Prices for local area network equipment

In this paper we examine quality-adjusted prices for local area network (LAN) equipment. Hedonic regressions are used to estimate price changes for the two largest classes of LAN equipment, routers and switches. A matched model was used for LAN cards and the prices for hubs were inferred by using an economic relationship to switches. Overall, we find that prices for the four groups of LAN equipment fell at a 17 percent annual rate between 1995 and 2000. These results stand in sharp contrast to the PPI for communications equipment that is nearly flat over the 1990s.