Asymétrie des inflations relatives et "menus costs". Tests sur l'inflation française

Abstract

Asymmetry in relative-price inflation and menu costs: tests on french data The existence of menu costs at firm level must lead at macroeconomic level to a positive correlation between inflation and the skewness of the distribution of relative prices. For French data, this prediction turns true. The positive correlation which appears between inflation and skewness of the distribution of relative prices resists the introduction of variables which are important explanatory factors of inflation according to the results of the estimation of wage-price spirals on French data. We show, however, that in accordance with the results obtained for American data, this positive correlation can also be obtained in a model without menu costs, when one takes into account the fact that the tail of the price distribution is generally fatter than the normal one.