Prices of goods and services do not adjust immediately in response to changing demand and supply conditions. This paper characterizes the average frequency and size of price changes in the euro area and its member countries, investigates the determinants of the probability of price changes, and compares the evidence for the euro area with available U.S. results. The facts documented in this paper are based on evidence from individual price data recorded at the store level in all euro area countries except Ireland and Greece: that is in datasets covering Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain, which together account for around 97 percent of euro area GDP. The data used are the monthly price records underlying the computation of national Consumer Price Indices and Harmonized Consumer Price Indices. These data cover a large number of products selected on the basis of extensive Household Budget Surveys.

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in WO R K I N G PA P E R S E R I E S N O. 5 2 4 / S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 5 EUROSYSTEM INFLATION PERSISTENCE NETWORK The Eurosystem Inflation Persistence NetworkThis paper reflects research conducted within the Inflation Persistence Network (IPN), a team of Eurosystem economists undertaking joint research on inflation persistence in the euro area and in its member countries. The research of the IPN combines theoretical and empirical analyses using three data sources: individual consumer and producer prices; surveys on firms' price-setting practices; aggregated sectoral, national and area-wide price indices. Patterns, causes and policy implications of inflation persistence are addressed.Since C O N T E N T S Abstract 4Non-technical summary 5

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. In 2005 all ECB publications will feature a motif taken from the €50 banknote. Terms of use: Documents in WO R K I N G PA P E R S E R I E S N O. 5 6 3 / D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 5 C O N T E N T S Abstract 4Non-technical summary 5

We analyse micro-level consumer price data in Luxembourg with a particular view on price change reversals and wage indexation. The median duration is roughly 8 months. On an average, price decreases are as large as price increases. With the exception of services, individual prices do not show signs of downward rigidity. Excluding price change reversals reduces the weighted frequency of price change from 17 to 12%. Accumulated price and wage inflation, automatic wage indexation, and the cash changeover increase the probability of a price change, whereas pricing at attractive pricing points and price regulation have the opposite effect. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This paper compares price stickiness on the Internet and in traditional brick-and-mortar stores and examines differences across five countries: France, Germany, Italy, the UK and the US. Contrary to conventional retail prices, we find that Internet prices change less often in the US than in EU countries. However, this does not hold for all product categories. Second, prices on the Internet are not necessarily more flexible than prices in brick-andmortar stores. Third, our dataset reveals substantial heterogeneity in the frequency of price changes across Internet shops. Finally, panel logit estimates suggest that the likelihood of observing a price change is a function of both state-dependent and time-dependent factors.