The classical dichotomy predicts that all of the time series variance in the aggregate real exchange rate is accounted for by nontraded goods in the CPI basket because traded goods obey the Law of One Price. In stark contrast, Engel (1999) found that traded goods had comparable volatility to the...

We introduce elements of state-dependent pricing and strategic complementarity within an otherwise standard "New Open Economy Macroeconomics" model, and develop its implications for the dynamics of real and nominal economic activity. Under a traditional Producer-Currency-Pricing environment, our...

The global, national, regional and local factors that shape price-setting behavior are complex, even for a relatively simple product that's neither easily tradable nor wholly nontradable.

Investment-specific technological progress as reflected by the decline in the relative price of U.S. capital goods has substantially contributed to U.S. postwar growth. Imports of capital goods have represented an increasing share of U.S. equipment investment, and their price relative to U.S....

With over 300 stores in 40 countries, IKEA is a major international presence in retail housewares and furnishings. IKEA publishes country-specific catalogs with local-currency prices guaranteed to hold for 1 year. This paper explores a new dataset of IKEA products and catalog prices covering six...

An important challenge for macroeconomics is to understand the reasons that retail prices change infrequently and the implications of this pricing behavior for economic welfare and allocative efficiency. This paper develops a menu cost model of pricing in which retail firms intermediate trade...

The global downturn following Lehman Brothers’ failure in September 2008 has become known as the Great Recession for good reason: It was the most severe global economic contraction since the Great Depression. As the dust settles, patterns among key macroeconomic variables have emerged....

There are two stark views of the forces driving aggregate real exchange rates in the short-run. One view is that all of the variance is accounted for by non-traded items in the CPI basket (the classical dichotomy view), the other, due to Engel (1999), claims the opposite, with all of the...

This paper presents a two-country DSGE model with state-dependent pricing as in Dotsey et al. [Dotsey, M., King, R.G., and Wolman, A.L., 1999. State-dependent pricing and the general equilibrium dynamics of money and output. Quarterly Journal of Economics 114, 655-690] and variable demand...

We introduce elements of state-dependent pricing and strategic complementarity into an otherwise standard New Open Economy Macroeconomics (NOEM) model. Relative to previous NOEM work, there are striking new implications for the dynamics of real and nominal economic activity: complementarity in...