MARKET POWER, PRICE ADJUSTMENT, AND INFLATION

Market Structure and Price Adjustment in the Iranian Tea Market

Inflation an Asymmetric Price Adjustment

This paper uses a unique micro data set to test for the presence of price asymmetries at the firm level. We find that firm pricing is indeed asymmetric, as Tobin (1972) suggested long ago. Moreover, there is strong evidence to support Ball and Mankiw's (1994) suggestion that firm price asymmetry is dependent on inflation. However, Ball and Mankiw's theory seems to hold better for changes in cos...

Market Power and Inflation

This paper examines the extent to which a decline in market power could have contributed to the general decline in inflation rates experienced in developed countries during the 1990s. *Staff economist of the Division of International Finance of the Federal Reserve Board. Email: [email protected]. I wish to thank Jon Faust, Steve Kamin, and Jeremy Rudd for valuable comments. This paper repr...

market structure and price adjustment in the iranian tea market

Price Deception, Market Power and Consumer Policy

This paper presents a model in which a firm attempts to gain market power by pricing above the competitive market price and simply trying to persuade illinformed consumers not to search for other lower priced firms. Fictitious price comparisons, or false sale signs could be used in this way to deceptively and profitably deter consumer search. A simplified model shows how this mechanism could ex...