The measurement of price dynamics is by no means new endeavourin the official statistics but the process of establishing accurate price changes in time still remains challenging in many areas. One such demanding field is the application of appropriate techniques in price index development for providing amendments reflecting quality differences which might occur in the compared commodities. The book presents results of research on the applicability of hedonic methods in adjusting price indices to changes in the goods quality and test the techniques used for hedonic price indices construction using the data sets for various groups of heterogeneous goods, including used automobiles, appartments, household appliances and ICT goods.

Price indexes can be constructed using a “hedonic method” that adjusts for changes in the quality of a product. This handbook sets out best practice for constructing hedonic indexes.

There has been strong recommendation that the BLS explore the use of hedonic methods forquality adjustment in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for decades. The Price Statistics ReviewCommittee (the Stigler Commission Report) in 1961 expressed the view that hedonic analysis would provide a “more objective” approach to addressing quality change than the BLS standard methods of dealing with this issue (Triplett (1990)). More recently, the Advisory Commission to Study theConsumer Price Index (the Boskin Commission Report, 1996) reiterated this recommendation,recognizing that accurate measures of quality change will enable a more accurate measure of pure price,or “cost-of-living” change. Categories of goods and services where quality changes are frequent andrelatively easy to identify are the best candidates for using hedonic methods, given that data can beacquired.

This paper explores alternative methods for adjusting price indices for quality change at scale. These methods can be applied to large-scale item-level transactions data that includes information on prices, quantities, and item attributes. The hedonic methods can take into account the changing valuations of both observable and unobservable characteristics in the presence of product turnover. The paper also considers demand-based approaches that take into account changing product quality from product turnover and changing appeal of continuing products. The paper provides evidence of substantial quality-adjustment in prices for a wide range of goods, including both high-tech consumer products and food products.

Price indexes can be constructed using a “hedonic method” that adjusts for changes in the quality of a product. This handbook sets out best practice for constructing hedonic indexes.

Although inflation is much feared for its negative effects on the economy, how to measure it is a matter of considerable debate that has important implications for interest rates, monetary supply, and investment and spending decisions. Underlying many of these issues is the concept of the Cost-of-Living Index (COLI) and its controversial role as the methodological foundation for the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Price Index Concepts and Measurements brings together leading experts to address the many questions involved in conceptualizing and measuring inflation. They evaluate the accuracy of COLI, a Cost-of-Goods Index, and a variety of other methodological frameworks as the bases for consumer price construction.

The paper provides an analysis of the problems of construction of quality-adjusted price indexes within the framework of the theory of product differentiation. In the general case of price-making behaviour on the part of firms, hedonic regressions are defined on the basis of reduced forms of the equation relating equilibrium prices to product characteristics. The paper considers the reduced form given by the marginal cost function and shows that the Laspeyres hedonic price index provides a lower bound to the quality-adjusted rate of price change while the Paasche hedonic price index provides an upper bound to the quality-adjusted rate of price change. The properties of hedonic price indexes are compared with those of matched model indexes. The theory is applied to the study of personal computer prices in Italy during the 1995-2000 period.

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