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The Paasche Price Index is a price index used to measure the general
price level and cost of living in the economy and calculate inflation. The
index commonly uses a base year of 100, with periods of higher price
levels shown by an index greater than 100 and periods of lower price
levels by indexes lower than 100.
Where:
Pi,0 is the price of the individual item at the base period,
and Pi,t is the price of the individual item at the observation
period.
Qi,t is the quantity of the individual item at the observation
period.
Although the mathematical equation for the Paasche Price Index seems
confusing, the numerator is simply the total expenditure for all items at
the observation period using current observation period quantities and
prices, while the denominator is the total expenditure for all items at
the base period using current observation period quantities and base
period prices. Therefore, the index can be more easily understood
when rewritten as follows:
Example
Good A $5 $6 $7
Therefore, the price index using the Paasche Price Index is as follows
for each year:
Note that in the Paasche Price Index, the prices are the only items that
change. We are comparing the current year (observation year) prices to
the base year prices at the same quantities.
Key Takeaways
The Paasche Price Index is a price index used to measure the change in
the prices and quantities of a basket of goods and services relative to a
specified base period price. The numerator of the index is the total
expenditures of all items at the observation period using the
observation period price and quantities, while the denominator is the
total expenditures of all items using base period prices and observation
period quantities.
The index corrects for the upward price bias of the Laspeyres Price
Index and also takes into consideration consumption patterns.
However, it relies on current data (which may not be readily available)
and tends to understate the changes in price.