If producers have more information than consumers about goods’ attributes, then they may use non-price (rather than price) adjustment mechanisms and, consequently, the market may reach a new equilibrium even if prices remain sticky. We study a situation where producers adjust the quantity (per...

A number of recent papers point to the importance of distinguishing between the price reaction to micro and macro shocks in order to reconcile the volatility of individual prices with the observed persistence of aggregate inflation. We emphasize instead the importance of distinguishing between...

The paper examines price setting in Lithuania based on ad hoc survey of the Bank of Lithuania “On Price and Wage Setting”. The study extends the survey data analysis presented in Virbickas (2009). The paper points to the incidence of both the time-dependent and the state-dependent price...

This paper analyzes an individual firm's choice of invoicing currency under exchange rate volatility. Greater exchange rate volatility amplifies the representative firm's desire to 'herd' relative to all other considerations that may affect the currency denomination decision. By 'herding' a firm...

Ausubel's dynamic private-values auction for heterogeneous discrete goods, Ausubel (2006), yields an efficient equilibrium outcome but it is designed for a limited class of environments. If bidders' values for bundles of goods are not integers, then the auction mechanism may not yield an...

We offer the first direct evidence of an implicit contract in a goods market. The evidence comes from the market for Coca-Cola. We demonstrate that the Coca-Cola Company left a written evidence of its implicit contract with its consumers—a very explicit form of an implicit contract. The...

We offer the first direct evidence of an implicit contract in a goods market. The evidence comes from the market for Coca-Cola. Since implicit contracts are unobservable, we adopt a narrative approach to demonstrate that the Coca-Cola Company left a written evidence of the implicit contract with...

What impact is a VAT change expected to have on consumer prices? On the basis of past cases, the changes in the two VAT rates on 1 January 2014 are expected to have a moderate impact on inflation.

This paper explores optimal monetary policy when current account dynamics is taken into consideration in a sticky-price intertemporal optimising model. It investigates how monetary policies affect current account movement in a two-country model. The main issues addressed include: 1) what factors...

Using the NiGEM model, the authors show that a wage moderation in the “deficit” countries of the euro area –i.e. lowering the annual growth rate of wages by one percentage point over a five year horizon– would improve their current account balances by 0.2 to 0.3 percentage points of GDP....