The Macroeconomic Controversy Over Price Rigidity — How to Resolve it and How Bayesian Estimation has Led us Astray

Price rigidity plays a central role in macroeconomic models but remains controversial. Those espousing it look to Bayesian estimated models in support, while those assuming price flexibility largely impose it on their models. So controversy continues unresolved by testing on the data. In a Monte Carlo experiment we ask how different estimation methods could help to resolve this controversy. We find Bayesian estimation creates a large potential estimation bias compared with standard estimation techniques. Indirect estimation where the bias is found to be low appears to do best, and offers the best way forward for settling the price rigidity controversy.

Modular E-Collar for Animal Telemetry: An Animal-Centered Design Proposal

Animal telemetry is a subject of great potential and scientific interest, but it shows design-dependent problems related to price, flexibility and customization, autonomy, integration of elements, and structural design. The objective of this paper is to provide solutions, from the application of design, to cover the niches that we discovered by reviewing the scientific literature and studying the market. The design process followed to achieve the objective involved a development based on methodologies and basic design approaches focused on the human experience and also that of the animal. We present a modular collar that distributes electronic components in several compartments, connected, and powered by batteries that are wirelessly recharged. Its manufacture is based on 3D printing, something that facilitates immediacy in adaptation and economic affordability. The modularity presented by the proposal allows for adapting the size of the modules to the components they house as well as selecting which specific modules are needed in a project. The homogeneous weight distribution is transferred to the comfort of the animal and allows for a better integration of the elements of the collar. This device substantially improves the current offer of telemetry devices for farming animals, thanks to an animal-centered design process.

A Review of Alternative Building Materials for Sustainable Construction Towards Sustainable Development

The study reviewed Alternative Building Materials for sustainable construction towards sustainable development. The study was able to identify some Alternative Building Materials, their features, classes (types), and importance for sustainable construction toward sustainable development. The study uses a systematic literature review and content analysis. Some of the Alternative Building Materials include laterite soil, brick wastes, rice husk ash burnt refuse ash, fly ash, periwinkle shell powder, earthworm cast, pulverized burned clay, periwinkle shell aggregate, tubali, earth/mud blocks or bricks, laterite blocks, bamboo for roofing & ceiling, palm front roofing, clay/mud plaster. The classes of the Alternative Building Materials include: modified conventional industrial materials, unconventional/ indigenous/ traditional materials, and modified unconventional/traditional indigenous materials. The features of sustainable construction materials include recyclability, insulation and thermal conductivity and deconstruct ability, availability, manufacturing and price, flexibility and high life time expectancy. The importance of Alternative Building Materials includes: the protection of the environment through reduce energy use and also cutting down CO2 emission, provision of affordable housing, energy conservation, meeting increasing demands for housing stock, provision of employment opportunities, the development and propagation of indigenous technological ingenuity and skills of our local people. The study advocates for the integration of the entire stakeholders in the construction industry towards utilisation of Alternative Building Materials for sustainable construction towards sustainable development. The study also advocates for the cataloguing of all Alternative Building Materials so as to create awareness to all the potential clients and stakeholders of the industry regarding their availability and importance.

Determinants of Price Rigidity and Flexibility: Some Survey Evidence for the Pakistan.

The objective of the study is to estimate the determinants of price stickiness or flexibility. Data is collected through structured questionnaire from 342 firms, which are selected through stratified random sampling technique from the Industrial Estate of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. To estimate the determinants of price flexibility/rigidity, models are estimated through ordinary least squares technique and binary logistic technique. The most important factors for price stickiness are implicit/explicit price contracts and minimum price volatility. Imperfect competitive market structure, number of regular customers, backward-looking behavior, and credibility of central bank and size of the firm are important determinants of price rigidity. While economic literacy and information set regarding expected inflation make the prices flexible. Study recommend that monetary policy of Pakistan should use other transmission channels of money supply instead of traditional channel, because it is found that the degree of price rigidity is low in Pakistan. Keywords: Price Rigidity, Price Flexibility, Price Contract, Frequency of Price Change.

