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2017 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

8. Collecting Prices

Authors : Robert O’Neill, Jeff Ralph, Paul A. Smith

Published in: Inflation

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

All of the price indices we will discuss in this book require observations of prices at different periods of time in order to allow for construction of even the most elementary of price indices. As it is currently impossible for anyone, or any organisation, to produce a complete list of prices of items available at any given point in time (or a complete list of transaction prices), it is required that only a sample of prices is collected each period. This chapter considers how ONS goes about collecting the large number of price quotes needed in order to provide the raw material required in producing a price index such as the CPI.

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previous chapter What’s in the Basket?

next chapter Estimating Household Expenditure Shares

See the nomenclature part of the EU Website for the COICOP classification as adapted for the HICP and for an example based on food categories. http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/ramon/nomenclatures/index.cfm?TargetUrl=LST_NOM_DTL&StrNom=HICP_2000&StrLanguageCode=EN&IntPcKey=37592057&StrLayoutCode=EN.

Office of the Deputy Prime Minister Technical Report; using town centre statistics to indicate the broad location of retail development—initial analysis, London: ODPM, 2005, p. 11.

And given the issues raised elsewhere in this book we might ask which sort of average is appropriate.

According to http://www.unclebens.com.au/about/, Uncle Ben’s released its first UK microwavable rice produced in 1999 (accessed Friday, 10th March 2016).

For some more information regarding the work of the price collectors, see The Guardian (2017), which includes comments on the process from one of the price collectors contributing to the ONS data collection.

This may be one reason why Index Day is sometimes moved, and to avoid disrupting retailers at times at which they may be particularly busy. Illustration: Source ONS CPI Technical Manual (2014b).

BLS. (2015). BLS handbook of methods, chapter 17, consumer price indexes. Available from https://www.bls.gov/opub/hom/pdf/homch17.pdf. Accessed 22 December 2016.

Breton, R., Flower, T., Mayhew, M., Metcalfe, E., Milliken, N., Payne, C., et al. (2016). Research indices using web scraped data: May 2016 update. Newport: Office for National Statistics. Available from www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/economy/inflationandpriceindices/articles/researchindicesusingwebscrapedpricedata/may2016update/researchindicesusingwebscrapeddatamay2016.pdf. Accessed 3 June 2017.

Dorfman, A.H., Lent, J., Leaver, S.G., & Wegman, E. (2006). On sample survey designs for consumer price indexes. Survey Methodology, 32, 197–216.

Fenwick, D., Melser, D., & Moran, P. (2006). Consumer price indices: Real world quality measures. 9th meeting international working group on price indices. London: The Ottawa Group. www.ottawagroup.org/Ottawa/ottawagroup.nsf/home/Meeting+9/$file/2006%209th%20Meeting%20-%20David%20Fenwick%20-%20Real%20world%20quality%20measures.pdf.

de Haan, J., Opperdoes, E., & Schut, C. (1999). Item selection in the consumer price index: Cutoff versus probability sampling. Survey Methodology, 25, 31–41.

Heravi, S., & Morgan, P. (2014). Sampling schemes for price index construction: A performance comparison across the classification of individual consumption by purpose food groups. Journal of Applied Statistics, 41, 1453–1470.

ILO, IMF, OECD, UNECE, Eurostat, & The World Bank. (2004). Consumer price index manual. Geneva: International Labour Office. Available from http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—dgreports/—stat/documents/presentation/wcms_331153.pdf. Accessed 3 June 2017.

Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. (2005). Technical report: Using town centre statistics to indicate the broad location of retail development—Initial analysis. London: ODPM.

ONS. (2014a). UK wages over the past forty years. Available from http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20160105160709/ http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/lmac/uk-wages-over-the-past-four-decades/2014/rep---uk-wages-over-thepast-four-decades.html. Accessed 28 May 2014.

ONS (2014b). Consumer Price Indices Technical Manual, 2014 Edition. Newport: Office for National Statistics. Available from http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20160105160709/http:/ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/user-guidance/prices/cpi-and-rpi/cpi-technical-manual/consumer-price-indices-technical-manual–2014.pdf. Accessed 3 June 2017.

The Independent. (1994). Juggling trick with a shopping bag: The Retail Price Index is measured by a list of some 600 items. How reliable a guide to inflation is it? Available from www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/juggling-trick-with-a-shopping-bag-the-retail-price-index-is-measured-by-a-list-of-some-600-items-1381964.html?amp. Accessed 3 June 2017.

The Guardian. (2017). The UK’s inflation foot soldiers: How the ONS measures the CPI. Available from https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/feb/12/the-uks-inflation-foot-soldiers-how-the-ons-measures-the-cpi. Accessed 3 June 2017.

Title: Collecting Prices
Authors: Robert O’Neill
Jeff Ralph
Paul A. Smith
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Book: Inflation
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-64124-9

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-64125-6

Copyright Year: 2017
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64125-6_8