at the risk of repeating what others have said, cpi data are subjective because of the collected categories. it seems to me that if the data were allowed to reflect just what was really collected, we'd be better off. so, if cpi data is collected for a suburban food basket, let it reflect that and don't make a pretense that it reflects urban spendong as well. (Michael Perelman) writes: >Could we eventually use the cpi debate to ground economics more >realistically? I am looking hard to find comforting thoughts these days. > -- ain't we all? maggie coleman [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------- Forwarded message: From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Michael Perelman) Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Multiple recipients of list) Date: 96-12-11 11:47:05 EST I have long felt that economic data are by nature incapable of very accurate measurement. The recent debates about the index for computers were interesting in that respect. As a result, I am skeptical about most econometric results. In this respect, I feel an empathy for the kind of economics that Keynes tried to do: try to get a feel for the real world and then try to make some sense of it. Rich Weisskoff, who is now on pen-l, told me a story of a young woman who was applying for a job at Yale, whose diss. was on Malaysia. She confessed that she did not know what or where the capital was,but she had a dandy data set. We need less of that sort of economics. Could we eventually use the cpi debate to ground economics more realistically? I am looking hard to find comforting thoughts these days. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 916-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
