[go: up one dir, main page]
More Web Proxy on the site http://driver.im/
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/smppub/v4y2015i2p258-287.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Price Rigidity, Inflation and the Distribution of Relative Price Changes

Author

Listed:
  • Sartaj Rasool Rather
  • S. Raja Sethu Durai
  • M. Ramachandran
Abstract
This study examines whether skewness of the cross-sectional distribution of relative price changes is positively associated with aggregate inflation as predicted by the menu cost model of Ball and Mankiw (1994, 1995). Further, the study examines the size and frequency of price changes across various commodities and the distribution of relative price changes. The results from highly disaggregated Indian wholesale price index (WPI) data suggest that the skewness of relative price changes explains a significant proportion of short-run fluctuations in aggregate inflation. More importantly, the results indicate that the average size of price increases is greater than the size of price decreases implying downwards rigidity in the prices of various commodities. JEL Classification: E30, E31, E52

Suggested Citation

  • Sartaj Rasool Rather & S. Raja Sethu Durai & M. Ramachandran, 2015. "Price Rigidity, Inflation and the Distribution of Relative Price Changes," South Asian Journal of Macroeconomics and Public Finance, , vol. 4(2), pages 258-287, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:smppub:v:4:y:2015:i:2:p:258-287
    DOI: 10.1177/2277978715602398
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2277978715602398
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/2277978715602398?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. N. Gregory Mankiw, 1985. "Small Menu Costs and Large Business Cycles: A Macroeconomic Model of Monopoly," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 100(2), pages 529-538.
    2. Balke, Nathan S. & Wynne, Mark A., 2000. "An equilibrium analysis of relative price changes and aggregate inflation," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 269-292, April.
    3. Ball, Laurence & Mankiw, N Gregory, 1994. "Asymmetric Price Adjustment and Economic Fluctuations," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 104(423), pages 247-261, March.
    4. Vining, Daniel R, Jr & Elwertowski, Thomas C, 1976. "The Relationship between Relative Prices and the General Price Level," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 66(4), pages 699-708, September.
    5. Robert Amano & Tiff Macklem, 1997. "Menu Costs, Relative Prices, and Inflation: Evidence for Canada," Staff Working Papers 97-14, Bank of Canada.
    6. Brijesh C. Purohit, 2015. "Efficiency in Elementary Education in Urban India: An exploratory Analysis using DEA," Working Papers 2015-113, Madras School of Economics,Chennai,India.
    7. Laurence Ball & N. Gregory Mankiw, 1995. "Relative-Price Changes as Aggregate Supply Shocks," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(1), pages 161-193.
    8. A. Nazif Çatik & Christopher Martin & A. Özlem Onder, 2011. "Relative price variability and the Phillips Curve: evidence from Turkey," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 38(5), pages 546-561, September.
    9. Phelps, Edmund S, 1978. "Commodity-Supply Shock and Full-Employment Monetary Policy," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 10(2), pages 206-221, May.
    10. M. Angeles Caraballo & Carlos Usabiaga, 2009. "The relevance of supply shocks for inflation: the spanish case," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(6), pages 753-764.
    11. Naveen Srinivasan & Vidya Mahambare & M. Ramachandran, 2006. "Modelling Inflation in India: A Critique of the Structuralist Approach," Journal of Quantitative Economics, Springer;The Indian Econometric Society (TIES), vol. 4(2), pages 45-58, July.
    12. Luc Aucremanne & Guy Brys & Peter J Rousseeuw & Anja Struyf & Mia Hubert, 2003. "Inflation, relative prices and nominal rigidities," BIS Papers chapters, in: Bank for International Settlements (ed.), Monetary policy in a changing environment, volume 19, pages 81-105, Bank for International Settlements.
    13. Holly, Sean, 1997. "Relative Price Dispersion and the Rate of Inflation: The Evidence from Japan," Journal of Economic Integration, Center for Economic Integration, Sejong University, vol. 12, pages 206-226.
    14. Laurence Ball & N. Gregory Mankiw, 1999. "Interpreting The Correlation Between Inflation And The Skewness Of Relative Prices: A Comment On Bryan And," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 81(2), pages 197-198, May.
    15. Ball, Laurence & Mankiw, N. Gregory, 1999. "Interpreting the Correlation Between Inflation and the Skewness of Relative Prices: A Comment on Bryan and Cecchetti," Scholarly Articles 3415439, Harvard University Department of Economics.
    16. Michael F. Bryan & Stephen G. Cecchetti, 1999. "Inflation And The Distribution Of Price Changes," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 81(2), pages 188-196, May.
    17. Robert E. Hall, 1982. "Inflation: Causes and Effects," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number hall82-1.
    18. sowmya, 2015. "Health Shocks and Short-Term Consumption GrowthAuthor-Name: Sowmya Dhanaraj," Working Papers 2015-112, Madras School of Economics,Chennai,India.
    19. Hiranya Nath, 2004. "Relative importance of sectoral and aggregate sources of price changes," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(16), pages 1781-1796.
    20. Caraballo Pou, M. Angeles & Dabus, Carlos, 2008. "Nominal rigidities, skewness and inflation regimes," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 16-33, March.
    21. Roman Horváth, 2011. "The frequency and size of price changes: evidence from non-parametric estimations," Macroeconomics and Finance in Emerging Market Economies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(2), pages 263-268, February.
