| Foreword | 5 |
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| Contents | 8 |
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| Contributors | 10 |
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| Part I Consumer Price Indexes Time-Space Integration | 12 |
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| Are Integration and Comparison Between CPIs and PPPs Feasible? | 13 |
| 1 Introduction | 13 |
| 2 Integration of CPIs and PPPs | 14 |
| 2.1 The Comparison of CPI Baskets in the Two Countries | 15 |
| 2.2 The Comparison of CPI and PPI Baskets in Two Countries | 17 |
| 2.3 Problems and Benefits Involved in Developing an Integrated Approach for the Collection of the Necessary Information for CPIs and PPPs | 19 |
| 3 A Methodological Approach for Deciding whether to Include Less Comparable but More Representative Products in the PPP Calculation | 22 |
| 3.1 Inclusion of Less Comparable Products vs Identical Products | 22 |
| 3.2 Interpretation of the Factors Influencing the PPPs Based on Products with Different Degree of Comparability | 25 |
| 4 Comparison Between the Computed CPIs and PPPs | 27 |
| 4.1 Comparing CPIs Across Space | 28 |
| 4.2 Comparing APPs Over Time | 29 |
| 5 Concluding Remarks | 32 |
| References | 33 |
| Retrospective Approximations of Superlative Price Indexes for Years Where Expenditure Data Is Unavailable | 35 |
| 1 Introduction | 35 |
| 2 Superlative and LloydMoulton Price Indexes | 36 |
| 3 Approximating Superlative Price Indexes | 38 |
| 3.1 Using Lloyd--Moulton Price Indexes | 38 |
| 3.2 Using Estimated Expenditure Shares | 39 |
| 4 Lowe CPIs and Approximate Superlative Price Indexes | 41 |
| 5 Three or More Benchmark Years | 44 |
| 6 Data and Empirical Evidence | 46 |
| 6.1 Some Facts and Figures | 46 |
| 6.2 Empirical Results | 48 |
| 7 Conclusion | 51 |
| References | 51 |
| Harmonized Cross Region and Cross Country CPI Time-Space Integration in the Euro-Zone | 53 |
| 1 Introduction | 53 |
| 2 The State of the Art | 54 |
| 3 The TCPIs and the PPPs Elaborated by the EU Individual Countries and by Eurostat. Lost in the Intricacy of the Jungle | 59 |
| 4 The Dual Nature of CPIs: A Critical Appraisal of the National TCPIs/HTICPs and PPPs Elaborated by the NSOs of the EU Countries and by Eurostat | 60 |
| 5 Cross Region and Cross Country Integration in an Euro-Zone Harmonized Frame: Some Comments and Proposals | 63 |
| 6 Conclusion | 67 |
| References | 68 |
| Part II Consumer Price Indexes in Space | 70 |
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| Modelling Spatially Correlated Error Structures in the Time-Space Extrapolation of Purchasing Power Parities | 71 |
| 1 Introduction | 71 |
| 2 The National Price Levels Model | 73 |
| 2.1 The Spatial Error Structure | 74 |
| 3 The RRD Method | 74 |
| 3.1 The Econometric Formulation of RRD | 75 |
| 3.1.1 Observation Equations | 75 |
| 3.1.2 Transition Equations | 77 |
| 3.2 Estimation and Prediction of PPPs | 79 |
| 4 Spatial Specifications Considered in the Analysis | 79 |
| 4.1 Variables Included in the Measure of Economic Distance | 81 |
| 4.2 Construction of the Distance Score | 81 |
| 4.3 Construction of the Weights Matrix | 82 |
| 5 Data and Empirical Results | 82 |
| 5.1 Data Compilation and Data Construction | 82 |
| 5.1.1 PPP Data | 82 |
| 5.1.2 Socio-Economic Variables Included in the Price Level Regression | 83 |
| 5.1.3 Covariance Variables | 83 |
| 5.2 Empirical Evidence | 84 |
| 5.2.1 Parameter Estimates and Tests for Spatial Correlation | 84 |
| 5.2.2 PPP Predictions and Prediction Performance | 90 |
| 6 Conclusions | 98 |
| 7 Appendix: The Construction of the Economic Distance Measure used in the PCW | 98 |
| . Variables Included in the Construction | 98 |
| . Estimation | 99 |
| . Descriptive Statistics for the Variables used to Construct the PCW. Selected Countries Shown. | 103 |
| References | 103 |
| Price Indexes across Space and Time and the Stochastic Properties of Prices | 105 |
| 1 Introduction | 105 |
| 2 Existing Literature | 106 |
| 3 Price Behaviour and Price Indexes | 108 |
| 4 A Simulation Experiment | 113 |
| 4.1 Ensemble Indexes | 115 |
| 4.2 Time-Based Indexes | 117 |
| 4.3 Space-Based Indexes | 118 |
| 5 Application to Real Data | 119 |
| 6 Conclusion | 120 |
| References | 121 |
| Intra-National Price Level Differentials: The Italian Experience | 123 |
| 1 Data Source and Survey Framework | 123 |
| 1.1 The Usefulness of Existing CPI Data | 124 |
| 1.2 The Direct Integrating Surveys | 125 |
| 2 Basic Methodology | 127 |
| 3 Main Results | 128 |
| References | 138 |
| Part III Subindexes | 139 |
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| Consumer Price Indexes: An Analysis of Heterogeneity Across Sub-Populations | 140 |
| 1 Introduction | 140 |
| 2 Definition of Experimental Price Indexes | 141 |
| 3 Data | 145 |
| 3.1 Harmonisation of HBS and CPI Data | 145 |
| 3.2 Weights' Identification | 146 |
| 3.3 Identification of Sub-Groups | 147 |
| 4 Results | 149 |
| 4.1 Weights' Effects | 149 |
| 4.2 Effects of Aggregation System | 152 |
| 4.3 Changing Basket | 153 |
| 5 Final Remarks | 154 |
| References | 155 |
| Price Dispersion: The Case of Pasta | 157 |
| 1 Introduction and Problem Definition | 157 |
| 2 Pasta Scanner Dataset Description and Price Dispersion | 158 |
| 3 Comparability and Representativity: List of Common Brands and List of Common Products | 161 |
| 4 Notation and Methodological Issues | 165 |
| 5 Results and Discussion | 166 |
| 6 Conclusion and Future Work | 170 |
| References | 172 |
| Measuring the Production of Non-Market Services | 173 |
| 1 Introduction | 173 |
| 2 Terminology | 175 |
| 3 Different Meanings of Outcome | 175 |
| 3 Competitive Markets, No Quality Change in Products | 177 |
| 3.1 The Consumer Side | 177 |
| 3.2 The Producer Side | 179 |
| 4 Non-Market Production, no Quality Change | 180 |
| 5 Non-Market Production and Quality Change | 183 |
| 5.1 Direct Outcome, Stratification and Implicit Quality Adjustment | 183 |
| 5.2 Indirect Outcome and Quality Adjustment Through Re-Definition of Products | 184 |
| 5.3 Outcome and Explicit Quality Adjustment | 187 |
| 6 Box 1. Why Narrow Specifications of Products may not always be Sufficient to Capture Quality Change | 188 |
| 5.4 Output as the Marginal Contribution to Direct Outcome<
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