The Boskin Commission Report After a Decade: After-life or Requiem?

Ernst R. Berndt

International Productivity Monitor, 2006, vol. 12, 61-73

Abstract: The author provides a political economy interpretation of the rise and fall of public interest in price measurement, placing these developments in the context of the attempt by Congress and the White House to deal with growing deficits in the early to mid-1990s. He provides a detailed discussion of initiatives since the Boskin Commission, such as the National Academy of Sciences panel, to improve CPI measurement. The author examines the thorny issue of the CPI for health care, with particular reference to the Boskin Commission recommendation that BLS move from pricing health care inputs to pricing health care outcomes. He concludes that the BLS has responded constructively to the recommendations from the various price measurement initiatives. By implementing many of the methodological changes suggested, the BLS has reduced net CPI inaccuracy and increased professional confidence in the reliability of the CPI.

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: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.csls.ca/ipm/12/IPM-12-Berndt-e.pdf (application/pdf)
http://www.csls.ca/ipm/12/IPM-12-Berndt-f.pdf version en français (application/pdf)

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:sls:ipmsls:v:12:y:2006:5

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.csls.ca

Access Statistics for this article

International Productivity Monitor is currently edited by Andrew Sharpe, Executive Director

More articles in International Productivity Monitor from Centre for the Study of Living Standards 170 Laurier Ave. W, Suite 604, Ottawa, ON K1P 5V5. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CSLS ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).