Imperfect Competition, Differential Information, and Microfoundations of Macroeconomics

Book excerpt: This volume links a microeconomic model of imperfectly informed firms and unions in monopolistic competition to a general theory of wage- and price-setting in a macroeconomic model. The analysis is based on a profit maximization and rational behaviour and is thus in line with the newly emerged New Keynesian approach in its emphasis on the microeconomic foundation of macroeconomics. The volume goes on to explain three stylized facts in macroeconomics: nominal rigidity, real rigidity, and cost-oriented prices, presented in a coherent New Keynesian framework. The analysis also provides new insight into the role of competition in an economy with imperfectly and differentially informed firms. It shows that increased competition may increase nominal as well as real price rigidity and increased volatility of investment.