Inflation heterogeneity at the household level

Georg Strasser, Teresa Messner, Fabio Rumler and Miguel Ampudia

No 325, Occasional Paper Series from European Central Bank

Abstract: Inflation affects the purchasing power of households. This paper documents large, idiosyncratic inflation differences between households in their everyday shopping. Low-income households have experienced higher inflation in the last ten years, but the difference to richer households has been small and time varying. Household-specific behaviour appears to dominate inflation differences within countries. Between countries, multinational retail chains not only differentiate products by branding, but also charge different prices for identical products. Retailers continue to differentiate prices along national borders, even within largely integrated economic regions. Price changes, however, are broadly aligned across borders within the same retailers. JEL Classification: D12, D3, D43, E31, F15, F4

Keywords: consumer prices; heterogeneous agents; inequality; inflation; substitution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mon
Note: 1137785
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ecb:ecbops:2023325

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