MARC Record from Scriblio

LEADER: 02557cam 22003137a 4500
001 2005615174
003 DLC
005 20050113084922.0
007 cr |||||||||||
008 050106s2004 mau sb 000 0 eng
010 $a 2005615174
040 $aDLC$cDLC
050 00 $aHB1
100 1 $aHausman, Jerry A.
245 10 $aCPI bias from supercenters$h[electronic resource] :$bdoes the BLS know that Wal-Mart exists? /$cJerry Hausman, Ephraim Leibtag.
260 $aCambridge, MA :$bNational Bureau of Economic Research,$cc2004.
490 1 $aNBER working paper series ;$vworking paper 10712
538 $aSystem requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader.
538 $aMode of access: World Wide Web.
500 $aTitle from PDF file as viewed on 1/6/2005.
530 $aAlso available in print.
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references.
520 3 $a"Hausman (2003) discusses four sources of bias in the present calculation of the CPI. A pure price' index based approach of surveying prices as done by the BLS cannot succeed in solving the problems of bias. We discuss economic and econometric approaches to measuring the first order bias effects from outlet substitution bias. We demonstrate the use of scanner data that permits implementation of techniques that allow the problem to be solved. In contrast, the current BLS procedure does not treat correctly outlet substitution bias and acts as if Wal-Mart does not exist. Yet, Wal-Mart offers identical food items at an average price about 15%-25% lower than traditional supermarkets. The BLS links out' Wal-Mart's lower prices. We find that a more appropriate approach to the analysis is to let the choice to shop at Wal-Mart be considered as a new good' to consumers when Wal-Mart enters a geographic market. This approach leads to a continuously updated expenditure weighted average price calculation. We find a significant difference between our approach and the BLS approach. Our estimates are that the BLS CPI-U food at home inflation is too high by about 0.32 to 0.42 percentage points, which leads to an upward bias in the estimated inflation rate of about 15% per year"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.
650 0 $aConsumer price indexes$zUnited States.
610 10 $aUnited States.$bBureau of Labor Statistics.
700 1 $aLeibtag, Ephraim.
710 2 $aNational Bureau of Economic Research.
830 0 $aWorking paper series (National Bureau of Economic Research : Online) ;$vworking paper no. 10712.
856 40 $uhttp://papers.nber.org/papers/W10712