The Skewness of the Price Change Distribution: A New Touchstone for Sticky Price Models
提出一种新方法评估粘性价格模型，发现菜单成本模型预测价格变化偏度随通胀下降，而卡尔沃模型预测上升；美国CPI数据显示偏度不随通胀下降，但离散度下降，作者构建的随机菜单成本模型能匹配这些特征，且货币非中性程度更高。
Abstract We present a new way of empirically evaluating various sticky price models that are used to assess the degree of monetary nonneutrality. While menu cost models uniformly predict that price change skewness and dispersion fall with inflation, in the Calvo model, both rise. However, the U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) data from the late 1970s onward show that skewness does not fall with inflation, while dispersion does. We present a random menu cost model that, with a menu cost distribution that has a strong Calvo flavor, can match the empirical patterns. The model exhibits much more monetary nonneutrality than existing menu cost models.