![U.S. flag](https://www.dol.gov/themes/opa_theme/img/flag-favicon-57.png)
An official website of the United States government
The Division was created in 1963 in response to the Stigler Commission Report on Federal price statistics. It has had a long and successful history, both in providing economic consulting services to the Bureau and in serving as a source of, and conduit for, new ideas in the economics profession. The Division staff works on long term research, much of it towards resolving of price index measurement problems, using a wide range of methods from microeconomic and macroeconomic theory, consumer economics, industrial organization, econometrics, and statistics. The Division also provides consulting services to the production offices within the Office of Prices and Living Conditions: Consumer Expenditure Surveys (CE); Consumer Price Index (CPI); Producer Price Index (PPI); Import/Export Price Indexes (MXP).
Title of Presentation: "An Analysis of Poverty Through a Consumption Lens: Research from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics"
Author(s): Thesia I. Garner, Brett Matsumoto, and Jake Schild
Venue: Society for Economic Measurement Annual Conference, Atlanta, Georgia, 8/1-3/2024.
Abstract: In this study we conduct an in-depth analysis of consumption poverty with comparison to pre-tax income poverty. Both relative and absolute poverty are considered. We produce poverty statistics by demographic groups and examine how poverty has changed from 2019 to 2022, a period prior to the COVID pandemic, during the pandemic, and after. This builds on the work over the past couple of years by researchers at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics who have been involved in the development a series of consumption measures. The primary data set for these measures is the Consumer Expenditure Surveys (CE). An article in the April issue of the Monthly Labor Review describes the development of the measure; simple poverty and inequality statistics for 2019-2021 are included as examples of how the measure could be used. Notice: The conference presentation is available on the SEM website.
Title of presentation: "Sticky Continuing Tenant Rents"
Author(s): Joshua Gallin, Lara Loewenstein, Hugh Montag, and Randal Verbrugge
Venue: Society for Economic Measurement Annual Conference, Atlanta, Georgia, 8/1-3/2024.
Abstract: While much attention has been focused on new tenant rents, continuing tenant rents are more important for the dynamics of CPI shelter indexes. Besides their well-known stickiness, little else is known about these rents. This is the first study to use US CPI rent microdata, over 1999-2024, to do a deep-dive analysis of continuing tenant rents. Over this period, despite technological advances available to unsophisticated landlords, continuing tenant rents remained very sticky, with little cyclical variation even during the Financial Collapse or the pandemic; and declining mobility has made continuing tenant rents even more important drivers of the CPI since 2010. Unsurprisingly, the aggregate rent hazard function is downward-sloping. Unit-level rent gaps—that is, the difference between the unit's actual rent and its hypothetical new-tenant rent—grow over a tenancy, indicating length-of-residence discounts rather than sit discounts. Despite this, rent gaps are the most important driver of continuing tenant rent changes; other drivers of rents mainly influence new tenant rents. Notice: The conference presentation is available on the SEM website.
Last Modified Date: August 14, 2024