Price Rigidity and the Origins of Aggregate Fluctuations
64 Pages Posted: 6 Sep 2017 Last revised: 29 Nov 2022
There are 5 versions of this paper
Sectoral Heterogeneity in Nominal Price Rigidity and the Origin of Aggregate Fluctuations
Price Rigidities and the Granular Origins of Aggregate Fluctuations
Price Rigidities and the Granular Origins of Aggregate Fluctuations
Price Rigidities and the Granular Origins of Aggregate Fluctuations
Date Written: August 2017
Abstract
We document a novel role of heterogeneity in price rigidity: It strongly amplifies the capacity of idiosyncratic shocks to drive aggregate fluctuations. Heterogeneity in price rigidity also completely changes the identity of sectors from which fluctuations originate. We show these results both theoretically and empirically through the lens of a multi-sector model featuring heterogeneous GDP shares, input-output linkages, and idiosyncratic productivity shocks. Quantitatively, we calibrate our model to 341 sectors and find sectoral productivity shocks can give rise to aggregate fluctuations that are half as large as those arising from an aggregate productivity shock. Heterogeneous price rigidity amplifies the aggregate fluctuations by a factor of more than 2 relative to a flexible-price or homogeneous sticky price economy. Hence, idiosyncratic shocks and heterogeneous price rigidity can account for large parts of aggregate uctuations and there is hope we will not "forever remain ignorant of the fundamental causes of economic fluctuations" (Cochrane (1994)).
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