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International Finance Discussion Papers
The International Finance Discussion Papers logo links to the International Finance Discussion Papers home page Violating the Law of One Price: Should We Make a Federal Case Out of It?
Charles Engel; John H. Rogers
1999-644  (August 1999)

Abstract:  We use new disaggregated data on consumer prices to determine why there is variability in prices of similar goods across U.S. cities. We address questions similar to those that have arisen in the international context: is this variability purely a result of market segmentation or do sticky nominal prices play a role? We also examine how the degree of tradability of a good influences price variability. Surprisingly, we find that variability is larger for traded goods. We attribute this finding to greater price stickiness for non-traded goods. Distance between cities accounts for a significant amount of the variation in prices between pairs of cities. But we also find that nominal price stickiness plays an even more significant role.

Full paper (277 KB PDF)

Keywords
Prices, exchange rates, cities

PDF files: Adobe Acrobat Reader   ZIP files: PKWARE

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Last update: July 19, 2001