Whose Inflation? A Characterization of the CPI Plutocratic Bias

Prais (1958) showed that the CPI computed by statistical agencies can be interpreted as a weighed average of household price indexes, the weight of each household determined by its total expenditures. We decompose the difference between the standard CPI and a democratically weighed index (i.e., the...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Ley, Eduardo
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: Washington, D.C. International Monetary Fund 2001
Series:IMF Working Papers
Subjects:
Online Access:
Collection: International Monetary Fund - Collection details see MPG.ReNa
LEADER 02246nmm a2200481 u 4500
001 EB000929252
003 EBX01000000000000000722848
005 00000000000000.0
007 cr|||||||||||||||||||||
008 150128 ||| eng
020 |a 9781451847949 
100 1 |a Ley, Eduardo 
245 0 0 |a Whose Inflation? A Characterization of the CPI Plutocratic Bias  |c Eduardo Ley 
260 |a Washington, D.C.  |b International Monetary Fund  |c 2001 
300 |a 17 pages 
651 4 |a Spain 
653 |a Price indexes 
653 |a Inflation 
653 |a Income 
653 |a Income distribution 
653 |a Index Numbers and Aggregation 
653 |a Personal income 
653 |a Deflation 
653 |a Consumer price indexes 
653 |a Aggregate Factor Income Distribution 
653 |a National accounts 
653 |a Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions 
653 |a Price Level 
653 |a leading indicators 
653 |a Consumption; Economics 
653 |a Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics: Household Analysis: General 
653 |a Household consumption 
653 |a Prices 
653 |a Macroeconomics 
653 |a Income inequality 
653 |a Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement 
041 0 7 |a eng  |2 ISO 639-2 
989 |b IMF  |a International Monetary Fund 
490 0 |a IMF Working Papers 
028 5 0 |a 10.5089/9781451847949.001 
856 4 0 |u https://elibrary.imf.org/view/journals/001/2001/059/001.2001.issue-059-en.xml?cid=4093-com-dsp-marc  |x Verlag  |3 Volltext 
082 0 |a 330 
520 |a Prais (1958) showed that the CPI computed by statistical agencies can be interpreted as a weighed average of household price indexes, the weight of each household determined by its total expenditures. We decompose the difference between the standard CPI and a democratically weighed index (i.e., the plutocratic bias) as the product of average income, income inequality, and the covariance between individual price indexes and a parameter related to each good's income elasticity. This decomposition allows us to interpret variations in the size and sign of the plutocratic bias, and also to discuss issues pertaining to group indexes