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Retail prices during a change in monetary regimes: evidence from Sears, Roebuck catalogs, 1938-1951

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  • Andrew T. Young

    (University of Mississippi, MS, USA)

  • Alexander K. Blue

    (Emory University, GA, USA)

Abstract

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrew T. Young & Alexander K. Blue, 2007. "Retail prices during a change in monetary regimes: evidence from Sears, Roebuck catalogs, 1938-1951," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(7), pages 763-775.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:mgtdec:v:28:y:2007:i:7:p:763-775
    DOI: 10.1002/mde.1378
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    Cited by:

    1. Young, Andrew T. & Levy, Daniel, 2014. "Explicit Evidence of an Implicit Contract," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 30(4), pages 804-832.
    2. Alan Kackmeister, 2007. "Yesterday's Bad Times Are Today's Good Old Times: Retail Price Changes Are More Frequent Today Than in the 1890s," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 39(8), pages 1987-2020, December.

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