The plutocratic gap in the CPI: Evidence from Spain

Abstract

The plutocratic gap is defined as the difference between the inflation measured according to the current official consumer price index (CPI) and a democratic index in which all households receive the same weight. During 1992-97, the plutocratic gap in Spain averaged 0.055 percentage points a year. Since positive and negative gaps cancel out, however, the average absolute gap is significantly larger: 0.090 percentage points a year. For the purposes of accounting for the plutocratic gap, a 53-dimensional commodity space can be conveniently reduced to two dimensions: a luxury index and a necessities index. © 2003 International Monetary Fund.