IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ifs/ifsewp/12-22.html

A winning formula? Elementary indices in the Retail Prices Index

Author

Listed:
  • Peter Levell

    (Institute for Fiscal Studies and Institute for Fiscal Studies)

Abstract

This paper considers the case for replacing the Carli index in the Retail Prices Index for calculating price changes at the elementary aggregate level. Following Diewert (2012), we go through each of the three approaches used to select appropriate index numbers: the test, stochastic and economic approaches. In each case, we find a few areas where our conclusions differ from Diewert's. Unlike Diewert, we are not as concerned that the Carli fails the time reversibility test, but note that it fails a revised price bouncing test. We find that the stochastic approach is inapplicable at the level of elementary aggregates, where by definition quantity weights for goods are unknown. However, we argue using insights from information theory, that the economic approach can be applied at this level and moreover that it favours the use of the Jevons index.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter Levell, 2012. "A winning formula? Elementary indices in the Retail Prices Index," IFS Working Papers W12/22, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    • Handle: RePEc:ifs:ifsewp:12/22
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.ifs.org.uk/wps/wp1222.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Varian, Hal R, 1982. "The Nonparametric Approach to Demand Analysis," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(4), pages 945-973, July.
    2. W. E. Diewert, 1973. "Afriat and Revealed Preference Theory," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 40(3), pages 419-425.
    3. Crossley, Thomas F. & Pendakur, Krishna, 2010. "The Common-Scaling Social Cost-of-Living Index," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 28(4), pages 523-538.
    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. Alan Beggs, 2021. "Afriat and arbitrage," Economic Theory Bulletin, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 9(2), pages 167-176, October.
    2. Ian Crawford, 2004. "Necessary and sufficient conditions for latent separability," CeMMAP working papers CWP02/04, Centre for Microdata Methods and Practice, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    3. Laura Blow & Martin Browning & Ian Crawford, 2004. "Nonparametric methods for the characteristic model," CeMMAP working papers 18/04, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    4. Richard Blundell & Martin Browning & Laurens Cherchye & Ian Crawford & Bram De Rock & Frederic Vermeulen, 2012. "Sharp for SARP: Nonparametric bounds on the behavioural and welfare effects of price changes," IFS Working Papers W12/14, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    5. Cherchye, L.J.H. & Demuynck, T. & de Rock, B., 2009. "Degrees of Cooperation in Household Consumption Models : A Revealed Preference Analysis," Discussion Paper 2009-91, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    6. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/5rkqqmvrn4tl22s9mc0o6ctj2 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Halevy, Yoram & Persitz, Dotan & Zrill, Lanny, 2017. "Non-parametric bounds for non-convex preferences," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 105-112.
    8. repec:dau:papers:123456789/10574 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Abi Adams & Richard Blundell & Martin Browning & Ian Crawford, 2015. "Prices versus preferences: taste change and revealed preference," IFS Working Papers W15/11, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    10. Laurens Cherchye & Bram De Rock & Arthur Lewbel & Frederic Vermeulen, 2015. "Sharing Rule Identification for General Collective Consumption Models," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 83(5), pages 2001-2041, September.
    11. Aluma Dembo & Shachar Kariv & Matthew Polisson & John Quah, 2021. "Ever since Allais," IFS Working Papers W21/15, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    12. Freer, Mikhail & Surana, Khushboo, 2025. "Marital stability with committed couples: A revealed preference analysis," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 131-159.
    13. Thomas Demuynck & John Rehbeck, 2023. "Computing revealed preference goodness-of-fit measures with integer programming," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 76(4), pages 1175-1195, November.
    14. van Bruggen, Paul & Heufer, Jan, 2017. "Afriat in the lab," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 546-550.
    15. Barnett, William A. & Erwin Diewert, W. & Zellner, Arnold, 2011. "Introduction to measurement with theory," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 161(1), pages 1-5, March.
    16. John Geanakoplos, 2013. "Afriat from MaxMin," Levine's Working Paper Archive 786969000000000746, David K. Levine.
    17. József Sákovics, 2013. "Revealed cardinal preference," Economic Theory Bulletin, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 1(1), pages 39-45, May.
    18. Laurens Cherchye & Bram De Rock & Frederic Vermeulen & Selma Walther, 2021. "Where did it go wrong? Marriage and divorce in Malawi," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 12(2), pages 505-545, May.
    19. Polisson, Matthew & Renou, Ludovic, 2016. "Afriat’s Theorem and Samuelson’s ‘Eternal Darkness’," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 36-40.
    20. Gross, John, 1995. "Heterogeneity of preferences for local public goods: The case of private expenditure on public education," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(1), pages 103-127, May.
    21. Laurens Cherchye & Bram Rock & Dieter Saelens & Marijn Verschelde, 2024. "Productive efficiency analysis with incomplete output information," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 62(3), pages 291-301, December.
    22. Chavas, Jean-Paul & Cox, Thomas L., 1997. "On nonparametric demand analysis," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 75-95, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;

    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:ifs:ifsewp:12/22. 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: Emma Hyman (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ifsssuk.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.