Using the Retail Distribution of Sellers to Impute Expenditures Shares

53 Pages Posted: 14 Jun 2021 Last revised: 21 Jun 2024

See all articles by Alexis Antoniades

Alexis Antoniades

Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar

Robert C. Feenstra

University of California, Davis - Department of Economics; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Mingzhi Xu

INSE at Peking University

Date Written: June 2021

Abstract

Many price indices must be constructed without quantity data at the elementary level. We show that for some consumer goods in the United States and other countries, one can approximate expenditure shares using weights derived from the retail distribution of sellers. These weights are based on the share of outlets selling an item, or the share of outlets adjusted by the total number of items sold in each. Relative to using no weights, we find that using such imputed weights substantially reduces bias in the frequency of price changes, in annual inflation, and in price comparisons across countries.

Suggested Citation

Antoniades, Alexis and Feenstra, Robert C. and Xu, Mingzhi, Using the Retail Distribution of Sellers to Impute Expenditures Shares (June 2021). NBER Working Paper No. w28902, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3866334

Alexis Antoniades (Contact Author)

Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar ( email )

Education City
Al Huqoul St
Doha
Qatar

Robert C. Feenstra

University of California, Davis - Department of Economics ( email )

One Shields Drive
Davis, CA 95616-8578
United States
916-752-9240 (Phone)
916-752-9382 (Fax)

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

Mingzhi Xu

INSE at Peking University ( email )

Peking University
China
Beijing, Beijing 100871
China

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