A report to the U.S. Senate Finance Committee from the Advisory Commission to Study the Consumer Price Index. Includes: introduction on the cost of living; indexing the federal budget; how the CPI (consumer price index) is constructed; the consumer price index and a cost of living index; quality change and new products; estimates of biases by type and in total; other issues; the Commission's recommendations; conclusion, and references. Charts and tables. List of Commission members.

An introduction to the significance of the debate surrounding the accuracy of the Consumer Price Index. The work presents the full text of the Boskin Commission report (stating that the CPI overstates inflation by 1.1per cent) and discusses the Commission's research methodology and its conclusions.

Prices constantly move up and down in response to changes in the supply of and demand for goods. But they are also affected by the amount of money and credit that consumers can command.

Although per capita income in the United States outstripped that in other developed countries during the 1990s, it is questionable if the levels of welfare services that it provides to its citizens has kept pace. This study examines how the standard of living is measured.