Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/234933 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Series/Report no.: 
ISER Discussion Paper No. 1121
Publisher: 
Osaka University, Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER), Osaka
Abstract: 
At the aggregate level, the evidence that deviations from purchasing power parity (PPP) are too persistent to be explained solely by nominal rigidities has long been a puzzle (Rogoff, 1996). Another puzzle from the micro price evidence of the law of one price (LOP), which is the basic building block of PPP, is that LOP deviations are less persistent than PPP deviations. To reconcile the empirical evidence, we adapt the model of behavioral inattention in Gabaix (2014, 2020) to a simple two-country sticky-price model. We propose a simple test of behavioral inattention and find strong evidence in its favor using micro price data from US and Canadian cities. Calibrating behavioral inattention with our estimates, we show that our model reconciles the two puzzles relating to the PPP and LOP. First, the PPP deviations are more than twice as persistent as PPP deviations explained only by sticky prices. Second, the LOP deviations decrease to less than two-thirds of the PPP deviations in the degree of persistence.
Subjects: 
Real exchange rates
Law of one price
Rational inattention
Trade cost
JEL: 
E31
F31
D40
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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