a r t i c l e i n f o Keywords: Asymmetry Inflation Relative price variability (RPV) U-shape JEL classification: E30 E31 E52 It is widely perceived that relative prices are more dispersed in periods of price decreases than in periods of price increases. We show that the asymmetry results from misspecifying the true, U-shaped, underlying model with a piecewise linear regression model. Ever since...

Large devaluations are generally associated with large declines in real exchange rates. Burstein, Eichenbaum, and Rebelo (2005) argue that the primary force causing these declines is often the slow adjustment in the price of nontradable goods and services. We develop a model which embodies two complementary forces that account for the large declines in the real exchange rate that occur in the a...

Price dynamics in Indian cities were examined using cointegration analysis. We identified and calculated a common trend for prices in 25 major cities in India. Impulse response functions were obtained to calculate the rates of convergence to the prices and we found that the half-life of any shock is very small for Indian cities. Although a close to three-month half-life seems too fast, there is...

Two sources of asymmetry in the Phillips curve are considered: the “capacity constraint hypothesis” and downward rigidity on wages and/or prices. The short run trade-off between inflation changes and the unemployment gap is modeled in a state-space framework that allows for time variation in both the NAIRU and the trade-off parameter. Empirical evidence for the US using the Kalman filter favors...

This paper investigates price rigidity arise out of the speci c market structures, such as degree of market concentration and pricing decisions of retailers and manufacturers. Using Japanese scanner data that contains transaction prices and sales for more than 1,600 commodity groups from 1988 to 2008, we nd statistically signi cant negative correlation between the degree of market concentration...

This paper investigates forecasts of US in#ation at the 12-month horizon. The starting point is the conventional unemployment rate Phillips curve, which is examined in a simulated out-of-sample forecasting framework. In#ation forecasts produced by the Phillips curve generally have been more accurate than forecasts based on other macroeconomic variables, including interest rates, money and commo...

Large devaluations are generally associated with large declines in real exchange rates. Burstein, Eichenbaum, and Rebelo (2005) argue that the primary force causing these declines is often the slow adjustment in the price of nontradable goods and services. We develop a model which embodies two complementary forces that account for the large declines in the real exchange rate that occur in the a...