TY  - JOUR
AU  - Abel,Jaison R.
AU  - Berndt,Ernst R.
AU  - White,Alan G.
TI  - Price Indexes for Microsoft's Personal Computer Software Products
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 9966
PY  - 2003
Y2  - September 2003
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w9966
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w9966.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Ernst R. Berndt
MIT Sloan School of Management
100 Main Street, E62-518
Cambridge, MA 02142
Tel: 617/253-2665
Fax: 617-227-0880
E-Mail: eberndt@mit.edu

Alan G. White
Analysis Group
111 Huntington Avenue, 10th Floor
Boston, MA  02199
E-Mail: awhite@rotman.utoronto.ca
M1  - published as Jaison R. Abel, Ernst R. Berndt, Alan G. White. "Price Indexes for Microsoft," in Ernst R. Berndt and Charles R. Hulten, editors, "Hard-to-Measure Goods and Services: Essays in Honor of Zvi Griliches" University of Chicago Press (2007)

AB  - Using a unique and comprehensive data source, we measure price changes for Microsoft's desktop personal computer software products during the time period July 1993 through June 2001. This paper contributes to a relatively small literature on price measurement of pre-packaged software by incorporating important channels of distribution, such as volume licensing and Original Equipment Manufacturer, as well as changes in product form, such as upgrades and integrated productivity suites, into matched-model price indexes. Although there are differences over time periods and across products, we find that the prices of Microsoft's desktop operating systems and applications have generally been falling over this time period.
ER  -