IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hit/rcesrs/dp24-1.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

On the Normalization Condition for Cost of Living Comparisons under Time-Varying Preferences

Author

Listed:
  • ABE, Naohito
  • Rao, D.S. Prasada

Abstract

There is growing interest in measuring inflation in the presence of time-varying preferences. To make price comparisons under changing preferences, a number of studies are imposing normalization conditions on preference parameters, assuming cardinal utility functions. The resulting price indexes depend on the choice of normalization condition imposed, necessitating a careful specification of this condition. Carluccio et al. (2023) adopt a normalization where the arithmetic mean of the time-varying taste parameters remains constant, whereas Hottman et al. (2016) and Redding and Weinstein (2020) maintain a constant geometric mean. In this paper we invoke the commensurability axiom which requires the price index to be independent of units of measurement. We prove that a necessary and sufficient condition on the normalization condition that ensures commensuarability is the geometric mean-based normalization. Consequently, adopting an arithmetic meanbased normalization condition results in index values that depend on arbitrarily chosen measurement units, such as gallons or 100 milliliters.

Suggested Citation

  • ABE, Naohito & Rao, D.S. Prasada, 2024. "On the Normalization Condition for Cost of Living Comparisons under Time-Varying Preferences," RCESR Discussion Paper Series DP24-1, Research Center for Economic and Social Risks, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    • Handle: RePEc:hit:rcesrs:dp24-1
    Note: 15 January, 2024
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://hermes-ir.lib.hit-u.ac.jp/hermes/ir/re/82266/dp24-1_rcesr.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rahel Braun & Sarah M. Lein, 2021. "Sources of Bias in Inflation Rates and Implications for Inflation Dynamics," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 53(6), pages 1553-1572, September.
    2. Colin J. Hottman & Stephen J. Redding & David E. Weinstein, 2016. "Quantifying the Sources of Firm Heterogeneity," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 131(3), pages 1291-1364.
    3. Stephen J Redding & David E Weinstein, 2020. "Measuring Aggregate Price Indices with Taste Shocks: Theory and Evidence for CES Preferences," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 135(1), pages 503-560.
    4. Carluccio, Juan & Gautier, Erwan & Guilloux-Nefussi, Sophie, 2023. "Dissecting the impact of imports from low-wage countries on inflation," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stephen J. Redding & David E. Weinstein, 2017. "Aggregating from Micro to Macro Patterns of Trade," NBER Working Papers 24051, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Benjamin Faber & Thibault Fally, 2022. "Firm Heterogeneity in Consumption Baskets: Evidence from Home and Store Scanner Data [Measuring Trends in Leisure: The Allocation of Time over Five Decades]," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 89(3), pages 1420-1459.
    3. Antonin Bergeaud & Simon Ray, 2021. "Adjustment Costs and Factor Demand: New Evidence from Firms’ Real Estate [The heterogeneous impact of market size on innovation: evidence from French firm-level exports]," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 131(633), pages 70-100.
    4. Gervais, Antoine, 2023. "Controlling for Exporter-Year Factors when Estimating Import-Demand Elasticities," MPRA Paper 117421, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Hoste, J. & Verboven, F., 2024. "Uncovering the Sources of Cross-border Market Segmentation: Evidence from the EU and the US," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 2402, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    6. Alfaro, Martin & Lander, David, 2021. "Restricting entry without aggressive pricing," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(4), pages 305-319.
    7. Piveteau, Paul & Smagghue, Gabriel, 2019. "Estimating firm product quality using trade data," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 217-232.
    8. Philippe Aghion & Antonin Bergeaud & Timo Boppart & Peter J. Klenow & Huiyu Li, 2019. "Missing Growth from Creative Destruction," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(8), pages 2795-2822, August.
    9. Bonfiglioli, Alessandra & Crinò, Rosario & Gancia, Gino, 2021. "Concentration in international markets: Evidence from US imports," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 19-39.
    10. Martin O'Connell & Pierre Dubois & Rachel Griffith, 2022. "The Use of Scanner Data for Economics Research," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 14(1), pages 723-745, August.
    11. Gervais, Antoine, 2023. "Controlling for exporter-level factors when estimating import demand elasticities," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 231(C).
    12. Marcela Eslava & John C. Haltiwanger, 2020. "The Size and Life-cycle Growth of Plants: The Role of Productivity, Demand and Wedges," NBER Working Papers 27184, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Colin J. Hottman & Ryan Monarch, 2018. "Estimating Unequal Gains across U.S. Consumers with Supplier Trade Data," Working Papers 18-04, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    14. Geoffrey Barrows & Hélène Ollivier & Ariell Reshef, 2023. "Production Function Estimation with Multi-Destination Firms," CESifo Working Paper Series 10716, CESifo.
    15. Redding, Stephen J. & Weinstein, David E., 2016. "A unified approach to estimating demand and welfare," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 67681, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    16. Andrew B. Bernard & J. Bradford Jensen & Stephen J. Redding & Peter K. Schott, 2018. "Global Firms," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 56(2), pages 565-619, June.
    17. Alessandra Bonfiglioli & Rosario Crinò & Gino Gancia, 2018. "Firms and Economic Performance: A view from Trade," Working Papers 1034, Barcelona School of Economics.
    18. Carsten Eckel & Florian Unger, 2023. "Credit Constraints, Endogenous Innovations, And Price Setting In International Trade," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 64(4), pages 1715-1747, November.
    19. David O. Argente & Chang-Tai Hsieh & Munseob Lee, 2020. "Measuring the Cost of Living in Mexico and the US," NBER Working Papers 27806, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Chen, Cheng & Senga, Tatsuro & Sun, Chang & Zhang, Hongyong, 2023. "Uncertainty, imperfect information, and expectation formation over the firm’s life cycle," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 60-77.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Cost of Living; Price Index; Preference Heterogeneity; Characterization;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E31 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Price Level; Inflation; Deflation
    • C43 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics - - - Index Numbers and Aggregation

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hit:rcesrs:dp24-1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Digital Resources Section, Hitotsubashi University Library (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/eshitjp.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.