This paper explains a technique and presents empirical results for measuring the change in elderly consumer’s welfare due to price changes in items in the Consumer Price Index (CPI). A new approach for measuring welfare changes due to price changes in owner-occupied housing in a static and dynamic setting is the cornerstone of this research. The model treats housing as an asset with the fundame...

T his article describes an important improvement in the calculation of the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The Bureau of Labor Statistics plans to use a new geometric mean formula for calculating most of the basic components of the Consumer Price Index for all Urban Consumers (CPI-U) and the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). This change will become effective ...

Beneficiaries of the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) program received an 11.2-percent cost-of-living increase in benefits effective June 1981. This increase, the seventh automatic increase since 1975, was reflected in btiefit checks issued early in July. Automatic benefit increases are tied by statute to rises in the Consumer Price Index (CPI). They are initiated whenever t...

The consumer price index (CPI) is an important indicator of inflation in a market economy. It is necessary to regularly monitor and improve the quality of the CPI. Before one can develop a quality assurance system, one has to formulate a conceptual framework for evaluating the quality of consumer price statistics. In this paper various quality aspects of the CPI are presented. These aspects are...

Socml security checks dellwred to benefiaanes m the first week of July 1977 reflected the thwd automatic cost-of-hvmg nxrease m cash benefits under legulatlon enacted m 1972 and 1973 The 5 Q-percent merease, which became effectwe m June, apphed to benefits for all persons on the social security benefit rolls at the end of May, except those recelvlng benefits under the “special mnunum” PIA provw...

This paper compares the Portuguese and Bulgarian consumer price indices (CPI) and attempts to identify some areas in which the CPI compilation methodology could be improved in the two countries. This work is organised into six sections. The first section briefly describes the organisational structure on which the production of the CPI is based in the two countries. The second section focuses on...

We use shifts in food Engel curves among the U.S. elderly to estimate the extent of Consumer Price Index (CPI) bias specific to this population. Over the last thirty years the share of total expenditure devoted to food has declined more rapidly for elderly-headed households than for other households. This decline is not explained by a more rapid increase in measured total expenditure for the el...

The release of the January 1987 Consumer Price Index (cpi) in February will introduce updated market baskets that reflect population distributions from the 1980 census of population and spending patterns from the 1982-84 Consumer Expenditure Survey . This release will be part of a 5-year program to update the cpi market basket and incorporate numerous technical enhancements . t Although the cpi...

We propose a restructuring of U. S. Federal debt. All debt should be perpetual, paying coupons forever with no principal. The debt should be composed of the following: 1) Fixedvalue, floating-rate, electronically transferable debt. Such debt looks like a money-market fund, or reserves at the Fed, to an investor. 2) Nominal perpetuities. This debt pays a coupon of $1 per bond, forever. 3) Indexe...

Early in January 1984, beneficiaries under the OldAge, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) program received a 3.5-percent cost-of-living increase. This increase, effective for December 1983, was originally scheduled to take effect in June but was postponed by the 1983 Amendments to the Social Security Act. . Automatic cost-of-living increases were instituted in 1975 by legislation enact...