Inflation and optimal monetary policy in a model with firm heterogeneity and Bertrand competition

Javier Andrés () and Pablo Burriel ()

European Economic Review, 2018, vol. 103, issue C, 18-38

Abstract: We study the joint implications of heterogeneity of total factor productivity and strategic price interactions between firms on the dynamics of inflation and the design of optimal monetary policy. In this setting, more productive firms respond less to shocks affecting their marginal costs than less productive firms. As a consequence, economies with a larger proportion of highly productive firms face a flatter Phillips curve. Moreover, when these two features concur, the Ramsey problem gives rise to an optimal non-zero long run inflation that amplifies the differences in relative prices between more efficient and less efficient firms, thus increasing the market share of the former. Nevertheless, in the presence of transitory technology shocks, optimal short term deviations from this positive long run inflation are negligible.

Keywords: Firm heterogeneity; Bertrand competition; Optimal monetary policy; Inflation volatility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E31 E52 L1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0014292118300011
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:eecrev:v:103:y:2018:i:c:p:18-38

DOI: 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2017.12.009

Access Statistics for this article

European Economic Review is currently edited by T.S. Eicher, A. Imrohoroglu, E. Leeper, J. Oechssler and M. Pesendorfer

More articles in European Economic Review from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().