Re: Re: query

[Jim Devine <jdevine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

thanks. I like the idea of using a consistently-measured consumer price
index, which the CPI-U is not. Since I am using more than one measure of
inflation, I am not upset by the revisions. But this CPI-U-RS only goes
back to 1967, which makes it sort of useless for my purposes.

At 03:42 PM 6/29/00 -0400, you wrote:
> Jim Devine wrote:
>
> > does anyone know the specifics of the Bureau of Labor Statistics'
> > CPI-U-X1 consumer price index? why is it preferred by mainstream
> > macro-econometricians?
>
> It's an experimental revision of the old CPI numbers in accordance with
> the change in how housing costs were accounted for starting in 1983. It
> lowered reported inflation (which has the benefit of raising real incomes
> and, if it were applied to the poverty line, would lower the poverty rate).
>
> The latest back-projected CPI is the CPI-U-RS, which revises all the old
> numbers to account for all the wondrous changes in the CPI over the last
> couple of years. Details at <http://www.bls.gov/pdf/cpirsqa.pdf>.
>
> The Census Bureau has a statement on using both in the latest income
> report <http://www.census.gov/prod/99pubs/p60-206.pdf>.
>
> Doug

Jim Devine jdevine@xxxxxxx &  http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine