Retail Prices during a Change in Monetary Regimes: Evidence from Sears, Roebuck Catalogs, 1938-1951

We present microeconomic evidence on US pricing dynamics pre and post-establishment of the Bretton Woods (BW) monetary regime. We track prices of 49 goods (1172 observations) in 1938–1951 Sears, Roebuck catalogs. The average length between (nominal) price changes was over 2 years. The average was higher (2.05 years) in the pre-BW period than in the later (2.01 years). We find that prices of brand name goods were relatively rigid; three never changed price. Price changes were larger during the 1945–1951 period than pre-BW by between 0.60 and 1.83%. Price changes displayed a higher correlation with inflation pre-BW.