Using annual consumer price index (CPI) data for 17 U.S. 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...

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...

In this paper, we examine the importance of regions in the behavior of city level relative prices in the United States. The results indicate that average relative price variability is significantly lower if the city pairs associated with a relative price series belong to the same region....