Scanner Data on Durable Goods: Market Dynamics and Hedonic Time Dummy Price Indexes

Hedonic methods are a promising tool when calculating price indexes for products experiencing rapid technological change. In this paper several hedonic time dummy price indexes are calculated for televisions, refrigerators, washing machines and personal computers, based on scannerdata of the population of sales over the period 1999-2001. It appears that for televisions, refrigerators, washing machines a population based matched-model index is a good approximation of the so-called generalised Törnqvist index, that is used as benchmark index among the hedonic time dummy indexes. The paper analyses which conditions have to be fulfilled for a matched-model index to be a good approximation. The paper also shows the dynamic structure in consumer sales of some of these durables.