IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/h/nbr/nberch/15405.html

Nonresponse Imputations and Related Measurement Issues in the CPI for Shelter

In: Measurement of Housing and the Housing Sector

Author

Listed:
  • Lara Loewenstein
  • Hugh Montag
  • Randal Verbrugge

Abstract

Shelter is the largest component of US consumer price index (CPI) inflation; therefore, the accuracy of shelter inflation is critical for the accuracy of overall CPI inflation. Nonresponse in the BLS Housing Survey, which underpins the measurement of CPI shelter inflation, has increased since 2000 and now represents roughly 40 percent of total observations. Missing rent data are currently imputed using a class-mean approach based on rent tier, potentially resulting in biased imputations, as we find that nonresponse is correlated with factors beyond rent tier. We study alternative simple imputation methods based on variables correlated with both nonresponse and rent growth, including structure type and tenure length. A simple model demonstrates that alternative methods could yield sharply different index biases. However, in practice, we find that these alternative methods yield similar shelter inflation indexes, suggesting that any index bias may be modest.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Lara Loewenstein & Hugh Montag & Randal Verbrugge, 2026. "Nonresponse Imputations and Related Measurement Issues in the CPI for Shelter," NBER Chapters, in: Measurement of Housing and the Housing Sector, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberch:15405
    Note: TWP
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/chapters/c15405.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Randal Verbrugge & Alan Dorfman & William Johnson & Fred Marsh III & Robert Poole & Owen Shoemaker, 2017. "Determinants of Differential Rent Changes: Mean Reversion versus the Usual Suspects," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 45(3), pages 591-627, July.
    2. Brian Adams & Lara Loewenstein & Hugh Montag & Randal Verbrugge, 2024. "Disentangling Rent Index Differences: Data, Methods, and Scope," American Economic Review: Insights, American Economic Association, vol. 6(2), pages 230-245, June.
    3. Richard Ashley & Randal Verbrugge, 2025. "The intermittent Phillips curve: Finding a stable (but persistence‐dependent) Phillips curve model specification," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 63(3), pages 926-944, July.
    4. Charles Hokayem & Christopher Bollinger & James P. Ziliak, 2015. "The Role of CPS Nonresponse in the Measurement of Poverty," Journal of the American Statistical Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 110(511), pages 935-945, September.
    5. Adams, Brian & Verbrugge, Randal, 2025. "Location, location, structure type: Rent divergence within neighborhoods," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    6. Theodore M. Crone & Leonard I. Nakamura & Richard Voith, 2010. "Rents Have Been Rising, Not Falling, in the Postwar Period," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 92(3), pages 628-642, August.
    7. Randal Verbrugge & Saeed Zaman, 2024. "Post‐COVID inflation dynamics: Higher for longer," Journal of Forecasting, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(4), pages 871-893, July.
    8. Tim Erickson & Ariel Pakes, 2011. "An Experimental Component Index for the CPI: From Annual Computer Data to Monthly Data on Other Goods," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(5), pages 1707-1738, August.
    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. Adams, Brian & Verbrugge, Randal, 2025. "Location, location, structure type: Rent divergence within neighborhoods," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    2. Brian Adams & Lara Loewenstein & Hugh Montag & Randal Verbrugge, 2024. "Disentangling Rent Index Differences: Data, Methods, and Scope," American Economic Review: Insights, American Economic Association, vol. 6(2), pages 230-245, June.
    3. Ronan C. Lyons & Allison Shertzer & Rowena Gray, 2026. "Rental Prices and the Cost of Living in the United States, 1914-2006," NBER Chapters, in: Measurement of Housing and the Housing Sector, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Wesley Janson & Randal J. Verbrugge, 2021. "Late Payment Fees and Nonpayment in Rental Markets, and Implications for Inflation Measurement: Theoretical Considerations and Evidence," Working Papers 20-22R2, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, revised 06 Nov 2023.
    5. Suzuki, Masatomo & Asami, Yasushi & Shimizu, Chihiro, 2021. "Housing rent rigidity under downward pressure: Unit-level longitudinal evidence from Tokyo," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    6. Gallin, Joshua & Verbrugge, Randal J., 2019. "A theory of sticky rents: Search and bargaining with incomplete information," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 478-519.
    7. Lopez, Luis A. & Yoshida, Jiro, 2022. "Estimating housing rent depreciation for inflation adjustments," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    8. Robert Martin, 2026. "Comment on "Rental Prices and the Cost of Living in the United States, 1914-2006"," NBER Chapters, in: Measurement of Housing and the Housing Sector, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Leonard Nakamura, 2014. "Durable Financial Regulation: Monitoring Financial Instruments as a Counterpart to Regulating Financial Institutions," NBER Chapters, in: Measuring Wealth and Financial Intermediation and Their Links to the Real Economy, pages 67-88, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Erica L. Groshen & Brian C. Moyer & Ana M. Aizcorbe & Ralph Bradley & David M. Friedman, 2017. "How Government Statistics Adjust for Potential Biases from Quality Change and New Goods in an Age of Digital Technologies: A View from the Trenches," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 31(2), pages 187-210, Spring.
    11. Robert Poole & Randal Verbrugge, 2007. "Explaining the Rent-OER Inflation Divergence, 1999-2006," Working Papers 410, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
    12. Gabriel Ehrlich & John C. Haltiwanger & Ron S. Jarmin & David Johnson & Matthew D. Shapiro, 2020. "Reengineering Key National Economic Indicators," NBER Chapters, in: Big Data for Twenty-First-Century Economic Statistics, pages 25-68, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Slaymaker, Rachel & Banahan, Conor & Kren, Janez, 2025. "Understanding trends in property-level rental inflation," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number SUSTAT133.
    14. David Byrne & Carol Corrado & Daniel Sichel, 2020. "The Rise of Cloud Computing: Minding Your Ps, Qs and Ks," NBER Chapters, in: Measuring and Accounting for Innovation in the Twenty-First Century, pages 519-551, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. repec:ags:aaea22:343770 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Bhashkar Mazumder, 2018. "Intergenerational Mobility in the United States: What We Have Learned from the PSID," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 680(1), pages 213-234, November.
    17. Rui OTA & Lili ZHANG, 2020. "Declining Demand and Product Quality: An Empirical Study of the Japanese PC Monitor Market," Discussion papers 20033, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    18. Sonia Gilbukh & Andrew Haughwout & Rebecca J. Landau & Joseph Tracy, 2023. "The price‐to‐rent ratio: A macroprudential application," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 51(2), pages 503-532, March.
    19. Rojas, Christian & Jaenicke, Edward C. & Page, Elina T., 2024. "Shrinkflation? Quantifying the impact of changes in package size on food inflation," 2024 Annual Meeting, July 28-30, New Orleans, LA 343770, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    20. Verbrugge, Randal & Zaman, Saeed, 2024. "Improving inflation forecasts using robust measures," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 735-745.
    21. Gabriel Ehrlich & John C. Haltiwanger & Ron S. Jarmin & David Johnson & Ed Olivares & Luke W. Pardue & Matthew D. Shapiro & Laura Zhao, 2023. "Quality Adjustment at Scale: Hedonic vs. Exact Demand-Based Price Indices," NBER Working Papers 31309, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C81 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - Methodology for Collecting, Estimating, and Organizing Microeconomic Data; Data Access
    • E31 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Price Level; Inflation; Deflation
    • R31 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location - - - Housing Supply and Markets

    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:nbr:nberch:15405. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.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.