Can the quality difference between a DVD and a VHS tape be measured? Between a 1975 Ford Sedan and a 2004 one? I know the good folks at the BLS try, and I admire the efforts, but how can features like improved visual quality or the safety advantage of antilock brakes be measured, other than the willingness of people to pay for them? So what happens when economies of scale render the new, improved technology cheaper to produce than the old?
On Wednesday, December 03, 2003, at 01:32PM, Bryan Caplan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >William Dickens wrote: > >> This is completely wrong. The CPI-u is, and the CPI-x was, adjusted for >> quality changes (see http://www.bls.gov/cpi/home.htm ). The CPI-X >> doesn't exist anymore. > >So what price statistic wasn't adjusted for quality changes? > >-- > Prof. Bryan Caplan > Department of Economics George Mason University > http://www.bcaplan.com [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > "Infancy conforms to nobody: all conform to it, so that > one babe commonly makes four or five out of the adults > who prattle and play to it." > > --Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Self-Reliance" > >
