At what price? : conceptualizing and measuring cost-of-living and price indexes /
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| Imprint: | Washington, DC : National Academy Press, c2002. |
|---|---|
| Description: | xiii, 332 p. ; 24 cm. |
| Language: | English |
| Subject: | |
| Format: | Print Book |
| URL for this record: | http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/4629957 |
Table of Contents:
- Executive Summary
- A COGI Versus a COLI
- The Scope or Domain of the Index
- Aggregation
- Accounting for Substitution Behavior
- Quality Change
- New Goods
- Outlets
- Pricing Medical Care
- Index Design and Index Purpose
- Data Collection
- 1. Introduction
- Background
- Panel Charge and Report Organization
- Alternative Approaches: A COGI Versus a COLI
- Domain of the CPI
- Substitution
- Aggregation
- Changes in the Quality of Goods
- New Goods
- Outlet Substitution
- Stocks and Flows
- Index Purpose and Design
- Data Collection
- 2. Conceptual Foundations for Price and Cost-of-Living Indexes
- Setting the Stage: What Are Price Indexes?
- The Theory of Price Indexes and Its Critics
- Two Perspectives
- Conclusions
- Technical Note: A Mathematical Approach to Price Indexes
- 3. Index Domain
- An Unconditional COLI: Conceptual Issues
- Measurement Problems
- Supplemental Indexes and Satellite Accounts
- Other Domain Issues
- Conclusion and Recommendation
- 4. Evolving Market Baskets: Adjusting Indexes to Account for Quality Change
- COLI and COGI Views of the Quality Change Problem
- Evidence from the Boskin Commission Report
- BLS Approaches to Quality Changes
- Hedonic Regression Methods
- Cautions and Recommendations
- Technical Note 1. Boskin Commission Estimates of Quality Change and New Goods Bias
- Technical Note 2. Mathematical Description of Hedonic Methods
- 5. New Goods and New Outlets
- New Goods
- New Outlets
- 6. The Special Case of Medical Services
- Background
- Conceptual and Measurement Issues
- The Domain of Consumer Health Expenditures: Employers' Health Insurance Payments
- Direct Pricing of Health Insurance
- Recommendations
- 7. Index Design and Index Purpose
- Indexing Public Transfer Payments
- Wage Bargains and Indexed Wages
- Indexing Private Contracts
- Inflation-Indexed Treasury Securities
- Indexing the Federal Income Tax System
- Measuring Output Changes
- Inflation Indicators for Macroeconomic Policy
- Technical Note: The CPI Versus the NIPA Price Index as an Inflation Measure
- 8. Whose Index? Aggregating Across Households
- Two Kinds of Heterogeneity
- Heterogeneity in Prices Paid and in Rates of Inflation
- The Consequences of Heterogeneity for Index Construction
- Group Indexes: Why the Current Data Collection System Cannot Produce Them
- A Price Index for the Elderly?
- The Conceptual Basis for Group Indexes
- How Might Data for Subgroup Indexes Be Assembled and What Would It Cost?
- Suggested Research and Testing
- Plutocratic Versus Democratic Weights
- Summary and Recommendation
- Technical Note 1. Aggregation and the "Representative Consumer"
- Technical Note 2. Do Inflation Rates Differ by Age or Income Group?
- 9. Data Collection for CPI Construction
- The Current Data Collection Process
- Alternative Data Collection Approaches
- Summary and Recommendations
- Technical Note: Additional Description of CPI Data Inputs
- Appendix. Statistical Definition and Estimation of Price Indexes
- References
- Glossary
- Biographical Sketches of Panel Members and Staff
- Index
