We measure the response of household spending to the economic stimulus payments (ESPs) disbursed in mid-2008, using special questions added to the Consumer Expenditure Survey and variation arising from the randomized timing of when the payments were disbursed. We find that, on average,...

For most indexes in the Consumer Price Index (CPI), the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) uses a form of the matched-model approach. It has long been recognized that the matched-model method can underestimate quality improvement, and therefore overestimate price inflation, for products exhibiting...