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Firm-Specifc Capital, Nominal Rigidities, and the Business Cycle

12.01.04

Macroeconomic and microeconomic data paint conflicting pictures of price behavior. Macroeconomic data suggest that inflation is inertial. Microeconomic data indicate that firms change prices frequently. We formulate and estimate a model which resolves this apparent micro - macro conflict. Our model is consistent with post-war U.S. evidence on inflation inertia even though firms re-optimize prices on average once every 1.5 quarters. The key feature of our model is that capital is firm-specific and predetermined within a period.

JEL Codes: E3, E4, E5

Keywords: capital, inflation, price behavior

Suggested citation: Altig, David, Lawrence Christiano, Martin Eichenbaum, and Jesper Linde, 2004. "Firm-Specifc Capital, Nominal Rigidities, and the Business Cycle," Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Working Paper no. 04-16.

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