T his article describes an important improvement in the calculation of the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The Bureau of Labor Statistics plans to use a new geometric mean formula for calculating most of the basic components of the Consumer Price Index for all Urban Consumers (CPI-U) and the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). This change will become effective ...

Beneficiaries of the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) program received an 11.2-percent cost-of-living increase in benefits effective June 1981. This increase, the seventh automatic increase since 1975, was reflected in btiefit checks issued early in July. Automatic benefit increases are tied by statute to rises in the Consumer Price Index (CPI). They are initiated whenever t...

The consumer price index (CPI) is an important indicator of inflation in a market economy. It is necessary to regularly monitor and improve the quality of the CPI. Before one can develop a quality assurance system, one has to formulate a conceptual framework for evaluating the quality of consumer price statistics. In this paper various quality aspects of the CPI are presented. These aspects are...

Socml security checks dellwred to benefiaanes m the first week of July 1977 reflected the thwd automatic cost-of-hvmg nxrease m cash benefits under legulatlon enacted m 1972 and 1973 The 5 Q-percent merease, which became effectwe m June, apphed to benefits for all persons on the social security benefit rolls at the end of May, except those recelvlng benefits under the “special mnunum” PIA provw...

This paper compares the Portuguese and Bulgarian consumer price indices (CPI) and attempts to identify some areas in which the CPI compilation methodology could be improved in the two countries. This work is organised into six sections. The first section briefly describes the organisational structure on which the production of the CPI is based in the two countries. The second section focuses on...

In this paper we propose the application of the original, superlative price index formula for the measurement of commodity substitution bias associated with Consumer Price Index (CPI). In our simulation study we compare CPI bias values calculated by using the original price index formula with those calculated on the basis of some known, superlative price indices.

We use shifts in food Engel curves among the U.S. elderly to estimate the extent of Consumer Price Index (CPI) bias specific to this population. Over the last thirty years the share of total expenditure devoted to food has declined more rapidly for elderly-headed households than for other households. This decline is not explained by a more rapid increase in measured total expenditure for the el...

RECENT economic developments have aroused substantial interest in the treatment in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) of the cost of shelter for homeowners.' From December 1977, when the latest version of the CPI was introduced, until December 1980, the all-items CPI increased at an average annual rate of 11.6%, while the homeownership component increased at an average annual rate of 16.2%. Relativ...

The consumer price index (CPI) is usually computed as a fixed-weighted Laspeyres price index, with the weights updated at discrete intervals only. It is well known that the Laspeyres functional form entails a substitution bias. One way to reduce it would be to use chained indices, and superlative ones if possible. Unfortunately, the necessary data are often missing. This paper proposes a simple...

Early in January 1984, beneficiaries under the OldAge, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) program received a 3.5-percent cost-of-living increase. This increase, effective for December 1983, was originally scheduled to take effect in June but was postponed by the 1983 Amendments to the Social Security Act. . Automatic cost-of-living increases were instituted in 1975 by legislation enact...