01675cas a2200241 a 4500 AALejournalIMF007900 230101c9999 xx r poo 0 0eng d 5.00 USD 9781451847949 1018-5941 BD-DhAAL BD-DhAAL Ley, Eduardo. Whose Inflation? : A Characterization of the CPI Plutocratic Bias / Eduardo Ley. Washington, D.C. : International Monetary Fund, 2001. 1 online resource (17 pages) IMF Working Papers <strong>Off-Campus Access:</strong> No User ID or Password Required <strong>On-Campus Access:</strong> No User ID or Password Required Electronic access restricted to authorized BRAC University faculty, staff and students Prais (1958) showed that the CPI computed by statistical agencies can be interpreted as a weighed average of household price indexes, the weight of each household determined by its total expenditures. We decompose the difference between the standard CPI and a democratically weighed index (i.e., the plutocratic bias) as the product of average income, income inequality, and the covariance between individual price indexes and a parameter related to each good's income elasticity. This decomposition allows us to interpret variations in the size and sign of the plutocratic bias, and also to discuss issues pertaining to group indexes. Mode of access: Internet IMF Working Papers; Working Paper ; No. 2001/059 Full text available on IMF http://elibrary.imf.org/view/journals/001/2001/059/001.2001.issue-059-en.xml IMF e-Library