The Relationship Between Nominal Wage and Price Flexibility: New Evidence

The frequencies at which prices and wages are adjusted, interpreted as price and wage flexibility, are key elements in workhorse models used for policy analysis. Yet, there is little evidence regarding the relationship between these two sources of nominal rigidities. Using two large and highly disaggregated price and wage microdata sets, this paper provides evidence that the industries changing more frequently wages reset prices more often. Once the frequency of wage adjustments is accounted for, the share of labor costs becomes less relevant in explaining the frequency of price changes, calling for a reinterpretation on previous findings that the labor share is a robust determinant of the frequency of price adjustments. The results in this study have implications for New Keynesian models' microfoundations, as their predictions have proven to be sensitive to the nominal rigidities assumptions.

A Framework for Capacity and Operations Planning in Services Organizations Employing Workers with Intellectual Disabilities

This paper presents an integrated framework for capacity and operations planning in Spanish sheltered employment centers (SECs). Employment provides socio-economic opportunities for people with disability. Well functioning SECs that provide opportunities for people with and without disability to work alongside each other are an important component of Spain’s current labor market. To be economically sustainable, SECs need to satisfy their clients expectations in terms of price, flexibility and performance, whilst taking into account and strengthening the diverse skills and abilities of their workforce like specific learning and forgetting processes. The SEC studied herein, a non-for-profit organization whose mission is to create employment for people with disabilities its workforce is deployed directly on clients’ premises. Efficient management across this multi-site environment, whilst supporting the diverse employment needs of its staff, is of paramount importance. This paper contributes an integrated framework to support SEC capacity and operations planning, which prioritizes the explicit training needs of workers with disability at all levels (strategic, tactical, and operational) as a lever for achieving the organization’s goals.

Effects of consumer bargaining power on price flexibility of gari in Imo State, Nigeria

The study examined the effect of consumer bargaining power on price flexibility of gari in Imo State, Nigeria. Data were drawn from the three agricultural zones in the state. A functional market in each of the zones was randomly selected. Primary data were obtained by means of interview schedule (questionnaire) administered to consumers of gari at retailers’ shops. Data were analyzed using descriptive techniques and ordinary least square (OLS) multiple regression analysis. The result showed that mean weekly consumers unit price of gari was ₦47.340/kg with a mean weekly purchase of 5.5 kg/week. About 53.33% of gari consumers have a weak bargaining index of 18.09, while the mean bargaining power of gari is 64.09% and this gave a baseline for gari retail price. The result of multiple regressions showed that the co-efficient of price of substitute (X1) household size (X6) and consumers income (X7) are positive and have significant relationships with consumers’ bargaining power. Consumers’ awareness of their bargaining power and good understanding of marketing system and its modus operandi, price trends, formation and fixing could help them take their proper place as price givers and kings in the market place hence, this study recommends the need for consumers’ to improve their level of education in order reposition themselves to make good use of market information to their advantage in bargaining. Consumers should form co-operative societies through which they can share market information, buy gari in bulk to reduce retail prices and at the same time play a key role in price formation. Keywords: Bargaining power, consumers, retailers, price flexibility, gari commodity.

The Cyclicality of Sales and Aggregate Price Flexibility

Macroeconomists traditionally ignore temporary price markdowns (“sales”) under the assumption that they are unrelated to aggregate phenomena. We revisit this view. First, we provide robust evidence from the U.K. and U.S. CPI micro data that the frequency of sales is strongly countercyclical, as much as doubling during the Great Recession. Second, we build a general equilibrium model in which cyclical sales arise endogenously as retailers try to attract bargain hunters. The calibrated model fits well the business cycle co-movement of sales with consumption and hours worked, and the strong substitution between market work and shopping time documented in the time-use literature. The model predicts that after a monetary contraction, the heightened use of discounts by firms amplifies the fall in the aggregate price level, attenuating by a third the one-year response of real consumption.

An Integrated Analysis of Tourism Seasonality in Prices and Quantities, with an Application to the Spanish Hotel Industry

Most research on tourism seasonality has focused on tourism flows and, to a much lesser extent, on tourism prices. However, up to now no research has been devoted to understanding the relationship between tourism seasonality in quantities and prices. We try to fill this gap with an application to the Spanish hotels during 2008–2017. Provincial data on the seasonality of night stays and prices of Spanish hotels is presented, compared, and correlated. This data analysis inspires a supply-demand framework to jointly explain both kinds of seasonality. We show the usefulness of this framework to first explain the role of hotels’ cost and price flexibility in determining the seasonality of night stays and second to encompass in a single framework most of the determinants of the changes of tourism seasonality in quantities and prices, including some determinants seldom considered in the literature.