Computation of Standard Errors for Geary–Khamis Parities and international Prices: A Stochastic Approach

Abstract

One of the areas receiving little attention in the past in index-number theory is providing standard errors for the index number estimates. Recently, Clements and Izan and Selvanathan used the stochastic approach to index numbers to derive standard errors for the rate of inflation and Laspeyres and Paasche index numbers. In this article, we use this approach to compute standard errors associated with purchasing power parities computed using Geary-Khamis aggregation procedure in the International Comparisons Project of the United Nations. We assess the quality of the standard errors using Efron's bootstrap technique.