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

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

Aproximación lineal por tramos a comportamientos no lineales: estimación de señales de nivel de crecimiento

En este trabajo se propone una señal del nivel y del crecimiento tendencial de una variable económica, cuando ésta ha pasado por un período temporal específico en que determinados aconteeimientos especiales han truncado su tendencia. Para ello se analizan las consecuencias de emplear modelos univariantes no lineales, así como análisis de intervención. En el supuesto de ruptura estocástica, una alternativa a modelos no lineales se obtiene con modelos lineales para cada tramo, modificando así las condiciones iniciales del esquema en diferencias finitas estocásticas que regula la generación del proceso a partir del punto de ruptura. EI procedimiento propuesto, que precisa dispaner de un cierto número de observaciones tras el momento de ruptura, permite obtener la evolución subyacente de una serie en el entorno del período temporal específico evitando los inconveníentes de los procedimientos anteriores. Con el objeto de desarrollar esta idea, el trabajo analiza la seríe de importaciones no energóticas.Publicad

Spanish shrimp (Pandalus borealis) fishery in Flemish cap in 1997

4 páginas, 4 tablas.-- Scientific Council MeetingIn 1997 one Spanish trawler have been involved in the shrimp fishery in Flemish Cap (NAFO Div. 3M) from March to May. A scientific observer remained on board this trawler during all the fishing period, providing information on the fishing activity and carrying out biological sampling. The gear used was a twin trawl, with a 19 mm bar spacing sorting grate. In this paper, the main results of this fishery are presented.Peer reviewe

Validation of the Satisfaction Scale of Basic Psychological Needs in Physical Education with the Incorporation of the Novelty in the Spanish Context

The purpose of the study was to validate to the physical education context, the Spanish version of the Scale of the Satisfaction of Psychological Needs toward the Physical Education classes of Menéndez and Fernández-Rio, with the incorporation of the novelty, since they contemplated its inclusion. In this study, 1444 students participated (mean = 15.34, standard deviation = 1.12) from several schools in Almeria. To analyze the psychometric properties of the scale, several analyses were carried out. The results offered support for both the four-factor structure and the higher-order model called satisfaction. The analysis of invariance with respect to gender showed that the factor structure of the questionnaire was invariant. The Cronbach alpha values were higher than 0.70 in the subscales. The results of this study demonstrated the reliability and validity of the Scale of the Satisfaction of Psychological Needs, with the incorporation of novelty in the Spanish context of Physical Education

Structural properties of various sodium thiogermanate glasses through DFT-based molecular dynamics simulations

We present a study of the structural properties of (x)Na$_2$S-(1-x)GeS$_2$ glasses through DFT-based molecular dynamics simulations, at different sodium concentrations ($0<x<0.5$). We computed the radial pair correlation functions as well as the total and partial structure factors. We also analyzed the evolution of the corner- and edge-sharing intertetrahedral links with the sodium concentration and show that the sodium ions exclusively destroy the former. With the increase of the sodium concentration the ``standard'' FSDP disappears and a new pre-peak appears in the structure factor which can be traced back in the Na-Na partial structure factor. This self organization of the sodium ions is coherent with Na-rich zones that we find at high modifier concentration.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures; to be published in Phys. Rev.