The Empirical Evidence on the Pass-Through of Firm-Specific Cost Changes to Prices

The Empirical Evidence on the Pass-Through of Firm-Specific Cost Changes to Prices PDF Author: Simon Evenett
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 20

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Book Description
Mergers and acquisitions represent two important means by which resources are reallocated within capitalist economies. Such combinations can result in lower costs of supply, which are often referred to as efficiencies. However, mergers and acquisitions can also result in the greater exercise of market power by the parties concerned. The latter typically results in higher prices while (marginal or incremental) cost reductions may have the opposite effect. Central to the assessment of the overall likely effect of a merger or acquisition on prices is the extent to which any potential cost reductions of the parties are passed on to customers, the so-called cost pass-through rate. The emphasis in many jurisdictions' merger regulations on combination-specific cost efficiencies and on consumer welfare in evaluating proposed trans-actions puts at a premium our understanding of the degree and determinants of firm-specific cost pass-through to prices. The purpose of this chapter is to describe the available evidence on such pass-through and to consider the implications of this evidence for the conduct of merger reviews.

The Empirical Evidence on the Pass-Through of Firm-Specific Cost Changes to Prices

The Empirical Evidence on the Pass-Through of Firm-Specific Cost Changes to Prices PDF Author: Simon Evenett
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 20

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Book Description
Mergers and acquisitions represent two important means by which resources are reallocated within capitalist economies. Such combinations can result in lower costs of supply, which are often referred to as efficiencies. However, mergers and acquisitions can also result in the greater exercise of market power by the parties concerned. The latter typically results in higher prices while (marginal or incremental) cost reductions may have the opposite effect. Central to the assessment of the overall likely effect of a merger or acquisition on prices is the extent to which any potential cost reductions of the parties are passed on to customers, the so-called cost pass-through rate. The emphasis in many jurisdictions' merger regulations on combination-specific cost efficiencies and on consumer welfare in evaluating proposed trans-actions puts at a premium our understanding of the degree and determinants of firm-specific cost pass-through to prices. The purpose of this chapter is to describe the available evidence on such pass-through and to consider the implications of this evidence for the conduct of merger reviews.

Incomplete Cost Pass-through Under Deep Habits

Incomplete Cost Pass-through Under Deep Habits PDF Author: Morten O. Ravn
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Manufactures
Languages : en
Pages : 18

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Book Description
A number of empirical studies document that marginal cost shocks are not fully passed through to prices at the firm level and that prices are substantially less volatile than costs. We show that in the relative-deep-habits model of Ravn, Schmitt-Grohe, and Uribe (2006), firm-specific marginal cost shocks are not fully passed through to product prices. That is, in response to a firm-specific increase in marginal costs, prices rise, but by less than marginal costs leading to a decline in the firm-specific markup of prices over marginal costs. Pass-through is predicted to be even lower when shocks to marginal costs are anticipated by firms. In our model, unanticipated firm-specific cost shocks lead to incomplete pass-through (or a decline in markups) of about 20 percent and anticipated cost shocks are associated with incomplete pass-through of about 50 percent. The model predicts that cost pass-through is increasing in the persistence of marginal cost shocks and U-shaped in the strength of habits. The relative-deep-habits model implies that conditional on marginal cost disturbances, prices are less volatile than marginal costs.

Incomplete Cost Pass-through Under Deep Habits

Incomplete Cost Pass-through Under Deep Habits PDF Author: Morten O. Ravn
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Manufactures
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
A number of empirical studies document that marginal cost shocks are not fully passed through to prices at the firm level and that prices are substantially less volatile than costs. We show that in the relative-deep-habits model of Ravn, Schmitt-Grohe, and Uribe (2006), firm-specific marginal cost shocks are not fully passed through to product prices. That is, in response to a firm-specific increase in marginal costs, prices rise, but by less than marginal costs leading to a decline in the firm-specific markup of prices over marginal costs. Pass-through is predicted to be even lower when shocks to marginal costs are anticipated by firms. In our model, unanticipated firm-specific cost shocks lead to incomplete pass-through (or a decline in markups) of about 20 percent and anticipated cost shocks are associated with incomplete pass-through of about 50 percent. The model predicts that cost pass-through is increasing in the persistence of marginal cost shocks and U-shaped in the strength of habits. The relative-deep-habits model implies that conditional on marginal cost disturbances, prices are less volatile than marginal costs.

Estimating VAT Pass Through

Estimating VAT Pass Through PDF Author: Ms.Dora Benedek
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1513586351
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 41

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Book Description
This paper estimates the pass through of VAT changes to consumer prices, using a unique dataset providing disaggregated, monthly data on prices and VAT rates for 17 Eurozone countries over 1999-2013. Pass through is much less than full on average, and differs markedly across types of VAT change. For changes in the standard rate, for instance, final pass through is about 100 percent; for reduced rates it is significantly less, at around 30 percent; and for reclassifications it is essentially zero. We also find: differing dynamics of pass through for durables and non-durables; no significant difference in pass through between rate increases and decreases; signs of non-monotonicity in the relationship between pass through and the breadth of the consumption base affected; and indications of significant anticipation effects together with some evidence of lagged effects in the two years around reform. The results are robust against endogeneity and attenuation bias.

