An independent way to confirm CPI overstates inflation is to find the income adjustment that keeps spending patterns (shares spent on food, clothing, leisure) constant over time at a given real income level; researchers like Costa and Bruce Hamilton have done this and arrive at CPI biases not very different from the Boskin Commission's.

factualpending

Speaker

Bruce Meyer

Evidence Quote

several people have done that door acosta right and Bruce Hamilton and they come up with biases to the CPI that aren't that different from what the Baskin Commission concluded

Source

Bruce Meyer on the Middle Class, Poverty, and Inequality 10/03/2011EconTalk
Created: 6/15/2026, 9:20:26 AM

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