City Relative Price Dynamics in Australia: Are Structural Breaks Important?*. Issue 288 (25th October 2013)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Nath, Hiranya K.; Sarkar, Jayanta
• Is Part Of: Economic record. Volume 90:Issue 288(2014:Mar.)
• Page Start: 33
• Page End: 48
• Publication Date: 2013-10-25
• Subjects: Australia -- Economic conditions -- Periodicals; 330.99
• DOI: 10.1111/1475-4932.12077
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0013-0249

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" id="ecor12072-abs-0001"> <title> <x xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <p>This paper examines the dynamic behaviour of relative prices across seven Australian cities by applying panel unit root test procedures with structural breaks to quarterly consumer price index data for 1972 Q1–2011 Q4. We find overwhelming evidence of convergence in city relative prices. Three common structural breaks are endogenously determined at 1985, 1995, and 2007. Further, correcting for two potential biases, namely Nickell bias and time aggregation bias, we obtain half‐life estimates of 2.3–3.8 quarters that are much shorter than those reported by previous research. Thus, we conclude that both structural breaks and bias corrections are important to obtain shorter half‐life estimates.</p> </abstract>