1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910823781403321

Titolo

Price measurements and their uses / / edited by Murray F. Foss, Marilyn E. Manser, Allan H. Young

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Chicago, : University of Chicago Press, c1993

ISBN

1-281-22340-9

9786611223403

0-226-25732-0

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (404 p.)

Collana

Studies in income and wealth ; ; v. 57

Altri autori (Persone)

FossMurray F

ManserMarilyn

YoungAllan H

Disciplina

338.5/28

Soggetti

Computers - Prices

Consumer price indexes

Price indexes

Semiconductors - Prices

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Contains part of the papers, discussion, and roundtable remarks presented at the Workshop on Price Measurements and Their Uses in Washington, D.C., on March 22-23, 1990.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- Prefatory Note -- Introduction -- 1. Constant-Quality Price Change, Depreciation, and Retirement of Mainframe Computers -- 2. Price Indexes for Microcomputers: An Exploratory Study -- 3. Sources of Price Decline in Computer Processors: Selected Electronic Components -- 4. Cost Function Estimation of Quality Change in Semiconductors -- 5. Measurement of DRAM Prices: Technology and Market Structure -- 6. Adjusting Apparel Indexes in the Consumer Price Index for Quality Differences -- 7. The Effect of Outlet Price Differentials on the U.S. Consumer Price Index -- 8. The Problem of List Prices in the Producer Price Index: The Steel Mill Products Case -- 9. Does Government Regulation Inhibit the Reporting of Transactions Prices by Business? -- 10. The Deflation of Military Aircraft -- 11. Panel Discussion: Implications of BEA's Treatment of Computer Prices and Productivity Measurement -- Contributors --



Author Index -- Subject Index

Sommario/riassunto

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.