R-CPI-U-RS changes over time : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

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Bureau of Labor Statistics > Consumer Price Index > Data > Research

Table 1. Improvements to the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) since 1978, and their effect on the CPI retroactive series using current methods (R-CPI-U-RS).
Change	Description	Year implemented in CPI-U	R-CPI-U-RS incorporates estimate of change from:
Use of rental equivalence to measure changes in homeowner costs	Changed homeowners’ component from cost of purchase to value of rental services	1983	1978-1982
Rental vacancy imputation	Employed new method for imputing price change for rental vacancies	1985	1978-1984
Quality adjustment of used car prices	Prices of used cars adjusted for differences in quality after model changeovers	1987	1978-1986
Quality adjustment of sampled housing units to reflect aging	Rental values in CPI sample were adjusted for aging	1988	1978-1987
Quality adjustment of apparel prices	Regression models used to adjust apparel prices for changes in quality when new clothing lines are introduced	1991	1978-1990
Treating shifts between brand name and generic drugs as price changes	Introduced new procedures that allow generic drugs to be priced when a brand drug loses its patent	1995	1978-1994
Change in shelter formula: elimination of composite estimator	Replaced composite estimator with a 6-month chain estimator. Under-reporting of 1-month rent changes had resulted in missing price change in residential rent and homeowners’ equivalent rent	1995	1978-1994
Change in shelter formula: rental equivalence improved estimator	Modified imputation of homeowners’ implicit rent to eliminate upward drift property of previous estimator	1995	1987-1994
Elimination of functional form bias for CPI food-at-home categories	Introduced “seasoning” procedures to eliminate upward bias derived from the setting of base period prices of newly initiated items	1995	1978-1994
Elimination of functional form bias for other CPI commodity and service categories	Extended food-at-home seasoning procedures to remainder of commodities and services. Base period prices left unchanged in most noncomparable substitutions	1996	1978-1996
Quality adjustment of personal computer prices	Regression models used to adjust personal computer prices for changes in quality	1998	1987-1997
Elimination of automobile finance charges	Deemed out of scope	1998	1978-1997
Quality adjustment of television prices	Regression models used to adjust television prices for changes in quality	1999	1978-1998
Accounting for consumer substitution within CPI item categories	The geometric formula now used assumes a modest degree of consumer substitution within most CPI item categories	1999	1978-1998
Treating mandated pollution control measures as price increases	Changes in pollution control regulations now viewed as price changes and not quality changes	1999	1978-1998
Quality adjustment of audio equipment prices	Regression models used to adjust audio equipment prices for changes in quality	2000	1978-1998
Quality adjustment of other video equipment prices	Regression models used to adjust other video equipment prices for changes in quality: video cameras video cassette recorders	2000	1987-1999 1987-03/2000
Quality adjustment of refrigerators/freezers	Regression models used to adjust refrigerators/freezers for changes in quality	2000	1978-06/2000
Quality adjustment of clothes washers	Regression models used to adjust prices of clothes washers for changes in quality	2000	1978-09/2000
Quality adjustment of clothes dryers	Regression models used to adjust prices of clothes dryers for changes in quality	2000	1978-09/2000
Quality adjustment of microwave ovens	Regression models used to adjust prices of microwave ovens for changes in quality	2000	1978-06/2000
Quality adjustment of college textbooks	Regression models used to adjust prices of college textbooks for changes in quality	2000	1978-06/2000
Revision of shelter indexes for 1999	To adjust for an error in the calculation of the rent and owners’ equivalent rent indexes for 1999.	2000	1999
More frequent weight updates	Weights are now updated in the CPI every two years instead of approximately every ten years.	2002	1990-95
Prescription drugs formula change	The Prescription drug index is now calculated using a Laspeyres formula	2016	2010-2015
New vehicles data source	The new vehicles index is now calculated using transaction data from a third-party source	2022	02/2018-03/2022

Last Modified Date: December 15, 2023