Getting Prices Right: The Debate over the Consumer Price Index

Table of contents

• Title Page iii
• Table of Contents vii
• Acknowledgments ix
• Introduction 1
• Part I Toward a More Accurate Measure of the Cost of Living - Final Report to the Senate Finance Committee from the Advisory Commission to Study the Consumer Price Index December 4, 1996 5
• Executive Summary 7
• I. Introduction 11
• Ii. Indexing the Federal Budget 14
• Iii. How the Cpi is Constructed: A Brief Introduction 17
• Iv. the Consumer Price Index and a Cost of Living Index: Measurement Issues 22
• V. Quality Change and New Products 29
• Introduction 29
• Introduction 50
• Vii. Other Issues 55
• Vii. Other Issues 65
• Endnotes 67
• References 72
• Appendix: Figures 76
• Members of the Advisory Commission to Study the Consumer Price Index 77
• Part 2 Does the Cpi Overstate Inflation? - An Analysis of the Boskin Commission Report 79
• I. the Implications of the Boskin Commission's Conclusions 82
• Ii. the Evidence for an Overstated Cpi 95
• Iii. is Inflation the Same for Everyone? 125
• Iv. the Cpi and a Cost-Of-Living Index Compared 131
• V. Conclusion: is the Cpi the Best Measure of Consumer Inflation? 140
• Endnotes 142
• Appendix A: the Record on Adjusting for Cpi Bias in Research by Commission Members 148
• Appendix B: Examples of New Car Reliability/Durability (quality Adjustments in the Cpi Since 1992 152
• References 153
• Part 3 Additional Views on the Accuracy of the Consumer Price Index 157
• Statistics Under the Spotlight: Improving the Consumer Price Index 159
• Testimony of Barry P. Bosworth Before the Senate Finance Committee 165
• Statement by Martin Feldstein Before the Committee on Finance, United States Senate 171
• Further Readings 175
• Index 181
• About Epi 189
• About the Editor 190

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