The Boskin Commission Report After a Decade

Jack E. Triplett

International Productivity Monitor, 2006, vol. 12, 24-60

Abstract: The author highlights the extremely salutatory effect the Boskin Commission has had on international price statistics, promoting open discussion of price measurement issues, engendering dialogue between statistical agencies and users, and encouraging research. Less positive in the author'sview has been the Boskin Commission’s popularization of “guestimates,” through its widely cited 1.1 percentage points CPI bias figure. The author also argues that the Commission ignored the possibility that quality improvements could actually produce a net downward bias to CPI components because the implicit quality adjustments inherent in the BLS procedures may over-adjust. He points out that the motivation for the appointment of the Boskin Commision was highly political, namely a desire to reduce Social Security expenditures by indexing benefits to a lower rate of increase than the CPI. He argues that it would have been preferable to separately address the distinct issues of CPI measurement and principles for allocation of resources to the dependent population.

Keywords: United States; Boskin Commission; Boskin; Measurement; Prices; Consumer Price Index; CPI; Bias; CPI Bias; Consumer Price Index Bias (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B41 C80 C82 E31 E61 E65 O47 O51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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