Using Engel Curves to Estimate CPI Bias for the Elderly

Dean Scrimgeour and James Gorry ()
Additional contact information
James Gorry: Department of Economics, Colgate University

No 2015-03, Working Papers from Department of Economics, Colgate University

Abstract: We use shifts in food Engel curves among the U.S. elderly to estimate the extent of Consumer Price Index (CPI) bias specific to this population. Over the last thirty years the share of total expenditure devoted to food has declined more rapidly for elderly-headed households than for other households. This decline is not explained by a more rapid increase in measured total expenditure for the elderly, or by relative change in other covariates such as household composition. We present this as evidence that the true cost of living increased more slowly for the elderly than for the nonelderly over this period, in contrast to conventional wisdom that the elderly face a higher inflation rate.

Keywords: Engel curve; CPI bias; cost of living; retirement; elderly (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E31 J14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-06-01, Revised 2015-06-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-agr and nep-mac
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://digitalcollections.colgate.edu/islandora/object/islandora%253A4723 (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:cgt:wpaper:2015-03

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Department of Economics, Colgate University Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chad Sparber ().