In the last forty years, inflation in the service sector has consistently exceeded inflation in the rest of the economy. This article investigates whether the observed difference in inflation rates reflects upward bias in the measurement of service prices.

This article surveys a variety of indexes used to measure inflation. The authors identify differences in the construction and coverage of these measures and touch on some of the issues affecting the measurement of prices for a broad range of goods and services.

The author surveys some problems in measuring inflation and examines the likely costs of anticipated and unanticipated inflation as well as the short-run costs of reducing inflation. He looks at the possibility that an inflationary bias may be implicit in the political economy aspects of the...

This article examines whether the sizable amount of excess capacity abroad in recent years has eased U.S. inflationary pressures by keeping import prices from rising as fast as the prices of U.S.-produced goods. The analysis finds that overall import price growth has roughly kept pace with U.S....

Some analysts have argued that indexed bonds convey important information for the formulation of monetary policy. This article investigates whether a market measure of expected inflation derived from British indexed gilt prices would be useful in predicting future inflation and real economic...

This paper analyzes the U.S. congressional proposal to instruct the Federal Reserve to, in the next five years, lower inflation to zero from its current rate of around 5 percent. The paper concludes that, when other policy options are considered, the zero inflation policy is not advisable. Its...

Economists and policymakers disagree on the lengths central banks should go in pursuit of price stability and, in fact, on exactly what price stability means. This essay advocates that central banks try to maintain stable price levels in their countries, and it argues that the benefits of...