Empirical studies suggest that monetary policy shocks can have a sustained impact on aggregate output. How is it possible for nominal shocks to have persistent real effects? One popular explanation centers on overlapping price contracts. However, recent theoretical work has cast doubt on the...

The Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) is the primary measure of inflation in the euro area, and plays a central role in the policy deliberations of the European Central Bank (ECB). The ECB defines its Treaty mandate of price stability as "…a year-on-year increase in the Harmonised...

This paper reviews various approaches to the measurement of core inflation that have been proposed in recent years. The objective is to determine whether the European Central Bank (ECB) should pay special attention to one or other of these measures in assessing inflation developments in the euro...

This article reviews the idea that sticky prices are important for understanding business cycles. Mark Wynne begins with a critical survey of the literature documenting the stylized facts about prices in individual markets. His first point is that there is remarkably little evidence that the...

Since the early 1970s, economists have gained an increased appreciation for the importance of supply shocks as sources of fluctuations in aggregate economic activity. Yet the question of how best to measure such shocks remains open. Traditionally, economists have assessed the importance of such...