Josef Baumgartner (WIFO), Ernst Glatzer, Fabio Rumler, Alfred Stiglbauer (OeNB)
Characteristics of Price Rigidities in Austria. An Empirical Analysis
Projektberichte (abgeschlossen), Februar 2005
Final report to the "Jubiläumsfonds der Oesterreichischen Nationalbank" (Grant No. 10265, Project Co-ordinator: Thomas Url)
Mit finanzieller Unterstützung von: Jubiläumsfonds der Oesterreichischen Nationalbank
Studie von: Österreichisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung – Oesterreichische Nationalbank
A data set with price records collected for the computation of the Austrian CPI is used to estimate the average frequency of price changes and the duration of price spells to provide empirical evidence on the degree and characteristics of price rigidity in Austria. Depending on the estimation method applied, on average, prices are unchanged for 10 to 14 months. We find a strong heterogeneity across sectors and products. Price increases occur only slightly more often than price decreases. For both cases the typical size of the weighted average price change is quite large (11 and 15 percent, respectively). Like other contributions in the IPN we find that the aggregate hazard function is decreasing with time. This is due to the fact that products with a high frequency of price changes contribute a disproportionately high number of spells. Breakdowns by product categories reveal considerable product heterogeneity. Accounting for the unobserved heterogeneity in estimating the probability of a price change with a panel logit model (with fixed elementary product effects), we find a small but positive effect of the duration of a price spell on the probability of a price change. We also find that during the Euro cash changeover the probability of price changes was higher.
Keywords:
Forschungsbereich:Makroökonomie und öffentliche Finanzen
Sprache:Englisch