Multifractality of sectoral price indices: Hurst signature analysis of Cantillon effects in disequilibrium factor markets

• Price indices for different industrial sectors/output groups are examined for multifractality.
• Generally, prices for early and late stage activity behave significantly different from middle stage prices.
• Middle stage prices are much less volatile, and seem to be less driven by systematic disequilibrating forces.
• Antipersistence indicates frequent adjustment of entrepreneurial plans and prices.

This paper presents Hurst exponent signatures from time series of aggregate price indices for the US over the 1975–2011 time period. Though all highly aggregated, these indices include both broad measures of consumer and producer prices. The constellation of prices evolves as a complex system throughout processes of production and distribution, culminating in the final delivery of output to consumers. Massive feedback characterizes this system, where the demand for consumable output determines the demand for the inputs used to produce it, and supply scarcities for the necessary inputs in turn determine the supply of the final product. Prices in both factor and output markets are jointly determined by interdependent supply and demand conditions. Fractal examination of the interplay among market prices would be of interest regardless, but added interest arises from the consideration of how these markets respond to external shocks over the business cycle, particularly monetary expansion. Because the initial impact of monetary injection is localized in specific sectors, the way the impact on prices diffuses throughout the economy is of special interest.