Democratic, Plutocratic and Social Weights in Price Indexes

Liberati, Paolo (2012): Democratic, Plutocratic and Social Weights in Price Indexes. Published in: Theoretical Economics Letters , Vol. 2, (December 2012): pp. 450-454.

Abstract

This paper introduces social considerations into the calculation of the price index. To this purpose, recourse is made to the concept of distributional characteristic. It is shown how an aggregate price index can be expressed as a weighted average of commodity-specific prices, with weights that depend on both the aggregate share of consumption and the way in which consumption is distributed across households. The proposed index provides a complementary basis for the analysis of the impact of inflation and for the calculation of its social value.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: D60, D63, H00
• Subjects: D - Microeconomics > D6 - Welfare Economics > D63 - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement; D - Microeconomics > D6 - Welfare Economics > D60 - General; H - Public Economics > H0 - General > H00 - General

References

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