When Do Chained Deflators for IT Goods Overstate Quality Change?

Ana Aizcorbe and Daniel Ripperger-Suhler

AEA Papers and Proceedings, 2026, vol. 116, 556-561

Abstract: In general, chained deflators for IT goods will have a commingling problem that causes them to overstate quality growth. We base this on a comparison of chained superlative indexes with a multilateral index that does not have the commingling problem—the weighted time product dummy index. Empirical results from three recent studies suggest that this can occur often—we saw this in 9 of the 12 categories studied—and that the gaps can be nontrivial. We argue that the recently developed multilateral methods may be a better strategy in price measurement for this sector.

JEL-codes: C43 E31 L13 L63 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pandp.20261061 (application/pdf)
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/materials/25305 (application/zip)
Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aea:apandp:v:116:y:2026:p:556-561

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.aeaweb.org/subscribe.html

DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20261061

Access Statistics for this article

AEA Papers and Proceedings is currently edited by William Johnson and Kelly Markel

More articles in AEA Papers and Proceedings from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert ().