At what price? conceptualizing and measuring cost-of-living and price indexes (National Academy Press, 2002)
"Committee on National Statistics, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education.". - Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002
Includes bibliographical references (p. 292-305) and index
Machine generated contents note: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY -- 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 -- 1 INTRODUCTION -- Background, 13 -- 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 -- Conclusions, 73 -- 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 -- Conclusion and Recommendation, 105 -- 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 -- Background, 178 -- Conceptual and Measurement Issues, 181 -- The Domain of Consumer Health Expenditures: -- Employers' Health Insurance Payments, 185 -- Direct Pricing of Health Insurance, 186 --
- Recommendations, 188 -- 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 --