Toward a More Accurate Measure of the Cost of Living

Toward a More Accurate Measure of the Cost of Living PDF Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Advisory Commission to Study the Consumer Price Index
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Consumer price indexes
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Toward a More Accurate Measure of the Cost of Living

Toward a More Accurate Measure of the Cost of Living PDF Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Advisory Commission to Study the Consumer Price Index
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Consumer price indexes
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Measuring Price Changes

Measuring Price Changes PDF Author: William Hall Wallace
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Price indexes
Languages : en
Pages : 60

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Price Measurements and Their Uses

Price Measurements and Their Uses PDF Author: Murray F. Foss
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226257320
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 404

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Book Description
In an economy characterized by frequent change in technology, in the types of goods and services purchased, and in the forms of business organization, keeping track of price change continues to pose many difficulties. Price change affects the way we perceive changes in such basic measures as real output, productivity, and living standards. This volume, which brings together academic economists with those responsible for official price indexes, presents outstanding new research on price measurement. Half of the papers focus on prices for mainframe and personal computers, semiconductors, and other high-tech products, using mainly hedonic techniques. The volume includes a panel discussion by distinguished economists about the theoretical and practical considerations of how best to measure price change of capital goods whose quality is changing rapidly. The authors also present new research on more conventional but still unsettled problems in the price field affecting both the consumer and producer price indexes of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Measuring Price Changes of Military Expenditures, June 1975

Measuring Price Changes of Military Expenditures, June 1975 PDF Author: United States. Bureau of Economic Analysis
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Armed Forces
Languages : en
Pages : 516

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At What Price?

At What Price? PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309170796
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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Book Description
How well does the consumer price index (CPI) reflect the changes that people actually face in living costsâ€"from apples to computers to health care? Given how it is used, is it desirable to construct the CPI as a cost-of-living index (COLI)? With what level of accuracy is it possible to construct a single index that represents changes in the living costs of the nation's diverse population? At What Price? examines the foundations for consumer price indexes, comparing the conceptual and practical strengths, weaknesses, and limitations of traditional "fixed basket" and COLI approaches. The book delves into a range of complex issues, from how to deal with the changing quality of goods and services, including difficult-to-define medical services, to how to weight the expenditure patterns of different consumers. It sorts through the key attributes and underlying assumptions that define each index type in order to answer the question: Should a COLI framework be used in constructing the U.S. CPI? In answering this question, the book makes recommendations as to how the Bureau of Labor Statistics can continue to improve the accuracy and relevance of the CPI. With conclusions that could affect the amount of your next pay raise, At What Price? is important to everyone, and a must-read for policy makers, researchers, and employers.

Measuring the Aggregate Price Level

Measuring the Aggregate Price Level PDF Author: Robert James Gordon
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Economic development
Languages : en
Pages : 64

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Book Description
Inaccurate measures of the aggregate price level may distort short-run policy decisions and may produce misleading comparisons of productivity growth across decades and among nations. This paper serves a dual purpose of reviewing compactly the vast American literature on price and output measurement, and of identifying special aspects of American methods which affect international comparisons of inflation and output growth. The traditional problem of substitution bias in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) is of minor importance compared with the bias introduced by new products, changes in the quality of existing products, and outlet substitution bias. The quality bias for U.S. consumer durables has recently been estimated to be roughly 1.5 percent per year for the postwar period, and roughly 3 percent per year for consumer durables, The only available study of outlet substitution bias estimates a 2 percent annual rate for food in the 1980s. Cross-country differences in measurement methods tend to overstate the recent productivity performance of U.S. relative to European manufacturing, with an understatement for U.S. nonmanufacturing. Both European and U.S. manufacturing performance are probably understated relative to Japan, which seems to do the best job of incorporating new products and correcting for quality change of high tech goods.

At What Price?

At What Price? PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309074428
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 349

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Book Description
How well does the consumer price index (CPI) reflect the changes that people actually face in living costsâ€"from apples to computers to health care? Given how it is used, is it desirable to construct the CPI as a cost-of-living index (COLI)? With what level of accuracy is it possible to construct a single index that represents changes in the living costs of the nation's diverse population? At What Price? examines the foundations for consumer price indexes, comparing the conceptual and practical strengths, weaknesses, and limitations of traditional "fixed basket" and COLI approaches. The book delves into a range of complex issues, from how to deal with the changing quality of goods and services, including difficult-to-define medical services, to how to weight the expenditure patterns of different consumers. It sorts through the key attributes and underlying assumptions that define each index type in order to answer the question: Should a COLI framework be used in constructing the U.S. CPI? In answering this question, the book makes recommendations as to how the Bureau of Labor Statistics can continue to improve the accuracy and relevance of the CPI. With conclusions that could affect the amount of your next pay raise, At What Price? is important to everyone, and a must-read for policy makers, researchers, and employers.

Accounting for Health and Health Care

Accounting for Health and Health Care PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309186846
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 239

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Book Description
It has become trite to observe that increases in health care costs have become unsustainable. How best for policy to address these increases, however, depends in part on the degree to which they represent increases in the real quantity of medical services as opposed to increased unit prices of existing services. And an even more fundamental question is the degree to which the increased spending actually has purchased improved health. Accounting for Health and Health Care addresses both these issues. The government agencies responsible for measuring unit prices for medical services have taken steps in recent years that have greatly improved the accuracy of those measures. Nonetheless, this book has several recommendations aimed at further improving the price indices.

Measuring Price Changes

Measuring Price Changes PDF Author: William Hall Wallace
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Price indexes
Languages : en
Pages : 52

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Price Index Concepts and Measurement

Price Index Concepts and Measurement PDF Author: W. Erwin Diewert
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226148572
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 531

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Book Description
Although inflation is much feared for its negative effects on the economy, how to measure it is a matter of considerable debate that has important implications for interest rates, monetary supply, and investment and spending decisions. Underlying many of these issues is the concept of the Cost-of-Living Index (COLI) and its controversial role as the methodological foundation for the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Price Index Concepts and Measurements brings together leading experts to address the many questions involved in conceptualizing and measuring inflation. They evaluate the accuracy of COLI, a Cost-of-Goods Index, and a variety of other methodological frameworks as the bases for consumer price construction.