In this paper we develop an index for comparing the cost of doing business across several metropolitan areas in the U.S. Such indices can be used as leading indicators of metropolitan economic growth. To create the index, we first identify factors that influence the change in business activity...

The main difficulty in comparing the cost-of-living among metropolitan areas is that, at this level, prices of most goods and services are not available. Even when the prices are available, constructing aggregate prices for groups of goods and services comparable across areas, is a difficult...