We present a novel analysis extending the recent work of Mizuno et al. (Physica A 308 (2002) 411) on the hyperinflations of Germany (1920/1/1–1923/11/1), Hungary (1945/4/30–1946/7/15), Brazil (1969–1994), Israel (1969–1985), Nicaragua (1969–1991), Peru (1969–1990) and Bolivia...

It is believed that changes in the varieties of an imported product might have effects on the import price index for the product that are similar to the effects of new goods on the cost of living. Recently, a new index number formula that incorporates the effects of new goods has been suggested...

This paper suggests two theoretically consistent and empirically tractable ways that a cost-ofliving index can be expanded to include the environment and other public goods. In addition, it presents an empirical illustration of such an index for Los Angeles, California, incorporating air quality...

The paper pertains to the recent extension of price and production statistics to health, social assistance services and education. In the first part, it is underlined that using net prices instead of gross prices, as it has been decided for the European harmonised consumer price index, is...

In this article, as part of the symposium on total factor productivity, Erwin Diewert of the University of British Columbia provides a comprehensive discussion of what is needed to develop reliable measures of total factor productivity in terms of output and the different classes of inputs. He...

Changes in quality in information technology products provoke that compilation of their price indexes represent a major challenge. In this respect, this paper has three goals. In first place, to build price indexes for personal computers during 1990-2004. In second place, to compare our price...

After the introduction of the euro notes and coins in January 2002, throughout the Economic and Monetary Union member countries there was a widespread feeling that the euro had brought about a significant hike in consumer prices. A substantial discrepancy was evident between inflation as...

This paper conducts an empirical analysis on the U.S. VCR market using a hedonic approach. The paper finds that quality-adjusted price indices decline at 11-12% per year, with a large annual drop of about 18% from 1982-85. Estimation and data analysis reveal interesting aspects of the evolution...

We apply recent money illusion tests on data on individual life satisfaction from the Eurobarometer for the period 1980–2003. The null hypothesis of no money illusion cannot be rejected. Different nominal rigidities across European countries and EMU countries, specifically, cannot be explained...

We adopt the hedonic approach to develop a price index for the housing market in Italy. The hedonic approach allows to separate the price variations due to qualitative changes of housing attributes from pure price changes, that is the intrinsic real estate price variations. As a result, it...