonresalable, and prices take either high (regular price) or low values...

In this study, we analyze the relationship between inflation and economic growth. To this end, we construct a model of endogenous growth with creative destruction, incorporating sticky prices due to menu costs. Inflation and deflation reduce the reward for innovation via menu cost payments and,...

Coibion and Gorodnichenko (2015) provide a useful framework to test the null hypothesis of full-information rational expectations against two popular classes of information rigidities, sticky information (SI) and noisy information (NI). However, the observational equivalence of SI and NI in...

A standard macroeconomic model based on monopolistic competition (Dixit-Stiglitz) does not account for the strategic behaviors of oligopolistic firms. In this study, we construct a tractable Hotelling duopoly model with price stickiness to consider the implications for monetary policy. The key...

Standard New Keynesian models have often neglected temporary sales. In this paper, we ask whether this treatment is appropriate. In the empirical part of the paper, we provide evidence using Japanese scanner data covering the last two decades that the frequency of sales was closely related with...

This paper considers the macroeconomic effects of retailers' market concentration and buyer-size discounts on inflation dynamics. During Japan's “lost decades,” large retailers enhanced their market power, leading to increased exploitation of buyer-size discounts in procuring goods. We...

Attempts by governments to stop bubbles by issuing warnings seem unsuccessful. This paper examines the effects of public warnings using a simple model of riding bubbles. We show that public warnings against a bubble can stop it if investors believe that a warning is issued in a definite range of...

Responding to the increased attention on the distributional aspects of monetary policy, we investigate the reallocation among heterogeneous firms triggered by nominal growth. Japanese firm-level data show that large firms invest more in R&D and grow faster than small firms under higher...