Final
Program
February 6, 2005 version
CRIW
Conference on Price Index Concepts and Measurement
Fairmont
Waterfront Hotel, Vancouver, Canada, June 28-29, 2004
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Sunday, JUNE 27
RECEPTION 5:30-10:00 Cheakamus Room (lower level) Soft drinks, all-evening light
buffet supper, cash bar
Monday, JUNE 28
SESSION 1: The Schultze Report
Revisited Chair: Dennis Fixler, Bureau of
Economic Analysis
Paper 1: 8:30-9:15 Charles Hulten, University of Maryland, "The
Political Economy of Price Measurement: The NAS Report 'At What
Price' and Beyond", Discussant: Barry Bosworth, The
Brookings Institution
Paper 2: 9:15-10:00
Marshall Reinsdorf, US Bureau of Economic Analysis, and Jack
Triplett, The Brookings Institution, "A
Review of Reviews: Ninety Years of Professional Thinking About
the Consumer Price Index and How to Measure It",
Discussant: David Johnson, Bureau of Labor
COFFEE 10:00-10:30
SESSION 2: Quality Change, Hedonic Regressions and New Products
I Chair: Erwin Diewert, University of British Columbia
Paper 3: 10:30-11:15 Jerry Hausman, MIT, and Ephraim Leibtag,
Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, "CPI
Bias from Supercenters: Does the BLS Know that Wal-Mart Exists?", Discussant: Marshall Reinsdorf, US Bureau of Economic Analysis
Paper 4: 11:15-12:00 Robert J. Gordon, Northwestern University,
"Apparel
Prices 1914-93 and the Hulten/Bruegel Paradox",
Discussant:
Carol Corrado, Board of Governors of the US Federal
Reserve
LUNCH 12:00-1:00
SESSION 3: Quality Change, Hedonic Regressions and New Products
II Chair: Alice Nakamura, University of Alberta
Paper 5: 1:00-1:45 Robert Feenstra, University of California
at Davis and Christopher Knittel, University of California
at Davis, "Re-Assessing
the U.S. Quality Adjustment to Computer Prices: The Role of
Durability and Changing Software", Discussant: Bert
Balk, Statistics Netherlands and Erasmus University Rotterdam
Paper 6: 1:45-2:30 Tim Erickson, Bureau of Labor Statistics and
Ariel Pakes, Harvard University, "New Developments and the
Theory and Practice of Hedonic Regressions", Discussant: Jerry Hausman, MIT
Paper 7: 2:30-3:15 Ernst R. Berndt, MIT and Alan G. White,
Analysis Group, "Weight Watching: An Application to PC
Software Price Indexes", Discussant: Paul
Armknecht, IMF
COFFEE 3:15-3:45
SESSION 4: Quality Change, Hedonic Regressions and New Products
III Chair: Charles Hulten, University of Maryland
Paper 8: 3:45-4:30 Mick Silver, Cardiff University and Saeed
Heravi, Cardiff University, "The
Difference Between Hedonic Imputation Indexes and Time Dummy
Hedonic Indexes for Desktop PCs", Discussant:
Jan de Haan, Statistics Netherlands
Roundtable on Hedonics and New Products: 4:30-5:45 Participants:
Ernst Berndt, MIT, Erwin Diewert, University of British
Columbia, Robert Feenstra, University of California at Davis,
David Fenwick, Office of National Statistics, UK, Jerry Hausman,
MIT, Robert Gordon, Northwestern University and Jack Triplett,
Brookings Institution
DINNER 5:30 - 9:30 Malapina Room (lower level)
Master of Ceremonies for the
Evening and Chair for the Dinner Speech: Ernst Berndt, MIT
Dinner Speech: Peter Hill, Consultant, Erwin Diewert, University
of British Columbia and Mick Silver, Cardiff University, "The
New International CPI Manual", Discussant: David Fenwick, Office
of National Statistics, UK
Tuesday, JUNE 29
SESSION 5: Price and Output Measurement for Financial Services
Chair: John Greenlees, Bureau of Labor Statistics
Paper 9: 8:30-9:15 Susanto Basu, Harvard University and the
University of Michigan, John Fernald, Federal Reserve Bank
