Summary In empirical economic research, individual prices are often aggregated into average prices of subaggregates. Then, these average prices are aggregated to produce the average price of the total aggregate. Often, such two stage procedures help to illuminate the underlying forces driving...

Zusammenfassung Welche Bedeutung sollte dem ökonomischen Theorieansatz und damit insbesondere dem ökonomischen Kostenindex der Lebenshaltung (im Folgenden als „nutzenbasierter Ausgabenindex“, NBA, bezeichnet) in der amtlichen Inflationsmessung eingeräumt werden? In diesem Beitrag werden...

Summary This paper attempts to establish a greater awareness among researchers for the noteworthy contributions to price index theory made by Moritz Wilhelm Drobisch (1802-1896), a German mathematician and philosopher at the Universita¨ t Leipzig. Few economists and statisticians are aware of...

Numerous quality-adjusted hedonic price-trend studies based on computer prices have provided support to widely held suspicions that officially released price indices are not accurately measuring the price declines occurring in many information technology (IT) products. If provable, then general...

In Germany, donations to charitable institutions can be deducted from the taxable income. The government subsidizes each donated Euro by the household’s marginal tax rate. Unfortunately, this system has some serious shortcomings. Therefore, the existing tax deduction of donations should be...