Two proposals are made that may facilitate the creation of derivative market instruments, such as futures contracts, cash-settled based on economic indices. The first proposal concerns index number construction: indices based on infrequent measurements of nonstandardized items may control for...

Real estate price indexes summarize the evolution of all property prices in a single number, while actual price movements often differ among market segments. We develop a methodology for measuring prices as a flexible function of a one-dimensional quality measure – housing services for...