Showing papers on "Consumer price index published in 1980"
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss the main technical principles involved, which of course are much concerned with the weighting pattern of the index, and give the results of some practical studies which shed light on the issue.
Abstract: The first concerns the representativeness of the RPI, that is the extent to which the RPI is representative of the experience of a wide range of household types, and in particular low income households, bearing in mind the rapid inflation in recent years. The paper discusses the main technical principles involved, which of course are much concerned with the weighting pattern of the index. It also gives the results of some practical studies which shed light on the issue.
67 citations
01 Jan 1980
TL;DR: In the wake of the recent gyrations in the CPI inflation rate, this seems an opportune time to reexamine the index-and especially its treatment of housing, which has been so much in the public eye of late.
Abstract: THE consumer price index in the United States may be the most closely watched economic barometer in the world. Yet in recent years, as the public and the media have paid increasing attention to the monthly CPI announcements, more and more economists and officials have expressed dissatisfaction with the way the CPI measures inflation. The construction of price indexes, once an arcane subject used to torture graduate students, is now a subject debated in the halls of Congress and discussed on the nightly television news. In the wake of the stunning recent gyrations in the CPI inflation rate, this seems an opportune time to reexamine the index-and especially its treatment of housing, which has been so much in the public eye of late. The first three rows of table 1 give a hint both that something is amiss, and that the problem is of recent vintage. The all-items CPI and the implicit deflator for personal consumption expenditures (hereafter PCE deflator) differ in numerous ways. The PCE deflator counts only currently produced consumer goods and services, and-at least in principle-includes them all; the CPI is based on a selected list of about 250 items, including several important used items (used cars, resold houses). The PCE deflator uses current-period weights (a Paasche index), while the
46 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a method that represents income and poverty differences within a country more accurately than do methods based on money income measures is described, focusing on the cost of basic requirements of food and nonfood categories, a cost index of a basket typically consumed by the poor is built up.
35 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, necessary and sufficient conditions for the expected value of consumer surplus to correctly represent a consumer's preferences are presented, and a theorem characterizing utility functions which represent preferences over conditional probabilities is used to derive this.
Abstract: This paper presents necessary and sufficient conditions for the expected value of consumer surplus to correctly represent a consumer's preferences. A theorem characterizing utility functions which represent preferences over conditional probabilities is used to derive this. An application to price stabilization policy is presented.
33 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the implications of spatial differences in living costs for measures of poverty are examined using Peru as a case study, and the authors suggest that it is important to construct and use spatial price indices in the measurement of poverty.
23 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors presented new estimates of the inflation rate of the value of owner-occupied housing and the gross rents of renteroccupied housing in 39 large metropolitan areas using the method of hedonic indexes using annual Housing Survey data for the period April 1974 to March 1976.
Abstract: This paper presents new estimates of the inflation rate of the value of owner-occupied housing and the gross rents of renteroccupied housing in 39 large metropolitan areas. The inflation rates are computed via the method of hedonic indexes usingAnnual Housing Survey data for the period April 1974 to March 1976. The estimates are compared to the official rent index published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and it is argued that the official index understates the rate of inflation for renter-occupied housing. Also, the hedonic estimates are used to determine the pattern of regional differences in inflation as well as differences between the rate of inflation of rents versus values.
16 citations
01 Jan 1980