Frequently Asked Questions

Latest FAQs

Guidelines for Citing BEA Information | ID: 1006 | Created: Feb-17-2012
Answer

Does the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) publish relative-importance weights used in the derivation of chain-type quantity and price indexes for personal consumption expenditures (PCE)?

Changes in quantities and prices are calculated using a Fisher formula that incorporates weights from two adjacent time periods. Because the Fisher chain-weighting formula is the basis for the PCE chain-type quantity and price indexes, weights change every quarter and there are no fixed weights associated with their derivations. However, shares computed from current-dollar PCE expenditures approximate the relative-importance weights used to construct the percent changes for chain-type PCE quantity and price indexes for a given period. These expenditure values can be found in underlying NIPA table 2.4.5U. on BEA’s Web site. For more information on constructing chain-type price and quantity indexes, please see chapter 4 of the “NIPA Handbook: Concepts and Methods of the U.S. National Income and Product Accounts."

 

Ask us a question...

"Does the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) publish relative-importance weights used in the derivation of chain-type quantity and price indexes for personal consumption expenditures (PCE)? "
Your email address
Your question

Double check that email address! | We won't be able to contact you if it is incorrect.

Please allow us some time | It could take up to two(2) business days for our Subject Matter Experts to follow up with an appropriate answer to your question(s). Your patience is very much appreciated.

Need Help?

Using the FAQ database | All FAQs are displayed when first visiting the page. They are ordered by most recent or recently updated and can be filtered by keyword search term, by category, and by manually selecting the page number buttons. To view any FAQ, click on the title to open the answer. Submitting a question is done by selecting the “Ask a question” tab along the top of the FAQ.

Selecting an FAQ | Clicking on the title of the FAQ will bring up the answer to the FAQ. Navigating back to the list of FAQs is done by selecting the tab “Latest FAQs”. A tab to ask a question specifically about this FAQ can be found at the top of the answer. Also, the FAQ id and date this FAQ was created or last modified is shown in the upper right hand corner.

Searching the FAQs | Enter a keyword search term and click the Search button to narrow FAQ selections. To return to all FAQs, click the Clear button or clear the keyword search field and click the Search button.

Filtering FAQs by category | Chose the category to filter by and click Apply button. This will display only the FAQs related to an assigned category. To return to all FAQs click the Clear button next to the search by keyword field or select ALL from the drop down menu and click Apply button.