The European Employment Price Index: Implementation and Feasibility in Austria

Authors

  • Martin Zagler Department of Economics, Vienna University of Economics & B.A. Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Growth Research, Vienna
  • Ulrike Mühlberger Department of Political and Social Science, European University Institute, Florence

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17713/ajs.v27i3.538

Abstract

The study, on which this paper is based upon, has analyzed the implementation and feasibility of the European Employment Price Index (EEPI) in Austria. The European Employment Price Index is a Laspeyres measure of the change in the demand-transaction price of the standardized unit of labor. We find that it is feasible to construct the index with the available company data with an approximate lag length of five month. Most data were easily accessible within firms, with the exception of severance payments, company pensions, and hypothetical costs. Only 228 observations are required to obtain an aggregate EEPI for Austria within +/- one percentage point at the 95 % significance level, whilst some 4800 observations are necessary for disaggregate series, enormously increasing costs of provision.

References

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R. Hafner. Statistik für Sozial- und Wirtschaftswissenschafter. Wien: Springer, 1992.

B.R. Moulton. Bias in the Consumer Price Index: What is the Evidence? Journal of Economic Perspectives 10, 159 - 177, 1996.

Ch. Ragacs, H. Walther, M. Zagler. Monetary Policy, Cost-Push Inflation and the European Employment Price Index. Vienna: mimeo, 1998.

J. Triplett (ed.). The Measurement of Labor Costs. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1983.

M. Zagler, H. Walther, A. Guger, U. Mühlberger, Ch. Ragacs. The European Employment Cost Index. Implementation and Feasibility Study for Austria. Vienna: Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Growth Research, 1997.

Published

2016-04-03

How to Cite

Zagler, M., & Mühlberger, U. (2016). The European Employment Price Index: Implementation and Feasibility in Austria. Austrian Journal of Statistics, 27(3), 159–169. https://doi.org/10.17713/ajs.v27i3.538

Issue

Section

Articles