TY  - JOUR
AU  - Siegel,Donald
TI  - Errors in Output Deflators Revisited: Unit Values and the PPI
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 3935
PY  - 1991
Y2  - December 1991
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w3935
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w3935.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Donald Siegel
Department of Economics
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
3502 Russell Sage Laboratory
Troy, NY  12180
E-Mail: sieged@rpi.edu
AB  - Extending a methodology developed by Lichtenberg and Griliches (1989), we examine the extent of measurement error in two independent indicators of price change: the producer price index (PPI) and the U.S. Census Bureau's unit value relative (UVR). Estimation of factor analytic models is improved by the availability of more accurate and comprehensive proxies for price and quality change within industries and a more complete specification of the econometric model. We find that the UVR is a "noisier measure of price change than the PPI and that the PPI adjusts for approximately 57% of product quality change.
ER  -