Using annual consumer price index (CPI) data for 17 US cities between 1918 and 2007, this paper examines the implications of the choice of numeraire city for the behavior of relative prices across cities. A common factor representation of relative price is used to understand the nature of the...

This paper examines whether inclusion of structural breaks helps resolve the puzzling result of excessively slow speed of convergence in relative prices across US cities while using long time series data on CPI. With an endogenously determined single break in 1985 in annual CPI data for 17 major...