Search in the product market and the real business cycle

Thomas Mathä and Olivier Pierrard

No 32, BCL working papers from Central Bank of Luxembourg

Abstract: This paper develops a search-matching model, where producers provide effort to find customers (e.g. in form of advertising and marketing expenditures). Firms form long-term contractual relationships and bargain over prices. The price bargain results in mark up pricing above marginal cost. The size of the mark up is procyclical and depends on the relative bargaining power of producers and customers. Introducing frictions in the product market decreases the steady state equilibrium, improves the cyclical properties of the model and provides a more realistic picture of firms? business environment, which includes effort in form of advertising and price fluctuations. This suggests that product market frictions may well be crucial in explaining business cycle fluctuations. Finally, we also show that welfare costs of price rigidities are negligible relative to welfare costs of frictions.

Keywords: Business cycle; frictions; product market; price bargain (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E10 E31 E32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 30 pages
Date: 2008-07
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Published in the Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, 2011, 35: 1172-1191

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.bcl.lu/fr/Recherche/publications/cahiers_etudes/32/BCLWP032.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Search in the product market and the real business cycle (2011)
Working Paper: Search in the product market and the real business cycle (2011)
Working Paper: Search in the Product Market and the Real Business Cycle (2009)
Working Paper: Search in the product market and the real business cycle (2009)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bcl:bclwop:bclwp032

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