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Estimating the Benefits and Costs of New and Disappearing Products

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  • Diewert, Erwin
  • FEENSTRA, Robert

Abstract

A major challenge facing statistical agencies is the problem of adjusting price and quantity indexes for changes in the availability of commodities. This problem arises in the scanner data context as products in a commodity stratum appear and disappear in retail outlets. Hicks suggested a reservation price methodology for dealing with this problem in the context of the economic approach to index number theory. Feenstra and Hausman suggested specific methods for implementing the Hicksian approach. The present paper evaluates these approaches and suggests some alternative approaches to the estimation of reservation prices. The various approaches are implemented using some scanner data on frozen juice products that are available online.

Suggested Citation

  • Diewert, Erwin & FEENSTRA, Robert, 2018. "Estimating the Benefits and Costs of New and Disappearing Products," Microeconomics.ca working papers erwin_diewert-2018-3, Vancouver School of Economics, revised 23 Apr 2018.
    • Handle: RePEc:ubc:pmicro:erwin_diewert-2018-3
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    Cited by:

    1. Diewert, Erwin & Fox, Kevin J., 2019. "Productivity Indexes and National Statistics: Theory, Methods and Challenges," Microeconomics.ca working papers erwin_diewert-2019-8, Vancouver School of Economics, revised 25 Apr 2019.
    2. Ryan Martin, 2020. "Identifying Consumer-Welfare Changes when Online Search Platforms Change Their List of Search Results," Staff Working Papers 20-5, Bank of Canada.
    3. Daan Freeman & Robert Inklaar & W. Erwin Diewert, 2021. "Natural Resources and Missing Inputs in International Productivity Comparisons," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 67(1), pages 1-17, March.
    4. 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.
    5. Brynjolfsson, Erik & Collis, Avinash & Diewert, Erwin & Eggers, Felix & FOX, Kevin J., 2019. "GDP-B: Accounting for the Value of New and Free Goods in the Digital Economy," Microeconomics.ca working papers erwin_diewert-2019-6, Vancouver School of Economics, revised 27 Mar 2019.
    6. Diewert, Erwin, 2019. "Quality Adjustment and Hedonics: A Unified Approach," Microeconomics.ca working papers erwin_diewert-2019-2, Vancouver School of Economics, revised 14 Mar 2019.
    7. Thomas von Brasch & Arvid Raknerud & Diana-Cristina Iancu, 2018. "Productivity growth, firm turnover and new varieties," Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE) Discussion Papers ESCoE DP-2018-11, Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE).
    8. Diewert, Erwin & Feenstra, Robert, 2019. "Estimating the Benefits of New Products: Some Approximations," Microeconomics.ca working papers erwin_diewert-2019-3, Vancouver School of Economics, revised 13 Mar 2019.
    9. Thomas von Brasch & Arvid Raknerud, 2022. "The impact of new varieties on aggregate productivity growth," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 124(3), pages 646-676, July.
    10. Diewert, Erwin & Marandola, Tina, 2018. "Scanner Data, Elementary Price Indexes and the Chain Drift Problem," Microeconomics.ca working papers tina_marandola-2018-9, Vancouver School of Economics, revised 10 Oct 2018.
    11. Lorraine Aeberhardt & Florian Hatier & Marie Leclair & Benoît Pentinat & Jean-Denis Zafar, 2020. "Does the Digital Economy Distort the Volume-Price Split of GDP? The French Experience," Economie et Statistique / Economics and Statistics, Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques (INSEE), issue 517-518-5, pages 139-156.
    12. Thomas von Brasch & Diana-Cristina Iancu & Arvid Raknerud, 2018. "Productivity growth, firm turnover and new varieties," Discussion Papers 872, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    13. Crystal Konny, 2020. "Modernizing data collection for the Consumer Price Index," Business Economics, Palgrave Macmillan;National Association for Business Economics, vol. 55(1), pages 45-52, January.
    14. Seidu Dauda & Abe C. Dunn & Anne E. Hall, 2019. "Are Medical Care Prices Still Declining? A Systematic Examination of Quality-Adjusted Price Index Alternatives for Medical Care," BEA Working Papers 0166, Bureau of Economic Analysis.
    15. Ana M. Aizcorbe & Daniel Ripperger-Suhler, 2024. "Do Price Deflators for High-Tech Goods Overstate Quality Change?," BEA Papers 0129, Bureau of Economic Analysis.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Hicksian reservation prices; virtual prices; Laspeyres; Paasche; Fisher;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C33 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • C43 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics - - - Index Numbers and Aggregation
    • C81 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - Methodology for Collecting, Estimating, and Organizing Microeconomic Data; Data Access
    • D11 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Theory
    • D60 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - General
    • E31 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Price Level; Inflation; Deflation

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