Argynbek, Asel2024-12-202024-12-202024-12-11Argynbek, A. (2024). Retailer Heterogeneity in Optimal Inflation in Kazakhstan. Nazarbayev University Graduate School of Businesshttps://nur.nu.edu.kz/handle/123456789/8353This paper studies the retailer heterogeneity in optimal inflation in Kazakhstan. Adam and Weber's (2022) relative price trend model is applied to AC Nielsen Urban Kazakhstan data for the 2019-2022 period. The results highlight significant variations in optimal rates across outlets, varying from -0.79 to 2.13%, suggesting the importance of retailers in estimating the national-level inflation rate. Also, the paper calculated national-level inflation in two ways: 1) by aggregating prices using equal weights for outlets and 2) by aggregating scanner data by weighting prices using product categories' expenditure weights for given outlets. Two approaches generate 4.9% and 1.6% optimal rate, respectively. This shows the importance of accounting for the expenditure weights of retailers in tailoring optimal inflation, and a uniform target may only partially capture pricing behavior across outlets.enAttribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United Statesoptimal inflationretailer heterogeneityscanner dataexpenditure weightsrelative price trendType of access: EmbargoMaster`s thesis