On quality and variety bias in aggregate prices

How do product variety and quality affect the aggregate price bias? We develop a general equilibrium model that accounts for the joint interaction of product quality and variety. Our findings show that the aggregate price bias is pro-cyclical and the contribution of product variety is persistent whe...

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Main Authors: Zanetti, F, Hamano, M
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2018
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author Zanetti, F
Hamano, M
author_facet Zanetti, F
Hamano, M
author_sort Zanetti, F
collection OXFORD
description How do product variety and quality affect the aggregate price bias? We develop a general equilibrium model that accounts for the joint interaction of product quality and variety. Our findings show that the aggregate price bias is pro-cyclical and the contribution of product variety is persistent whereas the contribution of product quality becomes counter-cyclical in the medium to long run. We show that accounting for product quality and variety has critical implications on the measure of cyclical fluctuations. Measurements of cyclical fluctuations derived using the consumption deflator, which abstracts from changes in product quality and variety, underestimate the variables' true volatility.
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spelling oxford-uuid:abb9885f-4a5a-45f6-86db-fb8bfd5e7dad2022-03-27T03:23:55ZOn quality and variety bias in aggregate pricesJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:abb9885f-4a5a-45f6-86db-fb8bfd5e7dadEnglishSymplectic Elements at OxfordWiley2018Zanetti, FHamano, MHow do product variety and quality affect the aggregate price bias? We develop a general equilibrium model that accounts for the joint interaction of product quality and variety. Our findings show that the aggregate price bias is pro-cyclical and the contribution of product variety is persistent whereas the contribution of product quality becomes counter-cyclical in the medium to long run. We show that accounting for product quality and variety has critical implications on the measure of cyclical fluctuations. Measurements of cyclical fluctuations derived using the consumption deflator, which abstracts from changes in product quality and variety, underestimate the variables' true volatility.
spellingShingle Zanetti, F
Hamano, M
On quality and variety bias in aggregate prices
title On quality and variety bias in aggregate prices
title_full On quality and variety bias in aggregate prices
title_fullStr On quality and variety bias in aggregate prices
title_full_unstemmed On quality and variety bias in aggregate prices
title_short On quality and variety bias in aggregate prices
title_sort on quality and variety bias in aggregate prices
work_keys_str_mv AT zanettif onqualityandvarietybiasinaggregateprices
AT hamanom onqualityandvarietybiasinaggregateprices