特征价格指数的理论与实证研究——以计算机价格指数为例

Theory of Hedonic Price Indics and its Empirical Study——Take Computer Price Index as Example

探讨特征价格指数的定义、作用和理论框架,由此得出结论:特征价格指数是根据特征价格函数计算出来的个体质量指数的统称。随着科学技术的不断进步和异质商品数量的增加,编制不同商品的特征价格指数对于提高中国价格指数编制质量和完善价格指数的编制方法具有重要的现实意义。文章实证部分引用G regoryC.Chow在“计算机的技术变化和需求”一文中使用过的数据,用以说明两种不同的计算机特征价格指数编制方法。实证结果表明:无论是合并数据指数模型,还是横截面数据指数模型均能剔除计算机的特征对其价格的影响,准确反映价格的变动趋势。而传统的价格指数由于忽略了商品品质的改变,有可能高估计算机价格的上涨幅度。

In the economic literature, essentially, hedonic techniques either are applied straightforwardly or the economic foundations of the hedonic hypothesis are discussed. In this paper, the statistical foundations of hedonic price indices are developed. After a short overview on well - known functional forms of hedonic equations, first, precise hedonic notions of a good and its price are specified. These specifications allow a clear - cut definition of true hedonic price indices. Then, the problem of estimating hedonic price indices is treated. It is shown, first, that the usual hedonic price index formulae result from estimating certain true indices in a special way and, second, that the techniques used in practice for estimating hedonic indices are just first approaches.