Sampling Frequency and the Comparison between Matched-Model and Hedonic Regression Price Indexes

George Deltas, Eleftherios Zacharias

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Matched-model price indexes generally overestimate quality-adjusted prices, because the price/performance ratio of models sold in consecutive periods is worse than that of new models. This "unrepresentativeness" of the sample potentially might be reduced by obtaining higher-frequency data, thus increasing the fraction of models that are matched. We propose a set of comformable indexes to test this hypothesis. Using computer prices from the Buy Direct press, we find, contrary to initial expectations, that the bias in the matched-model price index increases with the sampling frequency. The bias is reduced if the high-frequency index is constructed using only long-lived models. These results suggest that models that last for only a brief time are models for which the price/performance ratio has deteriorated very rapidly. Thus increasing the sampling frequency without purging short-lived models actually increases the selection bias.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)94-106
Number of pages13
JournalJournal of Business and Economic Statistics
Volume22
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 2004

Keywords

  • Personal computers
  • Quality-adjusted consumer price index

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Statistics and Probability
  • Social Sciences (miscellaneous)
  • Economics and Econometrics
  • Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty

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