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Bureau of Labor Statistics > Office of Survey Methods Research > Publications > Browse Research Papers

Estimating the Sampling Variance for Alternative Estimators of the U.S. Consumer Price Index

Sylvia G. Leaver and Robert A. Cage

Abstract

The official published United States Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a modified Laspeyres index. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has been investigating alternative forms of basic level and aggregate index estimators, and recently published a test series based on a geometric mean basic index. BLS has also published index series based on four alternative aggregation formulae, two of which are termed superlative indices. This report presents estimates of the sampling variance for these alternative series.