For what is worth, this is what I could fid about the methodology: http://eiu.enumerate.com/asp/wcol_HelpIndexCalc.asp http://eiu.enumerate.com/asp/wcol_HelpIn

For what is worth, this is what I could fid about the methodology: http://eiu.enumerate.com/asp/wcol_HelpIndexCalc.asp http://eiu.enumerate.com/asp/wcol_HelpIndexCalc.asp Basically, it says it's only useful to companies to decide what to pay their expat executives. For the rest of us it's pretty much irrelevant. Normal people will change their consumption patterns according to their income and the local living cost. If you move from Rio to NY and then to Tokyo you'll probably settle for a smaller apartment each time. But the index seems implausible even for its stated purpose. Let's say you're a "regular" person and are happy with x in NY; then you'll be very comfortable with 1.4x in Tokyo, and will live like a king in Rio with .85x. So what kind of stuff are execs consuming that makes those numbers equivalent?