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The Boskin Commission Report and its Aftermath

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Robert J. Gordon

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Abstract

This paper briefly summarizes the analysis and findings of the 1996 Boskin Commission Report, Toward a More Accurate Measure of the Cost of Living. It then reviews the comments and criticisms that appeared soon after the Report was issued and provides responses to the more important criticisms. Changes in the CPI, both those that were planned before the Report and those that were in part a response to its recommendations, are summarized and assessed. The paper concludes with a summary of recent research on quality change and comments on the current status of the CPI and of price measurement research. Including those improvements that the BLS has announced for implementation in 2000-2002, the paper estimates that the current upward bias in the CPI is in the range of 0.65 percent, down from the 1.1 percent that the Report estimated applied to the period 1995-96.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 7759.

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Date of creation: Jun 2000
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:7759

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I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health
I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets

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References listed on IDEAS
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  1. Nordhaus, William D, 1998. "Quality Change in Price Indexes," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 12(1), pages 59-68, Winter. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. David M. Cutler & Mark McClellan & Joseph P. Newhouse & Dahlia Remler, 1999. "Pricing Heart Attack Treatments," NBER Working Papers 7089, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
    • David M. Cutler & Mark B. McClellan & Joseph P. Newhouse & Dahlia K. Remler, 2001. "Pricing Heart Attack Treatments," NBER Chapters, in: Medical Care Output and Productivity, pages 305-362 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!]
  3. Moulton, Brent R, 1996. "Bias in the Consumer Price Index: What Is the Evidence?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 10(4), pages 159-77, Fall. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. David M. Cutler & Mark McClellan, 1996. "The Determinants of Technological Change in Heart Attack Treatment," NBER Working Papers 5751, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Irving Shapiro & Matthew D. Shapiro & David W. Wilcox, 1999. "Quality Improvement in Health Care: A Framework for Price and Output Measurement," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(2), pages 333-337, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. David Cutler & Mark McClellan & Joseph Newhouse, 1998. "The Costs and Benefits of Intensive Treatment for Cardiovascular Disease," NBER Working Papers 6514, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. David M. Cutler & Mark McClellan & Joseph P. Newhouse & Dahlia Remler, 1996. "Are Medical Prices Declining?," NBER Working Papers 5750, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Matthew D. Shapiro & David W. Wilcox, 1996. "Mismeasurement in the Consumer Price Index: An Evaluation," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 1996, Volume 11, pages 93-154 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!]
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  9. Boskin, Michael J, et al, 1998. "Consumer Prices, the Consumer Price Index, and the Cost of Living," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 12(1), pages 3-26, Winter. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. W. Erwin Diewert, 1995. "Axiomatic and Economic Approaches to Elementary Price Indexes," NBER Working Papers 5104, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Matthew D. Shapiro & David W. Wilcox, 1997. "Alternative strategies for aggregating prices in the CPI," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, issue May, pages 113-125. [Downloadable!]
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  12. Diewert, W Erwin, 1998. "Index Number Issues in the Consumer Price Index," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 12(1), pages 47-58, Winter. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Abraham, Katharine G & Greenlees, John S & Moulton, Brent R, 1998. "Working to Improve the Consumer Price Index," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 12(1), pages 27-36, Winter. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  14. Pollak, Robert A., 1981. "The social cost of living index," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 311-336, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  15. Diewert, W. E., 1976. "Exact and superlative index numbers," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 4(2), pages 115-145, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  16. Braithwait, Steven D, 1980. "The Substitution Bias of the Laspeyres Price Index: An Analysis Using Estimated Cost-of-Living Indexes," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(1), pages 64-77, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  17. Griliches, Zvi & Cockburn, Iain, 1994. "Generics and New Goods in Pharmaceutical Price Indexes," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(5), pages 1213-32, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Jochen Hartwig, 2005. "On misusing National Accounts data for governance purposes," Working papers 05-101, KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich. [Downloadable!]
  2. Daehoon Nahm, 2006. "Upper-Level Substitution and New-Goods Bias in the Korean Consumer Price Index," Research Papers 0602, Macquarie University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  3. Mark J Flanagan & Felix Hammermann, 2007. "What Explains Persistent Inflation Differentials Across Transition Economies?," IMF Working Papers 07/189, International Monetary Fund. [Downloadable!]
  4. Balázs Égert, & László Halpern & Ronald MacDonald, 2005. "Equilibrium Exchange Rates in Transition Economies: Taking Stock of the Issues," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series wp793, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross Business School. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. Felix Hammermann & Mark Flanagan, 2007. "What Explains Persistent Inflation Differentials Across Transition Economies?," Kiel Working Papers 1373, Kiel Institute for the World Economy. [Downloadable!]
  6. Égert, Balázs, 2004. "Assessing equilibrium exchange rates in CEE acceding countries: Can we have DEER with BEER without FEER? A critical survey of the literature," BOFIT Discussion Papers 1/2004, Bank of Finland, Institute for Economies in Transition. [Downloadable!]
  7. Janine Aron & John Muellbauer, 2004. "Construction of CPIX Data for Forecasting and Modelling in South Africa," Development and Comp Systems 0409056, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  8. Peter J. Klenow, 2003. "Measuring consumption growth: the impact of new and better products," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, issue Win, pages 10-23. [Downloadable!]
  9. Hiroshi Ohashi, 2003. "Econometric Analysis Of Price Index For Home Video Cassette Recorders In The U.S., 1978-1987," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 12(2), pages 179-197, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Robert J. Gordon, 2006. "The Boskin Commission Report: A Retrospective One Decade Later," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 12, pages 7-22, Spring. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  11. Daehoon Nahm, 2003. "Surveying University Student Standards in Economics," Research Papers 0301, Macquarie University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  12. Felix Hammermann, 2007. "Nonmonetary Determinants of Inflation in Romania: A Decomposition," Kiel Working Papers 1322, Kiel Institute for the World Economy. [Downloadable!]
  13. Erzo G.J. Luttmer, 2004. "The size distribution of firms in an economy with fixed and entry costs," Working Papers 633, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. [Downloadable!]
  14. David E. Lebow & Jeremy B. Rudd, 2001. "Measurement error in the consumer price index: where do we stand?," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2001-61, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.). [Downloadable!]
  15. Guy Meredith, 2007. "Debt Dynamics and Global Imbalances: Some Conventional Views Reconsidered," IMF Working Papers 07/4, International Monetary Fund. [Downloadable!]
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