Price Behavior in an Inflationary Environment: Evidence from Supermarket Data

Carlos Felipe Jaramillo and Daniel Cerquera

Borradores de Economia from Banco de la Republica de Colombia

Abstract: This paper analyzes several important aspects of price behavior using disaggregated weekly data on prices of supermarket products in Colombia between 1991 and 1994. The analysis shows that despite hight and persistent rates of inflation in the economy, price quotations persist on average for two months. The large proportion of observations for which stores opt not to change prices highlight the importance of menu costs, even in an economy accustomed to persistent double-digit inflation. Despite the seemingly hight levels of rigidity, the degree of real price erosion found before prices change are lower than those found in other inflationary economies. Price declines are not uncommon, and downward rigidity does not seem to be an issue in the Colombian inflationary environment. Aggregate price changes are also found to exert an important effect on relative price variation at the aggregate and commodity level.

JEL-codes: E30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1999-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cba, nep-com and nep-mac
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bdr:borrec:138

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