The Consumer Price Index

Term Paper Title	The Consumer Price Index
# of Words	463
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	1.85

The Consumer Price Index

Sept. 28, 199

Inaccuracies of the Consumer Price Index(CPI)

     The Consumer Price Index is a measure of the prices of a fixed market basket of some 300 consumer goods and services purchased by a "typical" urban consumer. The 1982-1984 period serves as the base period so analysts can compare other year�s changes with this base period.  The composition of the market basket is fixed in the base period and is assumed not to change from one period to another. The reason for the assumption is because the CPI measures the costliness of a constant standard of living. Critics claim that the CPI is inaccurate because it overstates the increases in  the cost of living. For this reason, the CPI has been said to be inaccurate.
     First, consumers do change their spending patterns. Even though the composition off the market basket is assumed not to change, it does because consumers change their spending patterns. Because consumers substitute lower priced products in lieu of higher priced ones, the weight has shifted. The CPI assumes that this does not occur and therefore it overcompensates the standard of living.
     Secondly, because the base period was over a decade ago, the quality of the products has increased significantly, and therefore the prices should be higher. The CPI, however, assumes that the increases in prices is a result of inflation ...

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