Research Catalog

Title

Quality measurement in economics : new perspectives on the evolution of goods and services / Steven Payson.

Author

Payson, Steven, 1957-

Publication

Aldershot, England ; Brookfield, Vt., USA : Elgar, 1994.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xii, 242 pages : illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

"The concept of quality measurement is revived and given new meaning in this innovative new book. Steven Payson argues that quality measurement is an important issue in the study of price indices and in the additional areas of product innovation and evolutionary change. The user-value definition of quality is forcefully defended against the producer-cost definition, and a new method of measurement is introduced - the representative good approach (RGA). The RGA provides a new means for measuring quality over long periods of time by examining historical documents. A discussion of evolutionary change lays the groundwork for the identification of two processes: quality improvement and cost reduction. Using data from the Sears Catalog, quality improvement and cost reduction rates are estimated for five goods between 1928 and 1993: shoes, sofas, gas ranges, window fans and air conditioners, and cameras. The results are dramatic, supporting ground-breaking hypotheses on the determinants of quality improvement and cost reduction."--Jacket.

Subject

• Geschichte 1928-1993
• Quality of products > United States > Cost effectiveness > Econometric models
• Technological innovations > United States > Econometric models
• Technological innovations > Econometric models
• Kostensenkung
• Produktinnovation
• Qualitätssteigerung
• Ökonometrisches Modell
• Kwaliteitsverbetering
• Technische vernieuwing
• United States
• USA
• USA

Note

• Based on the author's doctoral dissertation, Columbia University, New York, 1991.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 228-237 ) and index.

Contents

1. The meaning of quality -- 2. Quality change in the context of economic evolution and scientific inquiry -- 3. Microeconomic foundations and empirical approaches -- 4. A new approach toward measuring quality change -- 5. Estimation of cost reduction and income response effects -- 6. A model on long-run evolutionary change -- 7. Long-run determinants of quality and relative prices -- 8. The quality of economic literature -- 9. Conclusion -- Appendix: Raw data from the Sears Catalog.

ISBN

• 1852789263
• 9781852789268

LCCN

93028612

OCLC

• ocm28508242
• 28508242
• SCSB-2007667

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library