Abstract This paper presents novel survey evidence on how firms set prices across the private-sector Swiss economy. The survey covers all stages of the price-setting process and reveals substantial heterogeneity by sector, firm size, customer type, and sales channel. Firms combine time- and state-dependent elements when reviewing prices. Competitor-based pricing dominates over markup rules, and price discrimination is multidimensional and widespread. Price changes occur far less frequently than reviews, are typically synchronized within firms, and exhibit a slightly upward-sloping hazard of adjustment. Cost pass-through is driven mainly by labor, supplier, and raw material costs, with asymmetric responses to cost versus demand shocks. Price rigidity arises primarily from implicit and explicit contracts and cost-based pricing, while operational frictions such as menu costs play only a minor role.
Pascal Seiler (Fri,) studied this question.