Macroeconomic models often generate nominal price rigidity via menu costs. This paper provides empirical evidence that treating menu costs as a structural explanation for sticky prices may be spurious. Using supermarket scanner data, I note two empirical facts: (1) price points, embodied in...

This paper studies asymmetric price responses of individual firms, via daily retail prices of almost all gasoline stations in the Netherlands and suggested prices of the five largest oil companies over more than two years. I find that 38% of the stations respond asymmetrically to changes in the...

We study item-pricing laws (which require that each item in a store be individually marked with a price sticker) and examine and quantify their costs and benefits. On the cost side, we argue that item-pricing laws increase the retailers’ costs, forcing them to raise prices. We test this...

In this paper we critically reappraise some measures of the importance of time-dependent price setting rules and propose an alternative way to gauge the significance of this type of price setting behaviour. The merits of the proposed measure are highlighted in an application using micro-data....

This paper analyses the results of a survey conducted by the Banco de Portugal between May and September 2004 on a sample of 1370 Portuguese firms with the main purpose of investigating their price setting behaviour. The evidence points to the presence of a considerable degree of price...

This paper reports the results of an ad hoc survey on price-setting behaviour conducted in February 2004 among 2,000 Belgian firms. The reported results clearly deviate from a situation of perfect competition and show that firms have some market power. Pricing-to-market is applied by a majority...

En este documento se reportan los resultados de una encuesta por medio de la cual se interrogó a los empresarios colombianos acerca de la forma como fijan los precios de sus principales productos. El diseño del formulario sigue de cerca las propuestas de Blinder (1991, 1994, 1998) y de la red...

En este documento se reportan los resultados de una encuesta por medio de la cual se interrogó a los empresarios colombianos acerca de la forma como fijan los precios de sus principales productos. El diseño del formulario sigue de cerca las propuestas de Blinder (1991, 1994, 1998) y de la red...

This paper reports the results of a survey conducted by the Banque de France during winter 2003-2004 to investigate the price-setting behavior of French manufacturing companies. Prices are found to adjust infrequently; the median firm modifies its price only once a year. Price reviews are more...

We study item-pricing laws (which require that each item in a store be individually marked with a price sticker) and examine and quantify their costs and benefits. On the cost side, we argue that item-pricing laws increase the retailers’ costs, forcing them to raise prices. We test this...