The Plutocratic Bias in the CPI : Evidence from Spain /

We define the plutocratic bias as the difference between inflation measured according to the current official CPI and a democratic index in which all households receive the same weight. We estimate that during the 1990s the plutocratic bias in Spain amounts to 0.055 percent per year. However, positi...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Ruiz Castillo, Javier
Other Authors: Izquierdo, Mario, Ley, Eduardo
Format: Journal
Language:English
Published: Washington, D.C. : International Monetary Fund, 2000.
Series:IMF Working Papers; Working Paper ; No. 2000/167
Online Access:Full text available on IMF
Description
Summary:We define the plutocratic bias as the difference between inflation measured according to the current official CPI and a democratic index in which all households receive the same weight. We estimate that during the 1990s the plutocratic bias in Spain amounts to 0.055 percent per year. However, positive and negative biases cancel off when averaging over the whole period. The mean absolute bias is significantly larger, 0.090. We can explain most of the oscillations experimented by the plutocratic bias by the price behavior of three goods: a luxury good and two necessities.
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Physical Description:1 online resource (25 pages)
Format:Mode of access: Internet
ISSN:1018-5941
Access:Electronic access restricted to authorized BRAC University faculty, staff and students