Constructing Consumer Price Indexes
Dates
June 24 - 28, 2013
Application deadline
May 24, 2013
Tuition
$2,400
Participants
This seminar is designed primarily for economists, statisticians,
researchers, analysts, and managers working with consumer price indexes in national statistical programs. Participants
should have an elementary knowledge of statistics.
Objectives
To strengthen capabilities for the production and analysis of statistics on
consumer prices and expenditures with relation to:
- Designing, constructing, and analyzing indexes of consumer prices
- Designing and conducting surveys of consumer expenditures to be used in
price index construction and in the measurement of living conditions
- Using statistical tools such as probability sampling and regression
analysis in the measurement and analysis of prices and living conditions
Program content
This seminar is designed to present the theory, techniques, and methodologies
for planning, designing, implementing, and maintaining statistical programs for
the measurement of consumer prices and expenditures.
Consumer price indexes serve a twofold purpose: as a general economic
indicator of the rate of inflation in a country's economy and as a measure for
adjusting wages, salaries, and other income payments to keep in step with rising
prices. The indexes are useful in formulating economic policy to maintain wage
and price stability, to evaluate tax proposals, and to adjust national accounts
for inflation and deflation.
Consumer expenditure surveys, which furnish data used in selecting and
weighting item samples for consumer price indexes, provide valuable insights
into the welfare of particular segments of the population and can be a source of
data for family budget studies.
Participants are encouraged to bring with them the following materials for
use in discussions and workshops: 1) methodologies on how data related to the
seminar topic are collected in their home countries; 2) questionnaires used in
their countries for obtaining those data; and 3) sample publications of those
data.
The seminar includes discussions on the following topics:
Consumer expenditure surveys
- Basic concepts
- Sampling techniques
- Consumer expenditure survey design
- Collection, processing, and publication of data
Consumer Price Indexes (CPI)
- Conceptual framework
- Target population
- Sampling and weighting techniques
- Selection of sample items and outlets
- Development of specifications
- Collection and processing of data
- Construction of index numbers
- Seasonal items and other special problem areas
- Data collection and conceptual problems in the informal sector
- Publication, presentation, and dissemination of data
- Application of the CPI in other countries
Techniques for analyzing data on prices and expenditures
- Analysis of selected statistical tools and techniques
- Use of price indexes as a deflator
- Analysis of the ways in which price changes impact real wages and purchasing
power
Apply now
NOTE: Participants may be interested in attending the one-week seminar on Constructing Producer Price Indexes
and Import and Export Price Indexes , which immediately precedes this seminar.
Last modified: November 21, 2012
