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It is very difficult to measure "true" inflation when most of it is hidden in decline of quality of services or shirnkflation (the latter is a bit easier to tra
by ak_111 4y ago
It is very difficult to measure "true" inflation when most of it is hidden in decline of quality of services or shirnkflation (the latter is a bit easier to track).
For example, the restaurant who still offer you the same price for the meal but now clean the toilets and cutlery 80% less frequently than they did two years ago (to save on dishwasher energy cost, or recruiting 20% less cleaner hours). Or the school that charges you the same fee although they have quietly increased the student to teacher ratio.
I am wondering what is the current stat of the art to capture such hidden inflation, I guess you can track reviews to see if there is an uptick in negative reviews but then this is hard to translate quantitatively into how much it is contributing to inflation.
- onlyrealcuzzo 4y ago> I am wondering what is the current stat of the art to capture such hidden inflation The Fed's measure of inflation is supposed to include this.
- ak_111 4y agohow do they track/quantify decline in service quality as in the two scenarios I mentioned (restaurant cleaning less?)
- gruez 4y agoexample: https://www.bls.gov/cpi/quality-adjustment/new-vehicles.pdf https://www.bls.gov/cpi/quality-adjustment/new-vehicles.pdf Also, it's not active for all categories. In the restaurant example from the parent post, it wouldn't be counted because that category has no quality adjustment applied. https://www.bls.gov/cpi/quality-adjustment/ https://www.bls.gov/cpi/quality-adjustment/