Abstract
This chapter tells the story of the early development of inflation measurement from the first considerations of a “price level” in 1707 to the introduction of the Interim Index of Retail Prices in 1947. The period up to 1880 was dominated by the work of visionary individuals whose insights laid the foundations of both theory and practice. The resources of the state were harnessed to produce the first official inflation measure in 1914—the Cost of Living Index. The first use of indexation for adjusting wages followed soon after. The Index was subject to political control during the Second World War and didn’t reflect the public experience of price changes. As a result, it became discredited and a fresh start was needed after the War.
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Notes
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Appendix A contains the mathematical representations of this and other formulas.
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Ralph, J., O’Neill, R., Smith, P.A. (2020). The Early History of Inflation Measurement. In: The Retail Prices Index. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46563-6_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46563-6_2
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