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Retail prices during a change in monetary regimes: evidence from Sears, Roebuck catalogs, 1938–1951
Author(s) -
Young Andrew T.,
Blue Alexander K.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
managerial and decision economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.288
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1099-1468
pISSN - 0143-6570
DOI - 10.1002/mde.1378
Subject(s) - economics , inflation (cosmology) , monetary economics , period (music) , keynesian economics , art , physics , theoretical physics , aesthetics
We present microeconomic evidence on US pricing dynamics pre and post‐establishment of the Bretton Woods (BW) monetary regime. We track prices of 49 goods (1172 observations) in 1938–1951 Sears, Roebuck catalogs. The average length between (nominal) price changes was over 2 years. The average was higher (2.05 years) in the pre‐BW period than in the later (2.01 years). We find that prices of brand name goods were relatively rigid; three never changed price. Price changes were larger during the 1945–1951 period than pre‐BW by between 0.60 and 1.83%. Price changes displayed a higher correlation with inflation pre‐BW. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.