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At what price? : conceptualizing and measuring cost-of-living and price indexes / Panel on Conceptual, Measurement, and Other Statistical Issues in Developing Cost-of-Living Indexes ; Charles L. Schultze and Christopher Mackie, editors ; Committee on National Statistics, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, National Research Council.

Lippincott Library HB235.U6 A86 2002
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Format:
Book
Contributor:
Schultze, Charles L.
Mackie, Christopher D.
National Research Council (U.S.). Panel on Conceptual, Measurement, and Other Statistical Issues in Developing Cost-of-Living Indexes.
National Research Council (U.S.). Committee on National Statistics.
Language:
English
Subjects (All):
Consumer price indexes--United States.
Consumer price indexes.
Prices.
Statistics.
Cost and standard of living.
United States.
Cost and standard of living--United States--Statistical methods.
Prices--United States--Statistical methods.
Economic indicators--United States.
Economic indicators.
Index numbers (Economics).
Physical Description:
xiii, 332 pages ; 24 cm
Place of Publication:
Washington, DC : National Academy Press, [2002]
Contents:
A COGI Versus a COLI 2
The Scope or Domain of the Index 3
Aggregation 4
Accounting for Substitution Behavior 5
Quality Change 6
New Goods 7
Outlets 8
Pricing Medical Care 9
Index Design and Index Purpose 10
Data Collection 11
Panel Charge and Report Organization 17
Alternative Approaches: A COGI Versus a COLI 18
Domain of the CPI 19
Substitution 21
Aggregation 26
Changes in the Quality of Goods 27
New Goods 30
Outlet Substitution 32
Stocks and Flows 33
Index Purpose and Design 35
Data Collection 36
2 Conceptual Foundations for Price and Cost-of-Living Indexes 38
Setting the Stage: What Are Price Indexes? 41
The Theory of Price Indexes and Its Critics 43
Two Perspectives 57
Technical Note: A Mathematical Approach to Price Indexes 74
3 Index Domain 94
An Unconditional COLI: Conceptual Issues 96
Measurement Problems 98
Supplemental Indexes and Satellite Accounts 101
Other Domain Issues 102
4 Evolving Market Baskets: Adjusting Indexes to Account for Quality Change 106
COLI and COGI Views of the Quality Change Problem 109
Evidence from the Boskin Commission Report 112
BLS Approaches to Quality Changes 114
Hedonic Regression Methods 122
Cautions and Recommendations 140
Technical Note 1 Boskin Commission Estimates of Quality Change and New Goods Bias 146
Technical Note 2 Mathematical Description of Hedonic Methods 149
5 New Goods and New Outlets 155
New Goods 155
New Outlets 167
6 The Special Case of Medical Services 178
Conceptual and Measurement Issues 181
The Domain of Consumer Health Expenditures: Employers' Health Insurance Payments 185
Direct Pricing of Health Insurance 186
7 Index Design and Index Purpose 191
Indexing Public Transfer Payments 192
Wage Bargains and Indexed Wages 207
Indexing Private Contracts 208
Inflation-Indexed Treasury Securities 210
Indexing the Federal Income Tax System 212
Measuring Output Changes 214
Inflation Indicators for Macroeconomic Policy 216
Technical Note: The CPI Versus the NIPA Price Index as an Inflation Measure 219
8 Whose Index? Aggregating Across Households 222
Two Kinds of Heterogeneity 223
Heterogeneity in Prices Paid and in Rates of Inflation 225
The Consequences of Heterogeneity for Index Construction 226
Group Indexes: Why the Current Data Collection System Cannot Produce Them 226
A Price Index for the Elderly? 228
The Conceptual Basis for Group Indexes 229
How Might Data for Subgroup Indexes Be Assembled and What Would It Cost? 232
Suggested Research and Testing 235
Plutocratic Versus Democratic Weights 237
Summary and Recommendation 240
Technical Note 1 Aggregation and the "Representative Consumer" 241
Technical Note 2 Do Inflation Rates Differ by Age or Income Group? 246
9 Data Collection for CPI Construction 252
The Current Data Collection Process 253
Alternative Data Collection Approaches 264
Technical Note: Additional Description of CPI Data Inputs 276
Appendix Statistical Definition and Estimation of Price Indexes 283.
Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 293-305) and index.
ISBN:
0309074428
OCLC:
48494170

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