A Political Economy of the Measurement of Inflation: The case of France

Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
List of Boxes
Introduction
	A Constructed Datum
	Outline of the Book
	References
Chapter 1: ‘What is a Price Index’: Statistical Approach
	1 Introduction
	2 The Statistical Principle of a Price Index: Elementary Indices and Aggregation
		2.1 The Elementary Indices
		2.2 Aggregating the Elementary Indices
	3 The Various Possible Measures: Laspeyres, Paasche, Fisher
		3.1 The Laspeyres Price Index
		3.2 The Paasche Price Index
		3.3 The Fisher Price Index
		3.4 The Missing Properties of the Synthetic Indices
	4 Implementing Price Indices Both Statistically and Practically
		4.1 Chain Indices
		4.2 The Geometric Means of the Micro Price Indices
		4.3 Quantities, Volumes and Pure Prices
	5 The Composition of the Price Index and the Evolution of the CPI over Time
	References
Chapter 2: A Political Economy of the Price Index 1913–1990
	1 Introduction
	2 The Emergence of a Price Index: Between Proxy for Industrial Activity and Guarantee of Purchasing Power
	3 Eight Generations of the Price Index
	4 1950–1970: A Price Index Policy?
		4.1 Standard Budgets
		4.2 Wage Indexation Policies and Index Policies
		4.3 A ‘Traumatic’ Period for INSEE
		4.4 A Different Story in the USA During the 1950s?
	5 The Life of the CGT Index (1972–1998)
		5.1 The Origins of the CGT Index
		5.2 The Specific Characteristics of the CGT Index
		5.3 Competitive Devaluation and the End of the CGT Index
	6 The 1990s and 2000s: Between Finance and Governmentality
		6.1 The Indexation of Financial Products
		6.2 A Price Index ‘Without Tobacco’
	References
Chapter 3: The European Turning Point
	1 Maastricht (1992) and the HICP
		1.1 Maastricht and Inflation
		1.2 The HICP
			1.2.1	 The Context in Which the HICP Was Created
			1.2.2	 The HICP: The Calculation Principle
	2 The Price Index During the Changeover to the Euro
		2.1 INSEE and the Changeover to the Euro
		2.2 Advances in Measuring Perceptions of Inflation
		2.3 New Actors
			2.3.1	 The Large Retailers Get Involved
			2.3.2	 The Effects of the 2007 Presidential Campaign
	3 What Is the ‘Right’ Level of Price Inflation?
		3.1 Individuals’ Frequency of Purchasing
		3.2 The Growing Inequalities Between Socio-occupational Categories
		3.3 Involuntary Expenditure: Between Old Realities and a New Concept?
	4 An Unheard-of Response from INSEE: The Launch of an Online Individual Simulator
	References
Chapter 4: The Quality Effect
	1 The Boskin Report (1996) and the Idea of “Overstated” Inflation
		1.1 The Contents of the Boskin Report
		1.2 The Post-Boskin Years in France
	2 The Objectivation of Quality: Between Interpretations and Modelling
		2.1 Implicit Methods of Dealing with Quality
		2.2 The Explicit Methods
		2.3 Services Are Affected
		2.4 The Uncertain and Convention-Based Nature of Quality
	3 The Hedonic Method: Between Promises and Disappointments
		3.1 The Principle of the Hedonic Method
		3.2 Interpretations of Quality
		3.3 Hedonic Prices: Between Communicative Power and Weakness in Application?
			3.3.1	 Some Theoretical Critiques
			3.3.2	 The Hedonic Method’s Sphere of Application Remains Narrow
			3.3.3	 “Consumption Profile” Methods
	4 Conclusion. Taking Account of Sustainability, the Environment and Care Work
	References
Chapter 5: From Consumer Prices to the ‘Cost of Living’
	1 A Hundred Years of Convergence Towards a Cost of Living Index?
		1.1 Realities Elude Statistics
		1.2 The Intellectual Paradigm
		1.3 A Big Comeback for Utility?
			1.3.1	 Defining the COLI
			1.3.2	 Fifty Years After They Were Developed Conceptually, Are Constant-Utility Indices Being Put into Practice?
			1.3.3	 Checkout Data and the CUI
	2 Is Inflation Over- or Understated?
		2.1 Substitutability in Purchasing Practices
		2.2 A New Kind of Challenge
	References
Chapter 6: The Reform of ‘Checkout Data’
	1 Investing in Big Data
	2 Checkout Data
	3 These Digital Innovations Present a Challenge to the Notion of ‘Product’
	4 ‘Exhaustive’ but Impoverished Data
	References
Chapter 7: Under- or Overestimation of Inflation?
	1 The Importance of the Knowledge Regime
	2 The Dissemination of the Statement that “Inflation Is Being Overestimated”
		2.1 First Trade Union Protests Against the Underestimation of Inflation in the 1950s
		2.2 Second Wave of Trade Union Protest: The Construction of an Alternative Index
		2.3 A Counter-attack from the Other Side of the Atlantic: Inflation Overestimated?
	3 The Emergence of the Statement that “Inflation Is Being Overestimated”
		3.1 The Socio-technical Conditions for the Emergence
		3.2 The Pendulum of History: The ‘Gilets Jaunes’ Effect
	4 Conclusion
	References
Conclusion
	The Consequences for Growth and Productivity
	References
Index