bmw {PriceIndices}

Calculating the unweighted BMW price index

Description

This function returns a value (or vector of values) of the unweighted Balk-Mehrhoff-Walsh (BMW) price index.

Usage

bmw(data, start, end, interval = FALSE)

Arguments

data

User's data frame with information about sold products. It must contain columns: time (as Date in format: year-month-day,e.g. '2020-12-01'), prices (as positive numeric) and prodID (as numeric, factor or character). A column quantities (as positive numeric) is also needed because this function uses unit values as monthly prices.

start

The base period (as character) limited to the year and month, e.g. "2020-03".

end

The research period (as character) limited to the year and month, e.g. "2020-04".

interval

A logical value indicating whether the function is to compare the research period defined by end to the base period defined by start (then interval is set to FALSE) or all fixed base indices are to be calculated. In this latter case, all months from the time interval <start,end> are considered and start defines the base period (interval is set to TRUE).

Value

The function returns a value (or vector of values) of the unweighted bilateral BMW price index depending on the interval parameter. If the interval parameter is set to TRUE, the function returns a vector of price index values without dates. To get information about both price index values and corresponding dates, please see functions: price_indices or final_index. The function does not take into account aggregating over outlets or product subgroups (to consider these types of aggregating, please use the final_index function).

References

Mehrhoff, J.(2007). A linear approximation to the Jevons index. In: Von der Lippe (2007): Index Theory and Price Statistics, Peter Lang: Berlin, Germany.

(2018). Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP). Methodological Manual. Publication Office of the European union, Luxembourg.

Examples

bmw(sugar, start="2018-12", end="2019-12")
bmw(milk, start="2018-12", end="2020-01", interval=TRUE)