Product Turnover and the Cost-of-Living Index: Quality versus Fashion Effects

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Ueda, Kozo; Watanabe, Kota; Watanabe, Tsutomu
• 署名单位: Waseda University; University of Tokyo; University of Tokyo
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-MACROECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7707
• DOI: 10.1257/mac.20160403
• 发表日期: 2019
• 页码: 310-347
• 关键词: prices; matter

摘要

This paper evaluates the effects of product turnover on a welfare-based cost-of-living index by incorporating the quality effect and the fashion effect. Employing scanner data for Japan for the years 1988-2013, we find that (i) the price and quantity of a new product tend to be higher than those of its predecessor at its exit; (ii) a considerable fashion effect exists for the entire sample period, while the quality effect is declining over time; and (iii) the discrepancy between the cost-of-living index estimated based on our methodology and the price index constructed only from a matched sample is not large.