The plutocratic bias in the CPI : evidence from Spain

We define the plutocratic bias as the difference between the inflation measured according to the current official CPI and a democratic index in which all households receive the same weight. (i) We estimate that during the 1990s the plutocratic bias in Spain amounts to 0.055 per cent per year, or about one third of the classical substitution bias estimated by the Boskin Commission for the U.S. (ii) We find that a 16-dimensional commodity space can be conveniently reduced to 3 dimensions, consisting of a luxury good and two necessities. The price behavior of these 3 goods provides a convincing explanation of the oscillations experimented by the plutocratic bias. (iii) Finally, the fact that the plutocratic bias is positive during this period, implies that the change in money income inequality is between 2 and 5 per cent greater than the change in real income inequality. We study the robustness of these results to the time period considered and to the definition of the group index which serves as an alternative to the CPI. We estimate that during the 1980s and the second part of the 1970s in Spain, the plutocratic bias is 0.033 and 0.239 per cent per year, respectively

The plutocratic gap in the CPI : evidence from Spain

The plutocratic gap is defined as the difference between the inflation measured according to the current official consumer price index (CPI) and a democratic index in which all households receive the same weight. During 1992–97, the plutocratic gap in Spain averaged 0.055 percentage points a year. Since positive and negative gaps cancel out, however, the average absolute gap is significantly larger: 0.090 percentage points a year. For the purposes of accounting for the plutocratic gap, a 53-dimensional commodity space can be conveniently reduced to two dimensions: a luxury index and a necessities index.Publicad

The Laspeyres bias in the Spanish consumer price index

The CPI compares the cost of acquiring a reference quantity vector at current and base prices. Such reference vector is the vector of mean quantities actually bought by a reference population, whose consumption patterns are investigated during a period t prior to the index base period 0. In this paper we show that unless one takes into account the price change between these two dates, the CPI ceases to be a proper statistical price index of the Laspeyres type. Among several negative consequences, the most important is that this omission produces a bias in the measurement of inflation which we call the `Laspeyres bias.' Using Spanish data, we estimate that, e.g., from 1992 to 1998, the size of the Laspeyres bias is -0.061 per cent per year, or about 6 per cent (in absolute terms) of the positive bias estimated by the Boskin commission for the U.S., which is equal to 1.1 per cent per year. The Laspeyres bias in shorter time periods reached -0.122, and -0.108 per cent per year in 1992, and 1997, respectivel

El diseño y la educación pública

Desde su reconocimiento académico y profesional en el país, ocurrido a fines de la década de 1960 como parte del proceso de reforma universitaria, el diseño pudo instalar su enseñanza a nivel de los estudios de carácter técnico o profesional en universidades, institutos profesionales y centros de formación técnica, mas no así en la educación de nivel básico o secundario en las escuelas, liceos o colegios, lugar que en cambio fue ocupado por asignaturas como dibujo, artes plásticas o técnico manual durante la mayor parte del siglo XX y por educación tecnológica desde fines del mismo. Este artículo invita a revisar el rol que el diseño puede desempeñar a futuro en los distintos niveles de la educación pública, para aportar tanto al desarrollo de su propio quehacer como al de las disciplinas afines a las industrias creativas en el escenario de la sociedad del conocimiento

The Plutocratic Gap in the CPI: Evidence from Spain

The plutocratic gap is defined as the difference between the inflation measured according to the current official consumer price index (CPI) and a democratic index in which all households receive the same weight. During 1992-97, the plutocratic gap in Spain averaged 0.055 percentage points a year. Since positive and negative gaps cancel out, however, the average absolute gap is significantly larger: 0.090 percentage points a year. For the purposes of accounting for the plutocratic gap, a 53-dimensional commodity space can be conveniently reduced to two dimensions: a luxury index and a necessities index. Copyright 2003, International Monetary Fund

Distributive aspects of the quality change bias in the CPI.

This paper shows that the richer households are significantly more affected by the quality-change bias (QCB) in the CPI. The empirical analysis combines the detailed information pertaining to the size of the QCB for the US with household-specific CPIs for Spain.Plutocratic gap; Money inequality; Price index; CPI; Quality bias;

Cultures musicales transnationales et capitalisme : Le milieu sonidero

Selon plusieurs auteurs (Appadurai 2001 ; García Canclini 1990), l’évolution actuelle des pratiques de consommation culturelle est déterminée par des processus globaux propres à la mondialisation. À partir d’un bref survol de l’histoire de la consommation de la musique tropicale au Mexique et de l’analyse de l’une de ses manifestations les plus récentes, celle du milieu sonidero, cet article formule une critique de cette approche en accordant une attention spéciale aux dynamiques localisées et aux forces historiques et socio-économiques propres au cas qui nous intéresse. L’économie politique demeure au coeur de la présente proposition analytique.According to several authors (Appadurai 2001; García Canclini 1990), the processes of globalization determine the current evolution of cultural consumption practices. Beginning with a brief survey of the history of tropical music consumption in Mexico, and an analysis of one of its more recent manifestations, the sonidero scene, this article formulates a critique of this approach by paying special attention to both the localised dynamics, and the historic and socioeconomic forces bearing on the case we are studying. At the heart of the analysis lies political economy

The Laspeyres bias in the Spanish consumer price index.

The CPI compares the cost of acquiring a reference quantity vector at current and base prices. Such reference vector is the vector of mean quantities actually bought by a reference population, whose consumption patterns are investigated during a period tau prior to the index base period 0. This paper shows that unless the price change between these two dates is taken into account, the CPI ceases to be a proper statistical price index of the Laspeyres type. Among several negative consequences, the most important is that this omission produces a bias in the measurement of inflation: the 'Laspeyres bias'. Using Spanish data, the size of the Laspeyres bias is estimated at -0.061% per year, during 1992-1998. The Laspeyres bias in shorter time periods reached -0.122% per year in 1992, and -0.108 in 1997.