The price setting behaviour of Spanish firms: evidence from survey data

This paper reports the results of a survey carried out by the Banco de España on a sample of around 2000 spanish firms to deepen the understanding of firms’ price setting behaviour. The main findings may be summarised as follows. Most Spanish firms are price setters that use predominantly state-dependent rules or a combination of time- and statedependent rules when reviewing their prices. Changes in costs are the main factor underlying price increases, whereas changes in market conditions (demand and competitors’ prices) are the main driving forces of price decreases. The degree of price flexibility is directly related to the share of energy inputs over total costs and to the intensity of competition, whereas it is inversely linked to the labour share. The three theories of price stickiness that receive the highest empirical support are implicit contracts, coordination failure and explicit contracts. JEL Classification: D40, E31price setting, Price stickiness, survey data

Price setting behaviour in Spain: stylised facts using consumer price micro data

This paper identifies the basic features of the price setting mechanism in the Spanish economy, using a large dataset that contains over 1.1 million price records and covers around 70% of the expenditure on the CPI basket. In particular, the paper identifies differences in the frequency and size of price adjustments across types of products and explores how these general features are affected by certain specific factors: seasonality, the level of inflation, changes in indirect taxation and the practice of using psychological and round prices. We find that prices do not change often but do so by a large amount, although there is a marked heterogeneity across products. Moreover, the high frequency of price reductions suggests that there is no strong downward rigidity. Our evidence also supports the use of time and state-dependent pricing strategies. JEL Classification: E31, D40, C25consumer prices, frequency of price changes, price setting

Los asesinados del seguro obrero and the forms of history

Indexación: Revista UNAB.Este artículo se pregunta por las relaciones que Los asesinados del seguro obrero (1939-1940-1972-2010 [1989]), texto fundador de la poética de Carlos Droguett, establece con el acontecimiento que relata, es decir, la traumática “Matanza del Seguro Obrero” de 1938, en la que casi sesenta jóvenes nacistas fueron asesinados por funcionarios policiales a fines del gobierno de Arturo Alessandri. Al indagar en el modo en que el texto de Droguett se articula con otras interpretaciones de este hecho, tan relevante para la historia de Chile, se reconocen tres estrategias para abordarlo: la despolitización del acontecimiento, su presentación bajo formas arcaizantes y su interpretación universalizante. En un primer momento estas estrategias están al servicio de un texto que intenta codificar un shock. A largo plazo, sin embargo, el proyecto global de Droguett, usando estas mismas estrategias, propone un sentido de la historia único, inmodificable y válido para toda la humanidad que trae aparejado la pérdida de la historicidad, es decir, la capacidad de entender los hechos y las acciones como productos de un contexto y de un momento particulares.This article examinates the connections between Los asesinados del Seguro Obrero (1939-1940-1972-2010 [1989]), a founding text for Carlos Droguett’s poetics, and the event referred by it, that is, the traumatic “Massacre of the Seguro Obrero” of 1938, in which nearly sixty young nacistas were killed by police officers at the end of Arturo Alessandri’s government period. When we compare Droguett’s narration with other interpretations of this event that is so important for the history of Chile, we recognize three strategies to approaching it: depoliticizing the event, presenting it under archaic forms and interpreting it in a universal way. Initially these strategies serve to encode a situation of shock. Using these same strategies, however, Droguett’s global literary project proposes, in the long term, a sense of sole and unchanging history, a universally historic narration valid for all humanity, that implies a loss of historicity, that is, the ability to understand facts and actions as products of a particular context and a limited time.http://revistahumanidades.unab.cl//wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Art%C3%ADculo.-Los-asesinados.-%C3%81lvarez.pd

Development and calibration of a cost-effective temperature sensor

Oceanographic sensors are accurate and reliable but very expensive. We have developed and calibrated a cheap temperature sensor with a good cost/ accuracy ratio.Peer Reviewe

Foundations and social economy: conceptual approaches and socio-economic relevance

Theoretical debate about the nature of charitable foundations has traditionally become polarized around two distinct conceptual approaches: the non-profit or third sector approach, versus the social economy approach. This research tries to find a common ground between these two approaches, and to highlight the specificities of the foundation as an organizational formula, supporting its current socio-economic relevance with latest quantitative data on the contemporary Spanish foundation sector. In order to achieve this purpose, data from the main empirical studies about the sector during the last decade are compared, with a special focus on those obtained by the recently constituted Institute for Strategic Analysis of Foundations (INAEF).Foundations, social economy, non-profit organizations, third sector, socioeconomic impact, INAEF.

Price setting behaviour in Spain: evidence from micro PPI data

This paper identifies the basic features of price setting behaviour at the producer level in the Spanish economy using a large dataset containing the micro data underlying the construction of the PPI over the period 1991-1999. It explores how these general features are affected by some specific factors (cost structure, degree of competition, demand conditions, government intervention, level of inflation, seasonality, and the practice of using attractive prices) and presents a comparison of price setting practices at the producer and at the consumer level to ascertain whether the retail sector augments or mitigates price stickiness. We find that prices do not change often but do so by a large amount. The cost structure, proxied by the labour share and the relevance of raw materials, and the degree of competition, proxied by import penetration, affect price flexibility. We also find some evidence that producer prices are more flexible than consumer prices. JEL Classification: E31, D40frequency of price changes, price setting, producer prices

Do decreasing hazard functions for price changes make any sense?

A common finding in empirical studies using micro data on consumer and producer prices is that hazard functions for price changes are decreasing. This means that a firm will have a lower probability of changing its price the longer it has kept it unchanged. This result is at odds with standard models of price setting. Here a simple explanation is proposed: decreasing hazards may result from aggregating heterogeneous price setters. We show analytically the form of this heterogeneity effect for the most commonly used pricing rules and find that the aggregate hazard is (nearly always decreasing. Results are illustrated using Spanish producer and consumer price data. We find that a very accurate representation of individual data is obtained by considering just 4 groups of agents: one group of flexible Calvo agents, one group of intermediate Calvo agents and one group of sticky Calvo agents plus an annual Calvo process. JEL Classification: C40, D40, E30hazard function, Heterogeneous Agents, mixture models, price setting models