Patterns of regional inflation persistence in a C.E.E. country. The case of Poland

This paper investigates patterns of regional inflation persistence in Poland, a representative Central and Eastern European (C.E.E.) country. This study first argues that the C.E.E. perspective is relevant in the context of this study, due to the recent transitions, incomplete processes of forming forward-looking inflation expectations and pronounced spatial inequalities. Using individual and panel regressions on disaggregate data, this study provides evidence of the aggregation bias and marked differences in inflation persistence across product categories. Furthermore, it shows that cross-regional differences in inflation persistence remain, even after controlling for the product category. While this study generally confirms the earlier finding of Vaona and Ascari that more backward regions exhibit higher consumer price index inflation persistence, we also show that the picture is more nuanced at the product category level.