Big data and spatial price comparisons of consumer prices
Author(s)
Polidoro, Federico
Date Issued
2018
Type
conferenceObject
Abstract
Abstract An accurate measurement of price level differences across regions within a
country is essential for assessing inequality in the distribution of real incomes and
consumption expenditures. However, systematic attempts to compile sub-national
Purchasing Power Parities (PPPs) on a regular basis have been hampered by the
labour-intensive analyses required in processing traditional price data. The
increasing availability of big data may change the current approach for estimating
sub-national PPPs, although only for household consumption expenditures. This
paper estimates spatial price indexes using a scanner dataset set up for experimental
CPI computations in 2017 and includes information on prices, quantities and quality
characteristics of products at barcode level. Our dataset refers to grocery products
sold in a random sample of approximately 1,800 outlets across Italy belonging to the
most important retail chains (95% of modern retail trade distribution), covering
55.4% of total retail trade distribution for this product category. We use various
weighted index formulas for calculating consumption sub-national PPPs at detailed
territorial level and at the lowest aggregate level at which no quantity or expenditure
weights are usually available. Finally we report preliminary estimates of betweenregional spatial price indexes for specific product groups and for Food and NonFood consumption aggregates
Conference(s)
49th Scientific Meeting of the Italian Statistical Society