Price Setting Before and During the Pandemic: Evidence from Swiss Consumer Prices
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Date
2023-01Type
- Other Publication
ETH Bibliography
yes
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Abstract
We provide new evidence on price rigidity at the product level based on microdata underlying the Swiss consumer price index from 2008 to 2020. We find that the frequency of price changes has increased over the pre-pandemic period, particularly among products where collection switched to online prices, reflecting the rise of e-commerce. Furthermore, price changes tend to be synchronized within rather than across stores. Time variations in inflation can be attributed mainly to variations in the frequencies of price increases and price decreases. In the first year of the pandemic, the frequency of price adjustments changed little on average, while the frequency of temporary sales responded countercyclically to the respective demand conditions across sectors. Show more
Publication status
publishedExternal links
Journal / series
SUERF Policy BriefVolume
Publisher
SUERF – The European Money and Finance ForumSubject
price rigidity; Price-setting behavior; consumer prices; inflation; COVID-19Organisational unit
02525 - KOF Konjunkturforschungsstelle / KOF Swiss Economic Institute
06331 - KOF FB Konjunkturumfragen / KOF Business Tendency Surveys
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ETH Bibliography
yes
Altmetrics