In an economy characterized by frequent change in technology, in the
types of goods and services purchased, and in the forms of business
organization, keeping track of price change continues to pose many
difficulties. Price change affects the way we perceive changes in such
basic measures as real output, productivity, and living standards. This
volume, which brings together academic economists with those responsible
for official price indexes, presents outstanding new research on price
measurement.
Half of the papers focus on prices for mainframe and personal computers,
semiconductors, and other high-tech products, using mainly hedonic
techniques. The volume includes a panel discussion by distinguished
economists about the theoretical and practical considerations of how
best to measure price change of capital goods whose quality is changing
rapidly. The authors also present new research on more conventional but
still unsettled problems in the price field affecting both the consumer
and producer price indexes of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.