This paper proposes a theory of fixed cost of living, F, to explain various paradoxes in the literature of happiness and unemployment. Three testable hypotheses are identified and verified: (1) Most, if not all, of the happiness decrease is due to pecuniary cost. (2) There exists an F in the...

Since the beginning of 2022, prices for food and energy have been rising sharply. In the low-income sector, this leads to financial emergencies, since the standard of living here is far below the standards of society anyway. On the other hand, the consequences of inflation can certainly be...

The extent to which exchange rate fluctuations are passed through to domestic prices is of high relevance for open economies and for monetary authorities targeting price stability. Existing empirical studies estimating the exchange rate pass-through for Switzerland are based on either single...

China's economic development in recent decades has been tremendous, but subject to debate. This paper calculates regional prices that make incomes comparable across both time and space using the Engel-curve approach. Incomes are adjusted using these price indices, providing new estimates of...

This paper aims to discuss the determinants of Brazilian inflation measured by the Extended National Consumer Price Index (IPCA) from 2000 to 2009. We built 22 disaggregated series, the segments classification, crossing the classification in tradeables/non-tradeables/monitored prices with the...

Purchasing power adjusted incomes applied in cross-country comparisons are measured with bias. In this paper, we estimate the purchasing power parity (PPP) bias in Penn World Table incomes and provide corrected real incomes. The bias is substantial and systematic: the poorer is a country, the...

This paper examines the degree of price rigidity in Belgian consumer prices, using a large database. As to the observed degree of rigidity, the results reveal a substantial amount of heterogeneity, not only across but also within product categories. While prices turn out to be perfectly flexible...

Im Juli 2007 wurden die Milchpreise in Deutschland um 7 Cent je Liter angehoben, und für andere Molkereiprodukte wurden drastische Steigerungen angekündigt. Inzwischen ist auch bei Brot und Backwaren sowie bei Fleisch von deutlichen Preiserhöhungen die Rede. Verschiedentlich wird bereits...

This paper investigates the behaviour of consumer prices in Italy by looking at micro data in the attempt to obtain a quantitative measure of the unconditional degree of price rigidity in the Italian economy. The analysis focuses on the monthly frequency of price changes and on the duration of...