Price Measurements and Their Uses

by Foss, Murray F.; Manser, Marilyn E.; Young, Allan H.; Young, Allan H.

• ISBN13: 9780226257303
• ISBN10: 0226257304
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1993-08-15
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

In an economy characterized by frequent change in technology, in the types of goods and services purchased, and in the forms of business organization, keeping track of price change continues to pose many difficulties. Price change affects the way we perceive changes in such basic measures as real output, productivity, and living standards. This volume, which brings together academic economists with those responsible for official price indexes, presents outstanding new research on price measurement. Half of the papers focus on prices for mainframe and personal computers, semiconductors, and other high-tech products, using mainly hedonic techniques. The volume includes a panel discussion by distinguished economists about the theoretical and practical considerations of how best to measure price change of capital goods whose quality is changing rapidly. The authors also present new research on more conventional but still unsettled problems in the price field affecting both the consumer and producer price indexes of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Author Biography

Murray F. Foss is a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. Marilyn E. Manser is assistant commissioner for economic research at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor. Allan H. Young is chief statistician at the Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Department of Commerce.

Table of Contents

Prefatory Note Acknowledgments Introduction Murray

High-Tech Products: Computers

Constant-Quality Price Change, Depreciation, And Retirement Of Mainframe Computers Stephen

Price Indexes For Microcomputers: An Exploratory Study Ernst

High-Tech Products: Semiconductors

Sources Of Price Decline In Computer Processors: Selected Electronic Components Ellen

Cost Function Estimation Of Quality Change In Semiconductors

Measurement Of Dram Prices: Technology And Market Structure Kenneth Flamm Comment ( On 3, 4, & 5)

Quality-Change Issues In Consumer Prices

Adjusting Apparel Indexes In The Cpi For Quality Differences Paul

The Effect Of Outlet Price Differentials On The U.S. Consumer Price Index Marshall Reinsdorf Comment (On 6 & 7)

Transaction Prices

The Problem Of List Prices In The Producer Price Index: The Steel Mill Products Case Thomas Betsock Irwin

Does Government Regulation Inhibit The Reporting Of Transactions Prices By Business?

Price Indexes For Defense And International Trade

The Deflation Of Military Aircraft Richard

Implications Of Bea's Treatment Of Computer Prices For Productivity Measurement

Panel Discussion: Implications Of Bea's Treatment Of Computer Prices And Productivity Measurement Chair: Frank De Leeuw Statements

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