A new regional price index for Cote d'Ivoire using data from the international comparisons project

The authors report on an exercise in economic statistics. They develop a regional price index for Cote d'Ivoire building on the strengths of two independent data sources: the Cote d'Ivoire Living Standards Survey (CILSS) and the International Comparisons Project (ICP). The CILSS collected detailed information on household incomes, spending, employment, and so on, but its coverage of prices left much to be desired. The ICP collected a wealth of information on prices across the country, but collected no information on household spending patterns or other socioeconomic data. The authors bring together these two sources to produce a regional price index that they argue is superior to previous estimates based solely on the Living Standards Survey. The procedures they follow should be of interest to practitioners faced with similar data shortcomings, particularly when working on Africa. They show this to be no mere statistical exercise. Using the new price index can have a significant effect on earlier evaluations of poverty in Cote d'Ivoire. They also use the new price information to construct disaggregated indices by commodity category and by poverty group.