Page 189 - Krugmans Economics for AP Text Book_Neat

fyi

Indexing to the CPI
Although GDP is a very important number for of inflation adds 1% to the checks received by
shaping economic policy, official statistics on tens of millions of individuals.
GDP don’t have a direct effect on people’s lives. Other government payments are also indexed
The CPI, by contrast, has a direct and immedi- to the CPI. In addition, income tax brackets, the
ate impact on millions of Americans. The reason bands of income levels that determine a tax-
is that many payments are tied, or “indexed,” to payer’s income tax rate, are indexed to the CPI.
the CPI—the amount paid rises or falls when (An individual in a higher income bracket pays a
the CPI rises or falls. higher income tax rate in a progressive tax sys-
The practice of indexing payments to con- tem like ours.) Indexing also extends to the pri-
sumer prices goes back to the dawn of the Donald A. Higgs Photography vate sector, where many private contracts,
United States as a nation. In 1780 the Massachu- including some wage settlements, contain cost -
setts State Legislature recognized that the pay of of - living allowances (called COLAs) that adjust
its soldiers fighting the British needed to be in- A small change in the CPI has large conse- payments in proportion to changes in the CPI.
creased because of inflation that occurred during quences for those dependent on Social Because the CPI plays such an important and
Security payments.
the Revolutionary War. The legislature adopted a direct role in people’s lives, it’s a politically sensi-
formula that made a soldier’s pay proportional to tive number. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, which
the cost of a market basket consisting of 5 determined by a formula that reflects his or her calculates the CPI, takes great care in collecting
4
bushels of corn, 68 ⁄7 pounds of beef, 10 pounds previous payments into the system as well as and interpreting price and consumption data. It
of sheep’s wool, and 16 pounds of sole leather. other factors. In addition, all Social Security uses a complex method in which households are
Today, 48 million people, most of them old payments are adjusted each year to offset any surveyed to determine what they buy and where
or disabled, receive checks from Social Secu- increase in consumer prices over the previous they shop, and a carefully selected sample of
rity, a national retirement program that ac- year. The CPI is used to calculate the official stores are surveyed to get representative prices.
counts for almost a quarter of current total estimate of the inflation rate used to adjust As explained in the preceding FYI, however, there
federal spending—more than the defense these payments yearly. So every percentage is still considerable controversy about whether
budget. The amount of an individual’s check is point added to the official estimate of the rate the CPI accurately measures inflation.

Module 15 AP Review

Solutions appear at the back of the book.
Check Your Understanding

1. Consider Table 15.1 but suppose that the market basket is a. A typical family owns more cars than it would have a decade
composed of 100 oranges, 50 grapefruit, and 200 lemons. How ago. Over that time, the average price of a car has increased
does this change the pre-frost and post -frost consumer price more than the average prices of other goods.
indexes? Explain. Generalize your answer to explain how the b. Virtually no households had broadband Internet access a
construction of the market basket affects the CPI. decade ago. Now many households have it, and the price has
been falling.
2. For each of the following events, explain how the use of a
10-year-old market basket would bias measurements of price 3. The consumer price index in the United States (base period
changes over the past decade. 1982–1984) was 201.6 in 2006 and 207.3 in 2007. Calculate the
inflation rate from 2006 to 2007.

module 15 The Measurement and Calculation of Inflation 147