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INDEX

The INDEX command computes price indexes from a set of price and quantity data on a number of commodities. To calculate an index, it is necessary to have prices and quantities for at least two commodities. Alternative price index calculations include Laspeyres, Paasche, Fisher and Tornqvist (Translog).

In general, the format is:

INDEX p1 q1 p2 q2 p3 q3 ... pn qn / options

If there is a zero price or quantity in any year the commodity will be ignored for that year. To compute a quantity indexes reverse the p and q variables on the INDEX command.

The available options are:

OPTION DESCRIPTION
altern Normally, the variable list is as described above, where p and q alternate in the list
base= Specifies the observation number to be used as the BASE period for the index. The value of the index in the base period will be 1.0. If the BASE= option is not specified SHAZAM will use the first available observation as the base period. Use of SKIPIF commands is not recommended when computing Divisia indexes since the index needs to be chained.
beg= Specifies the BEGinning observation to be used in estimation. This option overrides the SAMPLE command and defaults to the sample range in effect.
chain CHAINs the Laspeyres, Paasche or Fisher indexes using the method described in the INDEX chapter in the SHAZAM Reference Manual. The Divisia index is always chained.
divisia= Specifies the variable where the DIVISIA price index will be stored for this SHAZAM run.
end Specifies the ENDing observation to be used in estimation. This option overrides the SAMPLE command and defaults to the sample range in effect.
expend Indicates that the quantity variables measure EXPENDitures rather than quantities. SHAZAM will first divide each EXPENDiture variable by its respective price to get the quantities.
fisher= Specifies the variable where the FISHER price index will be stored for this SHAZAM run.
laspeyre= Specifies the variable where the LASPEYRE price index will be stored for this SHAZAM run.
noaltern Normally, variables are listed as described above, with p and q alternating in the list. Sometimes, it is more convenient to list all the prices followed by all the quantities. This would be the case if the prices were in one matrix and the quantities in another matrix. In this case, NOALTERN should be specified. The default is ALTERN.
nolist With this option the price and quantity indexes are not printed.
paasche= Specifies the variable where the PAASCHE price index will be stored for this SHAZAM run.
qdivisia= Specifies the variable where the DIVISIA quantity index will be stored for this SHAZAM run.
qfisher= Specifies the variable where the FISHER quantity index will be stored for this SHAZAM run.
qlaspeyres= Specifies the variable where the LASPEYRES quantity index will be stored for this SHAZAM run.
qpaasche= Specifies the variable where the PAASCHE quantity index will be stored for this SHAZAM run.