I did a little experiment. I took the consumer expenditure survey data on expenditure shares for 2015 by income quintile, and lined them up as best I could with CPI categories. The match is not perfect, but pretty close: I was able to replicate CPI growth between November of 2015 to November 2015 within about a tenth of a percentage point. It turns out that for that period, those in the lowest quintile had slightly lower than average CPI growth (yes, it surprised me too). The reason is that housing costs over the past year have risen by less than CPI, and low income people spend disproportionately large amounts on housing.
My estimates:
CPI growth by Quintile relative to overall CPI growth, Nov '06-Nov '07.
Lowest 20% -.128%
Second Lowest .174%
Middle Quint .017%
Second Highest -0.017%
Highest 20% -0.094%
Someone out there should do this carefully--I would be happy to share my spreadsheet. It appears to be less of a big deal than I originally thought.
No comments:
Post a Comment