National Bureau of Economic Research

Conference on Research in Income and Wealth:

Price Index Concepts and Measurement Conference

June 28-29, 2004

The Fairmont Waterfront

900 Canada Place Way

Vancouver, BC V6C 3L5 Canada

MONDAY JUNE 28, 2004
8:00 a.m.	Continental Breakfast
SESSION 1	The Schultze Report Revisited
	Chair: Charles Schultze, The Brookings Institution
8:30-9:15	A Review of the Issues Raised in the NAS Report
	Erwin Diewert, University of British Columbia and NBER
	John Greenlees, Bureau of Labor Statistics
	Charles Hulten, University of Maryland and NBER
	Discussant: Barry Bosworth, The Brookings Institution
9:15-10:00	The Schultze and Boskin Reports: What Have We Learned?
	Jack Triplett, The Brookings Institution
	Discussant: David Johnson, The Bureau of Labor Statistics
10:00-10:30	Break
SESSION 2	Quality Change, Hedonic Regressions and New Products I:
	Chair: Erwin Diewert, University of British Columbia and NBER
10:30-11:45	New Goods: Consumer Welfare and Productivity Effects
	Jerry Hausman, MIT and NBER
	Discussant: Marshall Reinsdorf, Bureau of Economic Analysis.
11:45-12:00	Apparel Prices 1914-93 and the Hulten-Bruegel Paradox
	Robert J. Gordon, Northwestern University and NBER
	Discussant: TBA
12:00-1:00	Lunch
SESSION 3	Quality Change, Hedonic Regressions and New Products II
	Chair: Alice Nakamura, University of Alberta.
1:00-1:45	Re-Assessing the Quality Adjustment to Computer Prices
	Robert Feenstra, UC, Davis and NBER
	Christopher Kittel, UC, Davis
	Discussant: Dan Sichel, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve
1:45-2:30	New Developments and the Theory and Practice of Hedonic Regressions
	Tim Erickson, Bureau of Labor Statistics
	Ariel Pakes, Harvard University and NBER
	Discussant: Jerry Hausman, MIT and NBER
2:30-3:15	How Much to Weight? An Application to PC Software
	Ernst R. Berndt, MIT and NBER
	Alan G. White, Analysis Group
	Discussant: Carol Corrado, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve
3:15-3:45	Break
SESSION 4	Quality Change, Hedonic Regressions and New Products III
	Chair: Charles Hulten, University of Maryland and NBER
3:45-4:30	The Difference Between Hedonic Imputation Indexes and Time Dummy Hedonic Indexes
	Mick Silver, Cardiff University
	Saeed Heravi, Cardiff University
	Discussant: Jan de Haan, Statistics Netherlands.
4:30-5:45	Roundtable on Hedonics and New Products:
Participants:	Ernst Berndt, MIT and NBER
	Erwin Diewert, University of British Columbia and NBER
	Robert Feenstra, UC, Davis and NBER
	Jerry Hausman, MIT and NBER
	Robert Gordon, Northwestern University and NBER
	Ariel Pakes, Northwestern University and NBER
	Jack Triplett, Brookings Institution
TBA	Dinner
	Speech: “The New International CPI Manual”
	Peter Hill, Consultant
	Erwin Diewert, University of British Columbia and NBER
	Mick Silver, Cardiff University.
TUESDAY JUNE 29, 2004
8:00 a.m.	Continental Breakfast
SESSION 5	Price and Output Measurement for Financial Services
	Chair: John Greenlees, Bureau of Labor Statistics
8:30-9:15	Price and Output Measurement for Financial Services: Concepts and Implementation
	Susanto Basu, University of Michigan and NBER
	John Fernald, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
	Christina Wang, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
	Discussant: Paul Schreyer, OECD
9:15-10:00	Price Indexes for Financial Services
	Dennis Fixler, Bureau of Economic Analysis
	Discussant: Susanto Basu, University of Michigan and NBER
10:00-10:30	Break
SESSION 6	Difficult to Measure Goods and Services
	Chair: John Greenlees, Bureau of Labor Statistics
10:30-11:15	Can Health Care Claims Data Improve the Estimation of the Medical CPI?
	Ralph Bradley, Bureau of Labor Statistics
	Jonathan E. Conklin, Bureau of Labor Statistics
	William D. Marder, Bureau of Labor Statistics
	Discussant: Matthew Shapiro, University of Michigan and NBER
11:15-12:00	Measuring the Output of the Government: the Case of Education
	Barbara Fraumeni, Bureau of Economic Analysis
	Marshall B. Reinsdorf, Bureau of Economic Analysis
	Brooks B. Robinson, Bureau of Economic Analysis
	Matthew P. Williams, Bureau of Economic Analysis
	Discussant: Dale W. Jorgenson, Harvard University.
12:00-12:45	Measuring the Output and Prices of the Lottery Sector
	Kam Yu, Lakehead University
	Discussant: Alan White, The Analysis Group
12:45-2:00	Lunch
	Speaker: Dale W. Jorgenson, Harvard University
SESSION 7	COLI Measurement Issues
	Chair: Dennis Fixler, Bureau of Economic Analysis
2:00-2:45	Household Production, Consumption and CPIs
	Peter Hill, Consultant
	Discussant: TBA
2:45-3:30	The Treatment of Owner Occupied Housing and Other Durables in a Consumer Price Index
	Erwin Diewert, University of British Columbia and NBER
	Discussant: Alan Heston, University of Pennsylvania.
3:30-4:00	Break
SESSION 8	Conference Wrap Up Session
	Chair: Charles Hulten, University of Maryland and NBER
4:00-4:30	Conference Summary:
	What Have we Learned? What are the Issues to Resolve?
	John Greenlees, Bureau of Labor Statistics.
4:30-5:00	Discussion from the floor

Notes to authors and discussants

Authors will get 20 minutes to present the highlights of their results, the discussants will get 10 minutes to either point out what they see as the major problems or if there are no major problems, then they can give an indication of where future generalizations or extensions of the paper may lie. This leaves 15 minutes for discussion from the floor.

However, discussants may (if they wish) provide more extensive written comments on the papers that they discuss. These will be posted on the CRIW/NBER conference website.

Authors must submit their paper to Carl Beck at: cbeck@nber.org by June 1, 2004 in a PDF or Word file so that it can be posted on the conference website and so that discussants will have a chance to prepare their comments in advance. Authors who do not meet this deadline will be dropped from the final program, thus freeing up more time to discuss the papers that were submitted on time. Copies of the conference papers will be made available at the conference site but we anticipate that participants will be downloading and reading the papers of particular interest to them so that they can ask thought provoking questions of the authors and discussants.

The conference proceedings will be published in the usual CRIW/NBER series subject to review. We hope that the program will advance the state of the art in index number theory and measurement economics.