This paper discusses and analyzes selected pertinent statistical and economic questions raised by the shift in price statistics towards covering broader markets of the economy, namely introducing a Producers Price Index (PPI) series in place of the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) series in Egypt...

Lacking data on price levels across locations (countries, national regions, etc.) for cross-space comparisons, researchers resort to local consumer price indexes (CPIs) over time to evaluate these levels. This approach unfortunately fails to specify, even generally, the exactness of such...

This paper discusses an index of perceived inflation developed by Brachinger. Brachinger's index is not based on a survey and measurement of consumers' price perception. It is a model calculation derived from a number of more or less plausible ad hoc assumptions. We find that the results of...

Statistical offices try to match item models when measuring inflation between two periods. For product areas with a high turnover of differentiated models, however, the use of hedonic indexes is more appropriate since they include the prices and quantities of unmatched new and old models. The...

Since late 1991, the IMF Statistics Department has conducted a program of technical assistance on consumer and producer price measurement and index compilation for the countries that have emerged from the former Soviet Union. These are countries whose economies are in various states of...

In this paper some of the practical issues related to improving the U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) are discussed. The general problem of choosing an appropriate price index number formula is presented and both the axiomatic and economic theoretic approaches are used to examine the problem. An...

Lacking data on price levels across locations, economists are forced to proxy them. One method is to extrapolate the price levels known for locations in some point in time to another point by multiplying the initial price levels by the local CPIs. With the use of simulation experiments, this...

This paper evaluates the effects of product turnover on a welfare-based cost-of-living index. We first present some facts about price and quantity changes over the product cycle employing scanner data for Japan for the years 1988-2013, which cover the deflationary period that started in the...

Consumers hold inventory for future uses. This study investigates how such intertemporal decisions influence the cost-of-living index (COLI). To this end, I construct a simple dynamic model, in which goods are storable and nonresalable, and prices take either high (regular price) or low values...

In first place, I can easily imagine that the inflation rate is the daily bread for financials. In second place, I am positively sure that the routinely compilation of the consumer price index (CPI) done by any statistical agency constitutes “a tour the force”. In third place, I am convinced...