    22. Kuran, Timur, 1983. "Asymmetric Price Rigidity and Inflationary Bias," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 73(3), pages 373-382, June.
    23. Buck, Andrew J. & Gahlen, Bernhard, 1984. "The real effects of price variability in the Federal Republic of Germany, 1953-1977," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 15(1-2), pages 79-85.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Santosh K. Sahu & Deepanjali Mehta, 2018. "Determinants Of Energy And Co2 Emission Intensities: A Study Of Manufacturing Firms In India," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 63(02), pages 389-407, March.
    2. Rodrigo Cerda & Alvaro Silva & Rolf Lüders, 2021. "Price controls, hyperinflation, and the inflation–relative price variability relationship," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 61(4), pages 1725-1748, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. A. Nazif Çatik & Christopher Martin & A. Özlem Onder, 2011. "Relative price variability and the Phillips Curve: evidence from Turkey," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 38(5), pages 546-561, September.
    2. Constantina Kottaridi & Mendez-Carbajo Diego & D. Thomakos Dimitrios, 2009. "Inflation Dynamics and the Cross-Sectional Distribution of Prices in the E.U. Periphery," Springer Books, in: Takashi Kamihigashi & Laixun Zhao (ed.), International Trade and Economic Dynamics, pages 449-475, Springer.
    3. Döpke Jörg & Pierdzioch Christian, 2003. "Inflation and the Skewness of the Distribution of Relative Price Changes: Empirical Evidence for Germany / Inflation und die Schiefe der Verteilung relativer Preisänderungen: Empirische Evidenz für De," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 223(2), pages 136-158, April.
    4. repec:rim:rimwps:43-07 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Döpke, Jörg & Pierdzioch, Christian, 2001. "Inflation and the Skewness of the Distribution of Relative Price Changes: Empirical Evidence for Germany," Kiel Working Papers 1059, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    6. Sartaj Rasool Rather, 2019. "Asymmetric impact of relative price shocks in presence of trend inflation," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(9), pages 755-758, May.
    7. Sartaj Rather, 2016. "Asymmetric Impact of Relative Price Shocks in Presence of Trend Inflation," Working Papers id:11477, eSocialSciences.
    8. David Demery & Nigel W. Duck, 2008. "Relative Prices as Aggregate Supply Shocks with Trend Inflation," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 40(2‐3), pages 389-408, March.
    9. Suvanto, Antti & Hukkinen, Juhana, 2004. "Stable price level and changing prices," Bank of Finland Research Discussion Papers 28/2004, Bank of Finland.
    10. Luc Aucremanne & Guy Brys & Peter J Rousseeuw & Anja Struyf & Mia Hubert, 2003. "Inflation, relative prices and nominal rigidities," BIS Papers chapters, in: Bank for International Settlements (ed.), Monetary policy in a changing environment, volume 19, pages 81-105, Bank for International Settlements.
    11. Caraballo Pou, M. Angeles & Dabus, Carlos, 2008. "Nominal rigidities, skewness and inflation regimes," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 16-33, March.
    12. Sartaj Rasool Rather & Sunil Paul & S. Raja Sethu Durai, 2015. "Inflation forecasting and the distribution of price changes," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 35(1), pages 226-232.
    13. Rather, Sartaj Rasool & Durai, S. Raja Sethu & Ramachandran, M., 2014. "Inflation and relative price variability: Evidence for India," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 32-41.
    14. Alsamara, Mouyad Kassm & Mrabet, Zouhair & Elafif, Mohamed & Gangopadhyay, Partha, 2017. "The asymmetric effects of oil price on economic growth in Turkey and Saudi Arabia: new evidence from nonlinear ARDL approach," International Journal of Development and Conflict, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, vol. 7(2), pages 97-118.
    15. Landau, Bettina, 2000. "Core inflation rates: a comparison of methods based on west German data," Discussion Paper Series 1: Economic Studies 2000,04, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    16. M. Angeles Caraballo & Carlos Usabiaga, 2009. "The relevance of supply shocks for inflation: the spanish case," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(6), pages 753-764.
    17. Mark A. Wynne, 2008. "Core inflation: a review of some conceptual issues," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 90(May), pages 205-228.
    18. Alan S. Blinder & Jeremy B. Rudd, 2013. "The Supply-Shock Explanation of the Great Stagflation Revisited," NBER Chapters, in: The Great Inflation: The Rebirth of Modern Central Banking, pages 119-175, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Shruti Tripathi & Ashima Goyal, 2013. "Relative Prices, Price Level and Inflation: Effects of Asymmetric and Sticky Adjustment," The IUP Journal of Applied Economics, IUP Publications, vol. 0(2), pages 41-61, April.
    20. Michael Funke & Sebastian Weber & Jörg Döpke & Sean Holly, 2008. "The Cross-Section of Output and Inflation in a Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium Model with Sticky Prices," Quantitative Macroeconomics Working Papers 20809, Hamburg University, Department of Economics.
    21. Mª Ángeles Caraballo Pou & Carlos Dabús, 2005. "Nominal rigidities, relative prices and skewness," Economic Working Papers at Centro de Estudios Andaluces E2005/17, Centro de Estudios Andaluces.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Inflation; skewness; relative price changes; menu cost;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E30 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)
    • E31 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Price Level; Inflation; Deflation
    • E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:smppub:v:4:y:2015:i:2:p:258-287. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.