Price indexes for personal computers (1976-88)

Abstract

This paper estimates quality-adjusted price indexes for personal computers for the years 1976–88 using the method proposed by Berndt, Griliches, and Rappaport (1995). Indexes for the 1976–82 period may be combined with indexes provided by previous authors to obtain quality-adjusted price indexes for the entire history of the personal computer industry. In the early years, the number of observations is small, and quality and cost improvements, which are often embodied in new models, occur rapidly. It is suggested that in this type of environment, adjacent-year regressions may be more useful for obtaining constant-quality price indexes than alternative methods.