Quality-Adjusted Prices for the American Automobile Industry: 1906-1940 / Daniel M.G. Raff, Manuel Trajtenberg.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Raff, Daniel M.G.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Trajtenberg, Manuel.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w5035.

NBER working paper series no. w5035

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Quality-Adjusted Prices for the American Automobile Industry

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 1995.

Summary:

We push the span of hedonic price calculations for automobiles backwards towards the industry's birth. Most of the real change that occurred between 1906 and 1982 occurred between 1906 and 1940. During these years, hedonic prices fell at an average annual rate of 5%. The pace was brisker still during the first 8-12 years. Our measured declines can be decomposed into price and quality components. Our calculations suggest that 60% of the overall decline 1906-1940 was due to process innovation and only 40% to product innovation or quality change per se. Regressors representing mechanical systems matter in these calculations.

Notes:

Print version record

February 1995.