Quality Adjustment at Scale: Hedonic versus Exact Demand-Based Price Indices

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Ehrlich, Gabriel; Haltiwanger, John; Jarmin, Ron; Johnson, David; Olivares, Ed; Pardue, Luke; Shapiro, Matthew D.; Zhao, Laura Yi
• 署名单位: University of Michigan System; University of Michigan; University System of Maryland; University of Maryland Baltimore; National Bureau of Economic Research; United States Department of the Treasury; Bank of Canada
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282; 1944-7981
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.20230766
• 发表日期: 2026-06
• 页码: 1955-1995
• 关键词: numbers

摘要

Item-level transactions data yield cost-of-living indices that can account for quality change and consumer substitution. Transactions data require confronting the rapid turnover of items because prices of new and existing products are interrelated in equilibrium. This paper evaluates multiple approaches to measuring quality change at scale. It shows that a hedonic superlative approach-using econometrics or machine learning for hedonic estimation combined with index formulas that require simultaneous observation of item-level price and expenditure-yields improved measures of the cost of living. Accounting for ubiquitous quality change and for consumer substitution yields lower measures of inflation than traditional, official methods. (JEL C43, C45, E31, L15, L81)