Frequency Of Price Changes Research Articles

New Facts on Consumer Price Rigidity in the Euro Area

Using CPI microdata for 11 euro area countries over 2010–2019, we document new findings on consumer price rigidity in the euro area: (i) the average frequency of price changes is 12 percent; (ii) the distribution of price changes is highly dispersed, with frequent large and small changes; (iii) price changes are more frequent in January; and (iv) the overall size of price changes rises with inflation, but their frequency does not; these changes in the size are driven by movements in the fraction of price changes that are increases, not by the absolute size of price increases or decreases. (JEL E31, E52, F33, L11)

Empirical Investigation of a Sufficient Statistic for Monetary Shocks

Abstract In a broad class of sticky-price models the non-neutrality of nominal shocks is captured by a simple sufficient statistic: the ratio of the kurtosis of the price change distribution over the frequency of price changes. We test the sufficient statistic proposition using data for a large sample of products representative of the French economy. We first extend the theory to allow for empirically relevant monetary shocks with a transitory predictable component. We then use the micro data to measure kurtosis and frequency for about 120 PPI industries and 220 CPI categories. We use a Factor Augmented VAR to measure the industries response to monetary shocks, under alternative identification schemes. The estimated degree of non-neutrality correlates with the kurtosis and the frequency consistently with the predictions of the theory. Several robustness checks are discussed.

Evidence on price stickiness in Japan

AbstractUsing microdata from the Retail Price Survey (the basic statistics for the Consumer Price Index), we document facts regarding price stickiness in Japan. The main results are as follows: (1) The average frequency of price changes approximates $$20\%$$ 20 % on a monthly basis. (2) The frequency of price changes is more heterogeneous than that in the US (3) Whereas no clear relationship exists between the frequency and size of price changes, a positive correlation emerges between the size of price changes and price dispersion across stores. (4) Large cities tend to have a higher frequency of price changes and smaller price dispersion than small cities. (5) A positive relationship exists between price changes and jobs-to-applicants ratio for some services. (6) Behind the 2022–2023 price increase, the frequency of price changes exhibits a notable increase for certain goods and services such as eating out, while no distinct change is observed for the size of price changes or price dispersion.

Examination of Consumers’ Perceived Quality and Willingness to Buy in the Context of Price Variability and Frequency of Price Change: A Study of Retail Products

Marketing managers are able to influence consumers' perceptions of quality and their willingness to buy, using the frequency of price changes and price variability. This study aims to examine the differences in the frequency of price changes and price varia- bility, in terms of the perceived quality and the willingness to buy. For this purpose, using values calculated according to the average and standard deviation of the market price of a specified product, we obtained two different price variations, ±1σ and ±2σ, and price stim- uli determined at two different frequencies of price changes (three and seven times were considered), which resulted in four different participant groups. At the end of the study, a statistically significant difference was only found between consumers in the low price var- iability and infrequent price change condition and consumers in the high price variability and infrequent price change condition, in terms of the perceived quality.

Dynamic Pricing in Different Industries

Dynamic pricing describes a pricing strategy to set up highly flexible prices for products and services. Dynamic pricing algorithms adjust prices easily and frequently based on collected consumer data and market information. Dynamic pricing is used in various industries and has the potential to magnify revenues while offering multiple other benefits for companies. This paper analyzes the relevance and importance of dynamic pricing in sports, entertainment, leisure-time activities, hospitalities, and public transportation. For every industry, selected applications, and examples are analyzed. Finally, this paper investigates if dynamic pricing is fair and how customers respond to frequent price changes.

The pricing strategies of online grocery retailers

This paper documents the differences in pricing strategies between online and offline (brick-and-mortar) channels. We collect price data for identical products from leading online grocery retailers in the United States and complement it with offline data for the same products from scanner data. Our findings reveal a consistent pattern: online retailers exhibit higher price dispersion than their offline counterparts. More specifically, online grocers employ price algorithms that amplify price discrimination in three key dimensions: (1) over time (through frequent price changes), (2) across locations (by charging varying prices based on delivery zipcodes), and (3) across sellers (by setting dispersed prices for identical products across rival retailers).

