Scanner Data and Price Indexes

Scanner Data and Price Indexes
Author: Robert C. Feenstra
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 404
Release: 2007-11-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0226239667

Every time you buy a can of tuna or a new television, its bar code is scanned to record its price and other information. These "scanner data" offer a number of attractive features for economists and statisticians, because they are collected continuously, are available quickly, and record prices for all items sold, not just a statistical sample. But scanner data also present a number of difficulties for current statistical systems. Scanner Data and Price Indexes assesses both the promise and the challenges of using scanner data to produce economic statistics. Three papers present the results of work in progress at statistical agencies in the U.S., United Kingdom, and Canada, including a project at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to investigate the feasibility of incorporating scanner data into the monthly Consumer Price Index. Other papers demonstrate the enormous potential of using scanner data to test economic theories and estimate the parameters of economic models, and provide solutions for some of the problems that arise when using scanner data, such as dealing with missing data.

Development Centre Studies The World Economy Volume 1: A Millennial Perspective and Volume 2: Historical Statistics

Development Centre Studies The World Economy Volume 1: A Millennial Perspective and Volume 2: Historical Statistics
Author: Maddison Angus
Publisher: OECD Publishing
Total Pages: 657
Release: 2006-09-18
Genre:
ISBN: 9264022627

The World Economy brings together two reference works by Angus Maddison: The World Economy: A Millennial Perspective (2001) and The World Economy: Historical Statistics (2003). This new edition contains Statlinks, so that readers can access the underlying data in Excel format.

The Economics of New Goods

The Economics of New Goods
Author: Timothy F. Bresnahan
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 508
Release: 2008-04-15
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0226074188

New goods are at the heart of economic progress. The eleven essays in this volume include historical treatments of new goods and their diffusion; practical exercises in measurement addressed to recent and ongoing innovations; and real-world methods of devising quantitative adjustments for quality change. The lead article in Part I contains a striking analysis of the history of light over two millenia. Other essays in Part I develop new price indexes for automobiles back to 1906; trace the role of the air conditioner in the development of the American south; and treat the germ theory of disease as an economic innovation. In Part II essays measure the economic impact of more recent innovations, including anti-ulcer drugs, new breakfast cereals, and computers. Part III explores methods and defects in the treatment of quality change in the official price data of the United States, Canada, and Japan. This pathbreaking volume will interest anyone who studies economic growth, productivity, and the American standard of living.