Measurement of Quality Changes in Consumer Durables

M. L. Burstein

Chapter 16 in Studies in Banking Theory, Financial History and Vertical Control, 1988, pp 256-267 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract This exhibits some of the tentativeness of a report on research in progress.1 Nevertheless it develops notions of a theoretical character which, together with an empirical survey, may have broad interest. It reaches three central conclusions: 1. If one distinguishes between consumer goods as sources of services and the service streams proper, intertemporal comparisons of costs of living become more feasible than has heretofore been suggested. 2. Forms of industrial organization have much bearing on the appropriateness and effectiveness of procedures that might be undertaken to measure quality changes of sources of services. Specifically, we are concerned with the perfection of second-hand markets, concentration ratios, and the degree to which there are important indivisibilities in the production process. Supply considerations cannot be neglected in cost-of-living studies. Ideally-organized second-hand markets make possible precisely-calculated ‘improvement factors’, measures of quality change. 3. Empirical investigation of the retail market for household refrigeration in the United States indicates that the failure of the US Bureau of Labor Statistics to account for changes in quality (including size) may have imparted a downward bias to indexes computed up to 1956.

Keywords: Quality Change; Depreciation Rate; Improvement Factor; Consumer Durable; Price Quotation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1988
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

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:pal:palchp:978-1-349-09978-8_16

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.palgrave.com/9781349099788

DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-09978-8_16

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Palgrave Macmillan Books from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().