of Chicago and Christina Wang, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston,
"A
General-Equilibrium Asset-Pricing Approach to the Measurement
of Nominal and Real Bank Output", Discussant: Paul
Schreyer, OECD
Paper 10: 9:15-10:00 Dennis Fixler, US Bureau of Economic
Analysis, "Incorporating
Financial Services in a Consumer Price Index", Discussant:
Susanto Basu, Harvard University and the University of Michigan
COFFEE 10:00-10:30
SESSION 6: Difficult to Measure Goods and Services Chair: John
Greenlees, US Bureau of Labor Statistics
Paper 11: 10:30-11:15 Xue Song, Medstat, William D. Marder,
Medstat, Onur Baser, Medstat
Robert Houchens, Medstat, Jonathan E. Conklin, Medstat and Ralph
Bradley, US Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Can Health Care Claims Data Improve
the Estimation of the Medical CPI?", Discussant: Ernst Berndt,
MIT
Paper 12: 11:15-12:00 Barbara Fraumeni, Marshall B. Reinsdorf,
Brooks B. Robinson, US Bureau of
Economic Analysis, and Matthew P. Williams, Pitzer College, "Price
and Real Output Measures for the Education Function of Government: Exploratory Estimates
for Primary & Secondary Education", Discussant: Alice Nakamura, University of
Alberta
Paper 13: 12:00-12:45 Kam Yu, Lakehead University: "Measuring
the Output and Prices of the Lottery
Sector: An Application of Implicit Expected Utility Theory",
Notes, Discussant: Alan
White, The Analysis Group
LUNCH 12:45-2:00
Luncheon Speech: Charles Hulten,
University of Maryland, "The Boskin Commission and Beyond"
SESSION 7: COLI Measurement Issues Chair: Dennis Fixler, Bureau
of Economic Analysis
Paper 14: 2:00-2:45 Peter Hill, Consultant, "Household
Production, Consumption and CPIs", Discussant: Katharine
Abraham, University of Maryland
Paper 15: 2:45-3:30 Erwin Diewert, University of British
Columbia, "The Treatment of Owner Occupied Housing and Other
Durables in a Consumer Price Index", Discussant: Alan Heston,
University of Pennsylvania
COFFEE 3:30-4:00
SESSION 8: Conference Wrap Up Session Chair: Charles Hulten,
University of Maryland
4:00-4:30 "Conference Summary: What Have We Learned? What Are
the Issues To Resolve?", John Greenlees, US Bureau of Labor
Statistics
4:30-5:00 Discussion from the floor
RECEPTION 5:30-10:00 Princess
Louisa Suite (2nd floor) Soft drinks, all-evening light buffet
supper, cash bar
Notes to authors and discussants
Authors will get 20 minutes to present the highlights of their
results, the discussants will get 10 minutes to either point out
what they see as the major problems or if there are no major
problems, then they can give an indication of where future
generalizations or extensions of the paper may lie. This leaves
15 minutes for discussion from the floor.
However, discussants may (if they wish) provide more extensive
written comments on the papers that they discuss. These will be
posted on the conference website.
Authors must submit their paper to Carl Beck at:
cbeck@nber.org and also to
Alice Nakamura at:
alice.nakamura@ualberta.ca
by June 1, 2004 in a PDF or Word file so that it can be posted
on the conference website and so that discussants will have a
chance to prepare their comments in advance. Copies of the conference papers will be made available
at the conference site but we anticipate that participants will
be downloading and reading the papers of particular interest to
them so that they can ask thought provoking questions of the
authors and discussants.
The conference proceedings will be published in the usual
CRIW/NBER series subject to review. We hope that the program
will advance the state of the art in index number theory and
measurement economics.
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