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Consumers' Opinion of Inflation Bias Due to Quality Improvements

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  • Jan Hanousek

    () (CERGFE-EI)

  • Randall K. Filer

    () (Hunter College & CUNY Graduate Center & CERGE-EI)

Abstract

Measurement of quality changes has proven to be an especially difficult aspect of calculating unbiased rates of inflation. We propose a new methodology of capturing quality improvements based on consumer focus groups and apply this methodology in an environment where quality changes might be expected to be especially rapid and extensive, a post-communist transition economy. We find that the methodology is practical and that it indicates a substantial understatement of quality improvements during transition, and, therefore, a substantial overstatement of inflation resulting in a serious downward bias in growth rate estimates for post-communist economies. The move to free markets has apparently improved consumers' welfare more by improving what they can purchase than by increasing how much they can purchase.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Hunter College: Department of Economics in its series Hunter College Department of Economics Working Papers with number 02/8.

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Length: 30 pp
Date of creation: 2002
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:htr:hcecon:02/8

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Keywords: Inflation Bias; Quality Change; Transition Economies;

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References

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  1. Feenstra, R.C., 1995. "Exact Hedonic Price Indexes," Department of Economics 95-11, California Davis - Department of Economics.
  2. Shogren, Jason F. & Seung Y. Shin & Dermot J. Hayes & James B. Kliebenstein, 1994. "Resolving Differences in Willingness to Pay and Willingness to Accept," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(1), pages 255-70, March.
  3. Mark Bils & Peter J. Klenow, 2001. "Quantifying Quality Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(4), pages 1006-1030, September.
  4. Kontogianni, Areti & Skourtos, Mihalis S. & Langford, Ian H. & Bateman, Ian J. & Georgiou, Stavros, 2001. "Integrating stakeholder analysis in non-market valuation of environmental assets," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 123-138, April.
  5. Charles R. Hulten, 1997. "Quality change in the CPI," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, issue May, pages 87-100.
  6. Jan Hanousek & Randall K. Filer, 2001. "Survey-based Estimates of Biases in Consumer Price Indices During Transition: Evidence from Romania," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp178, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economic Institute, Prague.
  7. Kolstad, Charles D. & Guzman, Rolando M., 1999. "Information and the Divergence between Willingness to Accept and Willingness to Pay," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 66-80, July.
  8. Kaplowitz, Michael D. & Hoehn, John P., 2001. "Do focus groups and individual interviews reveal the same information for natural resource valuation?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 237-247, February.
  9. Diewert, W. Erwin, . "Comment On CPI Biases," Old UBC Departmental Papers 9607, UBC Department of Economics.
  10. Wiktor L. Adamowicz & Vinay Bhardwaj & Bruce Macnab, 1993. "Experiments on the Difference between Willingness to Pay and Willingness to Accept," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 69(4), pages 416-427.
  11. Michael J. Boskin, 1998. "Consumer Prices, the Consumer Price Index, and the Cost of Living," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 12(1), pages 3-26, Winter.
  12. Nick Hanley & Gary Koop & Begoña Álvarez-Farizo & Robert E. Wright & Ceara Nevin, 2001. "Go climb a mountain: an application of recreation demand modelling to rock climbing in Scotland," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(1), pages 36-52.
  13. Paul A. Armknecht & Fenella Maitland-Smith, 1999. "Price Imputation and Other Techniques for Dealing with Missing Observations, Seasonality and Quality Change in Price Indices," IMF Working Papers 99/78, International Monetary Fund.
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Cited by:
  1. Jan Bruha & Jiri Podpiera & Stanislav Polak, 2007. "The Convergence of a Transition Economy: The Case of the Czech Republic," Working Papers 2007/3, Czech National Bank, Research Department.
  2. Ashoka Mody & Franziska Ohnsorge, 2007. "Can Domestic Policies Influence Inflation?," IMF Working Papers 07/257, International Monetary Fund.
  3. Bruha, Jan & Podpiera, Jirí & Polák, Stanislav, 2010. "The convergence dynamics of a transition economy: The case of the Czech Republic," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 116-124, January.
  4. Jan Babecky & Fabrizio Coricelli & Roman Horvath, 2008. "Assessing Inflation Persistence: Micro Evidence on an Inflation Targeting Economy," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp353, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economic Institute, Prague.
  5. Jan Bruha & Jirí Podpiera, 2007. "Transition economy convergence in a two-country model - implications for monetary integration," Working Paper Series 740, European Central Bank.

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