IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/isa/journl/v13y2011i1p5-32.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The dynamics of inflation components and their comparability among countries: the case of the HICP

Author

Listed:
  • Carlo De Gregorio

    (Italian National Institute of Statistics)

Abstract

The paper presents a method to classify the dynamic patterns of the whole set of sub-indices that make up the harmonised index of consumer prices (HICP) and to assess the comparability of the national series referred to a same elementary aggregate of the target consumption expenditure. We consider more than 1.200 series in the period 2004-2008,referred to nearly 100 elementary aggregates and 14 EU countries. Based on the values assumed by a set of variability indicators compiled for each series, we explore the outcomes of a classification of sub-indices obtained through the sequential use of principal components and hierarchical clustering. From a measurement of the degree of heterogeneity of the series within each elementary aggregate, we derive a list of the most problematic aggregates which possibly deserve further methodological harmonisation in order to provide comparable estimates. Three distinct case studies are more thoroughly analysed and discussed: air transport, package holidays and electricity.

Suggested Citation

  • Carlo De Gregorio, 2011. "The dynamics of inflation components and their comparability among countries: the case of the HICP," Rivista di statistica ufficiale, ISTAT - Italian National Institute of Statistics - (Rome, ITALY), vol. 13(1), pages 5-32, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:isa:journl:v:13:y:2011:i:1:p:5-32
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.istat.it/it/files/2011/12/1_2011_1.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Balk,Bert M., 2012. "Price and Quantity Index Numbers," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107404960, January.
    2. R. G. D. Allen, 1975. "Index Numbers in Theory and Practice," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-349-02312-7.
    3. M. Angeles Caraballo & Carlos Dabus & Carlos Usabiaga, 2006. "Relative prices and inflation: new evidence from different inflationary contexts," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(16), pages 1931-1944.
    4. David FIELDING & Paul MIZEN, 2001. "The Relationship between Price Dispersion and Inflation: A Reassessment," Economics Working Papers ECO2001/10, European University Institute.
    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. Alessandro Brunetti, 2010. "The decomposition of the chained price index rate of change: generalization and interpretative effectiveness," Rivista di statistica ufficiale, ISTAT - Italian National Institute of Statistics - (Rome, ITALY), vol. 12(1), pages 17-34, April.
    2. Mehrhoff Jens, 2010. "Aggregate Indices and Their Corresponding Elementary Indices," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 230(6), pages 709-725, December.
    3. V. Kerry Smith & Carlos Valcarcel Wolloh, 2012. "Has Surface Water Quality Improved Since the Clean Water Act?," NBER Working Papers 18192, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Hajargasht, Gholamreza & Rao, D.S. Prasada, 2019. "Multilateral index number systems for international price comparisons: Properties, existence and uniqueness," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 36-47.
    5. Diewert, W. Erwin & Fox, Kevin J., 2017. "Substitution Bias in Multilateral Methods for CPI Construction using Scanner Data," Microeconomics.ca working papers erwin_diewert-2017-3, Vancouver School of Economics, revised 23 Mar 2017.
    6. Inanoglu, Hulusi & Jacobs, Michael, Jr. & Liu, Junrong & Sickles, Robin, 2015. "Analyzing Bank Efficiency: Are "Too-Big-to-Fail" Banks Efficient?," Working Papers 15-016, Rice University, Department of Economics.
    7. Abdelraouf, Nadine & Noureldin, Diaa, 2022. "The impact of the exchange rate regime on the dispersion of the price-change distribution: Evidence from a large panel of countries," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    8. Van Puyenbroeck, Tom & Rogge, Nicky, 2017. "Geometric mean quantity index numbers with Benefit-of-the-Doubt weights," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 256(3), pages 1004-1014.
    9. A. Nazif Çatik & Christopher Martin & A. Özlem Onder, 2011. "Relative price variability and the Phillips Curve: evidence from Turkey," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 38(5), pages 546-561, September.
    10. Gianluca Baio & Laura Magazzini & Antonio Nicita & Fabio Pammolli & Massimo Riccaboni, 2003. "Il Decreto DL 15/04/2002, n. 63 sul Contenimento della Spesa Farmaceutica - Impatto sull'Industria e Distorsioni nel Funzionamento del Mercato," Working Papers CERM 0-2003, Competitività, Regole, Mercati (CERM).
    11. Balk, Bert M. & Rambaldi, Alicia N. & Rao, D. S. Prasada, 2022. "Macro-Economic Measures For A Globalized World: Global Growth And Inflation," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 26(2), pages 314-360, March.
    12. Alekseev, Aleksandr & Sokolov, Mikhail V., 2021. "How to measure the average rate of change?," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 43-59.
    13. Walden, John & Fissel, Ben & Squires, Dale & Vestergaard, Niels, 2015. "Productivity change in commercial fisheries: An introduction to the special issue," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 289-293.
    14. Caraballo Pou, M. Angeles & Dabus, Carlos, 2008. "Nominal rigidities, skewness and inflation regimes," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 16-33, March.
    15. Pastor, Jesus T. & Lovell, C.A. Knox & Aparicio, Juan, 2020. "Defining a new graph inefficiency measure for the proportional directional distance function and introducing a new Malmquist productivity index," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 281(1), pages 222-230.
    16. Carlo De Gregorio, 2012. "Sample size for the estimate of consumer price subindices with alternative statistical designs," Rivista di statistica ufficiale, ISTAT - Italian National Institute of Statistics - (Rome, ITALY), vol. 14(1), pages 19-47, October.
    17. Silver Mick, 2022. "Econometric Issues in Hedonic Property Price Indices: Some Practical Help," Journal of Official Statistics, Sciendo, vol. 38(1), pages 153-186, March.
    18. Bert M. Balk, 2010. "An Assumption‐Free Framework For Measuring Productivity Change," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 56(s1), pages 224-256, June.
    19. Nicholas Oulton, 2021. "The effect of changes in the terms of trade on GDP and welfare: a Divisia approach to the SNA," Discussion Papers 2126, Centre for Macroeconomics (CFM).
    20. Diewert, Erwin, 2009. "Cost of Living Indexes and Exact Index Numbers," Economics working papers erwin_diewert-2009-6, Vancouver School of Economics, revised 13 Feb 2009.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Consumer price index; European Union; Harmonisation; Industrial policies; Cluster analysis; Principal components; Variability;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C01 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - General - - - Econometrics
    • C43 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics - - - Index Numbers and Aggregation
    • E31 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Price Level; Inflation; Deflation

    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:isa:journl:v:13:y:2011:i:1:p:5-32. 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: Stefania Rossetti (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/istgvit.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.