Staggering and Synchronization in Price-Setting: Evidence from Multipro-duct Firms / Saul Lach, Daniel Tsiddon.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lach, Saul.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Tsiddon, Daniel.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w4759.

NBER working paper series no. w4759

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Prices--Econometric models.

Prices.

Multiproduct firms--Management.

Multiproduct firms.

Retail trade--Israel.

Retail trade.

Food prices.

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Staggering and Synchronization in Price-Setting

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 1994.

Cambridge, MA : National Bureau of Economic Research, 1994.

Summary:

Most of the theoretical literature on price-setting behavior deals with the special case in which only a single price is changed. At the retail-store level, at least, where dozens of products are sold by a single price-setter, price-setting policies are not formulated for individual products. This feature of economic behavior raises a host of questions whose answers carry interesting implications. Are price setters staggered in the timing of price changes? Are price changes of different products synchronized within the store? If so, is this a result of aggregate shocks or of the presence of a store- specific component in the cost of adjusting prices? Can observed small changes in prices be rationalized by a menu cost model? We exploit the multiproduct dimension of the dataset on prices used in Lach and Tsiddon (1992a) to explore several of these and other issues. To the best of our knowledge this is the first empirical work on this subject.

Notes:

Print version record

June 1994.