Identifying the Firm-specific Cost Pass-through Rate

Identifying the Firm-specific Cost Pass-through Rate PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Consolidation and merger of corporations
Languages : en
Pages : 20

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Book Description


Identifying the Firm-specific Cost Pass-through Rate

Identifying the Firm-specific Cost Pass-through Rate PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Consolidation and merger of corporations
Languages : en
Pages : 20

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Book Description


Asking About Prices

Asking About Prices PDF Author: Alan Blinder
Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation
ISBN: 1610440684
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 412

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Book Description
Why do consumer prices and wages adjust so slowly to changes in market conditions? The rigidity or stickiness of price setting in business is central to Keynesian economic theory and a key to understanding how monetary policy works, yet economists have made little headway in determining why it occurs. Asking About Prices offers a groundbreaking empirical approach to a puzzle for which theories abound but facts are scarce. Leading economist Alan Blinder, along with co-authors Elie Canetti, David Lebow, and Jeremy B. Rudd, interviewed a national, multi-industry sample of 200 CEOs, company heads, and other corporate price setters to test the validity of twelve prominent theories of price stickiness. Using everyday language and pertinent scenarios, the carefully designed survey asked decisionmakers how prominently these theoretical concerns entered into their own attitudes and thought processes. Do businesses tend to view the costs of changing prices as prohibitive? Do they worry that lower prices will be equated with poorer quality goods? Are firms more likely to try alternate strategies to changing prices, such as warehousing excess inventory or improving their quality of service? To what extent are prices held in place by contractual agreements, or by invisible handshakes? Asking About Prices offers a gold mine of previously unavailable information. It affirms the widespread presence of price stickiness in American industry, and offers the only available guide to such business details as what fraction of goods are sold by fixed price contract, how often transactions involve repeat customers, and how and when firms review their prices. Some results are surprising: contrary to popular wisdom, prices do not increase more easily than they decrease, and firms do not appear to practice anticipatory pricing, even when they can foresee cost increases. Asking About Prices also offers a chapter-by-chapter review of the survey findings for each of the twelve theories of price stickiness. The authors determine which theories are most popular with actual price setters, how practices vary within different business sectors, across firms of different sizes, and so on. They also direct economists' attention toward a rationale for price stickiness that does not stem from conventional theory, namely a strong reluctance by firms to antagonize or inconvenience their customers. By illuminating how company executives actually think about price setting, Asking About Prices provides an elegant model of a valuable new approach to conducting economic research.

Market Structure and Exchange Rate Pass-through

Market Structure and Exchange Rate Pass-through PDF Author: Raphael Auer
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Exchange rate pass-through
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
We study firm-level pricing behavior through the lens of exchange rate pass-through and provide new evidence on how firm-level market shares and price complementarities affect pass-through decisions. Using micro-data from U.S. import prices, we identify two facts: First, exactly the firms that react the most with their prices to changes in their own costs are also the ones that react the least to changing competitor prices. Second, the response of import Prices to exchange rate changes is U-shaped in market share while it is hump-shaped in response to competitor prices. We show that both facts are consistent with a model based on Dornbusch (1987) that generates variable markups through a nested-CES demand system. Finally, based on the model, we find that direct cost pass-through and price complementarities play approximately equally important roles in determining pass-through but also partly offset each other. This suggests that equilibrium feedback effects in pricing are large. Omission of either channel in an empirical analysis results in a failure to explain how market structure affects price-setting in industry equilibrium.

An Empirical Assessment of the Exchange Rate Pass-through in Mozambique

An Empirical Assessment of the Exchange Rate Pass-through in Mozambique PDF Author: International Monetary Fund
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1513573691
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 34

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Book Description
Determining the magnitude and speed of the exchange rate passthrough (ERPT) to inflation has been of paramount importance for policy-makers in developed and emerging economies. This paper estimates the exchange rate passthrough in Mozambique using econometric techniques on a sample spanning from 2001 to 2019. Results suggest that the ERPT is assymetric, sizable and fast, with 50 percent of the exchange rate variations passing through to prices in less than six months. Policy-makers should continue to pursue low and stable inflation and develop a strong track record of prudent macroeconomic policies for the ERPT to decline.

Empirical evidence on the role of non linear wholesale pricing and vertical restraints on cost pass-through

Empirical evidence on the role of non linear wholesale pricing and vertical restraints on cost pass-through PDF Author: CĂ©line Bonnet
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 40

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Book Description