Measuring Aggregate Price Indexes with Taste Shocks: Theory and Evidence for CES Preferences

Stephen Redding and David Weinstein

No 22479, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We develop an approach to measuring the cost of living for CES preferences that treats demand shocks as taste shocks that are equivalent to price shocks. In the presence of relative taste shocks, the Sato-Vartia price index is upward biased because an increase in the relative consumer taste for a variety lowers its taste-adjusted price and raises its expenditure share. By failing to allow for this association, the Sato-Vartia index underweights drops in taste-adjusted prices and overweights increases in taste-adjusted prices, leading to what we term a “taste-shock bias.” We show that this bias generalizes to other invertible demand systems.

JEL-codes: D11 D12 E01 E31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ecm, nep-mac and nep-pbe
Note: ITI
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Published as Stephen J Redding & David E Weinstein, 2020. "Measuring Aggregate Price Indices with Taste Shocks: Theory and Evidence for CES Preferences," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 135(1), pages 503-560.

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Journal Article: Measuring Aggregate Price Indices with Taste Shocks: Theory and Evidence for CES Preferences (2020)
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