Consumer price indexes

This text explores the modern theoretical fondations of the consumer price indices (CPI). It is now admitted by the international comunity that the microeconomic framework of the consumer theory is a natural framework for CPIs. This text is devoted to the consequences of this theory which are studied in detail at chapters IV and V. After an introductory chapter which draws some historical perspectives and gives the main ideas, the computational issues of Laspeyres indices and agregation are presented in chapter II. Chapter III presents the axiomatic theory which sets some desirable properties to price indices and classifies the various price index formulae with respect to these properties. The last chapter (VI) is an attempt to build, in the sense of metrology, a price index. This is applied to the French CPI.