Econometric analysis of price index for home video cassette recorders in the U.S., 1978-1987

This paper conducts an empirical analysis on the U.S. VCR market using a hedonic approach. The paper finds that quality-adjusted price indices decline at 11-12% per year, with a large annual drop of about 18% from 1982-85. Estimation and data analysis reveal interesting aspects of the evolution of quality and price in the VCR market. As a result of the exclusion of the VCR category until 1986, the paper estimates a bias of 2.4% per year in the CPI electronics subindex.