Imperfect Competition, Sticky Prices, and Firm Specific Menu Costs

这项规划补助金研究将扩大在 芝加哥大学研究员1989年的论文。 的 论文研究了不同市场结构对 商业银行的价格调整行为。 主要 该论文的研究结果是：（1）大部分的 定价刚性（或行为）的差异无法解释为 市场结构的差异，以及（2）市场内的变化， 个别公司的价格刚性模式非常 显著 后一个发现促使人们寻找一种理论， 解释市场内部或特定公司的价格调整 行为，并导致了对“新凯恩斯主义”的考虑。 关于不完全竞争和昂贵价格的经济学文献 加强结构性改革 大多数现有的文献都只关注 “市场”特征解释价格刚性差异 模式. 本项目将侧重于“公司”的特点， 价格调整行为分析中的相关变量 事务所 这种从市场到公司的具体分析的延伸是 这对理解和确定 粘性价格。 因此，制定一项 全面分析整个经济的资源分配不当 由工资和价格刚性所决定。 具体而言，该奖项将用于：（1）评审价格 刚性文献，（2）发展关于企业的可检验假设 价格调整的具体成本，以及（3）开始制定 用简单的实验模型来检验这些假设。 这些模型 将侧重于商业银行及其作为金融机构的作用， 中介机构 然而，结果将对以下方面产生影响： 其他行业和整个经济。

This planning grant research will extend a study done in the investigator's University of Chicago 1989 dissertation. That dissertation examined the impact of differing market structures on the price adjustment behavior of commercial banks. The major findings of that dissertation were: (1) a major proportion of the differences in pricing rigidity (or behavior) was not explained by differences in market structure, and (2) intramarket variation in the price rigidity patterns of individual firms was very significant. This latter finding motivated a search for a theory to explain intramarket, or firm specific, price adjustment behavior, and led to a consideration of the "New Keynesian" economics literature on imperfect competition and costly price adjustment. Most of this existing literature has focussed exclusively on "market" characteristics to explain differences in price rigidity patterns. This project will focus on "firm" characteristics as the relevant variable in analyzing the price adjustment behavior of firms. This extension from market to firm specific analysis is very important in understanding and identifying the causes of sticky prices. As such, it is also crucial for developing a complete analysis of the economy-wide misallocation of resources imposed by wage and price rigidities. Specifically, the award will be used to: (1) review the price rigidity literature, (2) develop testable hypotheses about firm specific costs of price adjustment, and (3) begin developing tractable empirical models to test these hypotheses. These models will focus on commercial banks and their role as financial intermediaries. However, the results will have implications for other industries, and the economy as a whole.