IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ucp/jpolec/v95y1987i6p1179-95.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Information, Multiprice Search, and Cost-of-Living Index Theory

Author

Listed:
  • Anglin, Paul M
  • Baye, Michael R

Abstract

This paper derives the cost-of-living index of an individual who faces imperfect and costly information about prices. Traditional cost-of-living in dexes assume that the consumer passively accepts prices as given. The authors derive a multiprice search model in which the consumer choos es the search strategy that minimizes the expected cost of buying a g iven level of utility. In contrast to existing search models, the mod el allows the consumer to change the allocation of expenditures among goods as information about prices changes and enables them to constr uct a cost-of-living index for an agent who searches across distribut ions of offer prices. Unlike traditional cost-of-living measures that ignore search behavior, the searcher's cost-of-living index depends on search costs. Copyright 1987 by University of Chicago Press.

Suggested Citation

  • Anglin, Paul M & Baye, Michael R, 1987. "Information, Multiprice Search, and Cost-of-Living Index Theory," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 95(6), pages 1179-1195, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jpolec:v:95:y:1987:i:6:p:1179-95
    DOI: 10.1086/261510
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/261510
    File Function: full text
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. See http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/JPE for details.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1086/261510?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Christophe Muller, 2022. "Poverty Measurement under Income and Price Dispersions," Working Papers hal-03612841, HAL.
    2. Richards, Timothy J. & Hamilton, Stephen F. & Allender, William, 2016. "Search and price dispersion in online grocery markets," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 255-281.
    3. Muller, Christophe, 2002. "Prices and living standards: evidence for Rwanda," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 187-203, June.
    4. Gatti, J. Rupert J., 1999. "Multi-Commodity Consumer Search," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 86(2), pages 219-244, June.
    5. Marshall Reinsdorf & Jack E. Triplett, 2009. "A Review of Reviews: Ninety Years of Professional Thinking About the Consumer Price Index," NBER Chapters, in: Price Index Concepts and Measurement, pages 17-83, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Christophe Muller, 2022. "Poverty Measurement under Income and Price Dispersions," AMSE Working Papers 2204, Aix-Marseille School of Economics, France.
    7. Marshall Reinsdorf, 1993. "The Effect of Outlet Price Differentials on the US Consumer Price Index," NBER Chapters, in: Price Measurements and Their Uses, pages 227-258, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Christophe Muller, 2023. "Poverty measurement under income and price dispersion," Chapters, in: Jacques Silber (ed.), Research Handbook on Measuring Poverty and Deprivation, chapter 14, pages 151-160, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    9. W. Erwin Diewert, 1995. "Price and Volume Measures in the System of National Accounts," NBER Working Papers 5103, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Marshall B. Reinsdorf & Brent R. Moulton, 1996. "The Construction of Basic Components of Cost-of-Living Indexes," NBER Chapters, in: The Economics of New Goods, pages 397-436, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    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:ucp:jpolec:v:95:y:1987:i:6:p:1179-95. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Journals Division (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/JPE .

    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.