Analytical Bias Reduction for Small Samples in the U.S. Consumer Price Index
美国消费者价格指数的小样本解析偏差修正
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) faces sample size constraints when computing its Consumer Price Index (CPI–U). The samples are not sufficiently large for the index to equal a true “fixed basket” price index. This study adjusts for this small-sample bias by estimating the second order of a stochastic expansion of the index. Unlike increasing sample size, this adjustment is inexpensive because it uses the same data used to compute the CPI–U. From the beginning of…