Sticky Prices: New Evidence from Retail Catalogs

40 Pages Posted: 11 Apr 2011 Last revised: 9 Oct 2022

See all articles by Anil K. Kashyap

Anil K. Kashyap

University of Chicago, Booth School of Business; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago

Date Written: September 1994

Abstract

This paper presents new results on the size, frequency, and synchronization of price changes for twelve selected retail goods over the past 35 years. Three basic facts about the data are uncovered: first, nominal prices are typically fixed for more than one year although the time between changes is very irregular; second, prices change more often during periods of high overall inflation; third, when prices do change, the sizes of the changes are widely dispersed. Both 'large' and 'small' changes occur for the same item and the sizes of these changes do not closely depend on overall inflation.

Suggested Citation

Kashyap, Anil K., Sticky Prices: New Evidence from Retail Catalogs (September 1994). NBER Working Paper No. w4855, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1806118

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