The index value for each city participating in COLI is reset to 100 in each quarter -- reflecting the fact that COLI is not a time-series, but solely a measure of cross-sectional variations in the cost of living.
In the late 2006, C2ER has created a historical index between the first quarter 2000 and the fourth quarter 2006 so that one can compare two or more cities over a given period of time.
In order to ensure that the overall (“all-city”) index is valid, and not subject to random variations that are driven by the entry and exit of participating cities, the overall COLI is calculated as the average index value of those cities that have participated continuously since 2000. To accomplish the study we used:
- Average prices of 91 urban areas as the base number
- 49 items that were consistent through the time period
- The first quarter 2000 weights for basket items and component indexes
If you would like to find out more information about the dataset, please contact Erol Yildirim at 703-522-4980 ext.14. |