The real effects of monetary shocks: Evidence from micro pricing moments

Empirically, what pricing moments are informative about monetary non-neutrality? The frequency of price changes is robustly informative among a set of pricing moments and across specifications: A lower frequency is statistically significantly associated with higher monetary non-neutrality, in line with models of price rigidities. Other moments that describe the price change distribution are not consistently or significantly related to monetary non-neutrality. While the frequency explains the largest share of variation in non-neutrality, no pricing moments individually or jointly explain a majority of the variation in a linear empirical setting. Non-pricing moments explain additional variation, however are not consistently associated with monetary non-neutrality. A multi-sector menu cost model featuring different price adjustment technologies across sectors can rationalize our main findings.

Competition in Pricing Algorithms

We document new facts about pricing technology using high-frequency data, and we examine the implications for competition. Some online retailers employ technology that allows for more frequent price changes and automated responses to price changes by rivals. Motivated by these facts, we consider a model in which firms can differ in pricing frequency and choose pricing algorithms that are a function of rivals’ prices. In competitive (Markov perfect) equilibrium, the introduction of simple pricing algorithms can increase price levels, generate price dispersion, and exacerbate the price effects of mergers. (JEL D21, D22, D43, G34, L13, L81)

Flexible workspace and coworking pricing over time in NYC

ABSTRACT This study examines price data for coworking spaces in the City of New York, between September and October 2020. The data were released by an online source (Datarade 2022). The results and data can be used in future research to examine reasons behind frequent price changes at coworking spaces.

Dynamic pricing and reference price effects

Dynamic pricing enables online retailers to dynamically adjust prices in response to demand and supply conditions. However, dynamically changing prices may also affect how consumers assess current retail prices compared to their internal reference prices. This paper develops propositions for the influence of dynamic pricing on the internal reference price effect based on a reduced demand model, and tests these propositions with a field experiment and an online lab experiment. Both experiments systematically manipulate two dimensions of dynamic price variation (amplitude and frequency). We find that customers react strongly to price increases but not to price reductions. However, higher amplitude, as well as the higher frequency of price changes, attenuate the internal reference price effects in the field experiment. The online lab experiment provides additional insights in a more controlled setting measuring the internal reference price and additional covariates. Therefore, dynamic pricing can provide an additional benefit for retailers by attenuating potentially detrimental reference price effects on demand.

Using the Retail Distribution of Sellers to Impute Expenditure Shares

Many price indices must be constructed without quantity data at the elementary level. The paper shows that for some consumer goods in the United States and other countries, one can approximate expenditure shares using weights derived from the retail distribution of sellers. These weights are based on the share of outlets selling an item, or the share of outlets adjusted by the total number of items sold in each. Relative to using no weights, the paper finds that using such imputed weights substantially reduces bias in the frequency of price changes, in annual inflation, and in price comparisons across countries. (JEL E31, L11, L81, O11, O14)

Heterogeneity in sectoral price and quantity responses to shocks to monetary policy

This paper investigates the sectoral price and quantity responses to an exogenous interest rate shock in the United States. It has two main findings. First, an interest rate shock causes strong relative price effects in a non-negligible number of sectors whose price responses to the shock differ broadly from those of the aggregate. More importantly, such effects are present even four years after the shock. Second, sectoral differences in the frequency of price changes are only weakly associated with the sectoral price and quantity responses. We show that a multi-sector model equipped with a working-capital channel, sticky wages, and sectoral heterogeneity in the frequency of price changes and the structure of production costs can explain these two findings.

Empirical Investigation of a Sufficient Statistic for Monetary Shocks

In a broad class of sticky price models the non-neutrality of nominal shocks is encoded by a simple sufficient statistic: the ratio of the kurtosis of the size-distribution of price changes over the frequency of price changes. We test this theoretical prediction using data for a large number of firms representative of the French economy. We use the micro data to measure the cross sectional moments, including kurtosis and frequency, for about 120 PPI industries and 220 CPI categories. We use a Factor Augmented VAR to measure the sectoral responses to a monetary shock, as summarized by the cumulative impulse response of sectoral prices (CIRP ), under three alternative identification schemes. The estimated CIRP correlates with the kurtosis and the frequency consistently with the prediction of the theory (i.e. they enter the relationship as a ratio). The analysis also shows that other moments not suggested by the theory, such as the mean, standard deviation and skewness of the size-distribution of price changes, are not correlated with the CIR. Several robustness checks are discussed.

