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THE DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A MODEL FOR USE IN CONSTRUCTING A LOCALITY-SPECIFIC CONSUMER PRICE INDEX (NEBRASKA)
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to develop and test a model for the use of communities, presently not represented by the Department of Labor Consumer Price Index, which would help them to construct their own locality-specific price index with a minimum of expense and technical expertise. A major and recurring theme woven into the purpose and objectives of the study was the acknowledgement of the potent energy that adult education can exert on the process of solving local problems. Thus, in employing the model developed here, and by using community development as a format for learning, the potential user's role of helping citizen-participants diagnose the skills they need in order to carry out a systematic program and to help them marshall the myriad of community inputs required to construct a local CPI should be made easier. The study had four major objectives. The first was to identify retail establishments in the community where consumers make their purchases. The second was to determine a market basket of goods and services to be priced in the local consumer price index. The third objective was to develop a method for weighting each item in the market basket. The final objective was to implement the model in the city of Kearney, Nebraska. The first phase of accomplishing the study objectives was to select 250 retail outlets and 1,600 uniquely defined items for pricing. Multistage probability sampling techniques insured that in this phase, the items and outlets in which items were priced reflected market behavior of Kearney residents. The final phase of the study was to test the model. Pricing the market basket items selected in phase one in October, 1986, established a base comparison period. A subsequent repricing of the same items in November, 1986, then provided the data necessary to compute the Kearney price index. Using the Laspeyres form of the index, the resulting computations demonstrated a significant difference in the rate of increase in Kearney and national price levels.
Subject Area
Public administration
Recommended Citation
SECHTEM, EVERETT A, "THE DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A MODEL FOR USE IN CONSTRUCTING A LOCALITY-SPECIFIC CONSUMER PRICE INDEX (NEBRASKA)" (1986). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI8614475.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI8614475