A spatial cost of living index for Colombia using a microeconomic approach and censored data

Abstract

This article describes a methodology to calculate a Spatial Cost of Living (SCOL) index using the Colombian data for 2006 that considers the microeconomic behaviour of households. Estimating an Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS) to recover the expenditure function of the 23 main Colombian cities, the index is compared to the fixed basket approach and to an alternative methodology proposed by Romero (2005). This comparison suggests that the index is biased when the substitution effects are not considered, and this bias increases when the difference in expenditure levels between cities increases. According to our calculations, Bogota is still the most expensive city in the country.