Inflation Dynamics in Pakistan

This study explains the correlation among consumer price behavior and inflation in Pakistan by employing weekly micro data of retail price survey from October 2013 till September 2016, which is considered as the period of high inflation. Inflation is a product of extensive margin (the frequency of price change) and intensive margin (magnitude of price change). The study decompose the variance of inflation into contribution from both margins thus to determine if the prices of various groups of commodities follows State dependent pricing model or Time dependent pricing model. The extensive margin is a source of inflation in most of the State dependent pricing model while intensive margin is a basis of inflation in Time dependent pricing model. The analysis reveals a greater correlation of inflation with the intensive margin of price change compared to the extensive margin. Mounting inflation is although related more with greater frequencies of the price increase and lower frequency of price decrease, however, the size of the price increase and decrease also plays an important role. Findings of the study reveals important role of price change behavior in explaining the inflation dynamics and are believed to assist policy makers in assessing the pricing mechanism and inflation dynamics in Pakistan

Price selection

Price selection is a simple, model-free measure of selection in price setting. It exploits comovement between inflation and the level from which adjusting prices departed. Prices that increase from lower-than-usual levels tend to push inflation above average. Using micro data for the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada, we find strong price selection at disaggregate levels. Price selection is stronger for goods with less frequent price changes or with larger average price changes. Aggregate price selection is considerably weaker. A multisector sticky-price model accounts well for this evidence and demonstrates a monotone relationship between price selection and monetary non-neutrality.

Using the Retail Distribution of Sellers to Impute Expenditure Shares

Many price indices must be constructed without quantity data at the elementary level. We show that for some consumer goods in the United States and other countries, one can approximate expenditure shares using weights derived from the retail distribution of sellers. These weights are based on the share of outlets selling an item, or the share of outlets adjusted by the total number of items sold in each. Relative to using no weights, we find that using such imputed weights substantially reduces bias in the frequency of price changes, in annual inflation, and in price comparisons across countries.

Incomplete Price Adjustment and Inflation Persistence

AbstractThis paper proposes a sticky inflation model in which inflation persistence is endogenously generated from the optimizing behavior of forward‐looking firms. Although firms change prices periodically, their ability to fully adjust them in response to changes in economic conditions is assumed to be constrained due to the presence of managerial and customer costs of price adjustment. Our findings strongly support both sources of price stickiness in the U.S. data. The model performs well in matching microeconomic evidence on price setting, particularly regarding the size and frequency of price changes. The paper also shows how incomplete price adjustments in a staggered price contracts model limit the contribution of expectations to inflation dynamics: it generates the delayed response of inflation to demand and monetary shocks.

Using the Retail Distribution of Sellers to Impute Expenditures Shares

Many price indices must be constructed without quantity data at the elementary level. We show that for some consumer goods in the United States and other countries, one can approximate expenditure shares using weights derived from the retail distribution of sellers. These weights are based on the share of outlets selling an item, or the share of outlets adjusted by the total number of items sold in each. Relative to using no weights, we find that using such imputed weights substantially reduces bias in the frequency of price changes, in annual inflation, and in price comparisons across countries.

Empirical Investigation of a Sufficient Statistic for Monetary Shocks

In a broad class of sticky price models the non-neutrality of nominal shocks is encoded by a simple sufficient statistic: the ratio of the kurtosis of the size-distribution of price changes over the frequency of price changes. We test this theoretical prediction using data for a large number of firms representative of the French economy. We use the micro data to measure the cross sectional moments, including kurtosis and frequency, for about 120 PPI industries and 220 CPI categories. We use a Factor Augmented VAR to measure the sectoral responses to a monetary shock, as summarized by the cumulative impulse response of sectoral prices (CIRP ), under three alternative identification schemes. The estimated CIRP correlates with the kurtosis and the frequency consistently with the prediction of the theory (i.e. they enter the relationship as a ratio). The analysis also shows that other moments not suggested by the theory, such as the mean, standard deviation and skewness of the size-distribution of price changes, are not correlated with the CIRP . Several robustness checks are discussed.

Competition in Pricing Algorithms

We document new facts about pricing technology using high-frequency data, and we examine the implications for competition. Some online retailers employ technology that allows for more frequent price changes and automated responses to price changes by rivals. Motivated by these facts, we consider a model in which firms can differ in pricing frequency and choose pricing algorithms that are a function of rivals’ prices. In competitive (Markov perfect) equilibrium, the introduction of simple pricing algorithms can generate price dispersion, increase price levels, and exacerbate the price effects of mergers.