Handbook on Hedonic Indexes and Quality Adjustments in Price Indexes Special Application to Information Technology Products e-bog

Price indexes can be constructed using a "e;hedonic method"e; that adjusts for changes in the quality of a product by focusing on a set of key product characteristics. This handbook contributes to a better understanding of the merits and shortcomings of conventional and hedonic price indexes and methods, and provides an analytic basis for choosing among them. It sets out "e;best practice"e; principles for constructing hedonic indexes and examines criticisms of hedonic indexes. The handbook brings together material that is now scattered in a wide number of places, but goes beyond the economic literature in significant respects. It has been written because there is a widespread view that the principles for conducting hedonic investigations are not readily assembled for statistical agency work, which is the primary audience of this volume.