The Cost of Living in America
A Political History of Economic Statistics, 1880–2000
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Cambridge University Press
Published:31st Aug '09
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- Hardback£65.00(9780521895019)
Stapleford interweaves economic theory with political history to show why Americans vest so much authority in the Consumer Price Index.
In this book Stapleford explains why Americans came to vest so much authority in the Consumer Price Index, what choices were made in constructing the index, and why those choices matter both for our understanding of American history and for contemporary political and economic life.Since the late nineteenth century, the 'cost of living' has been a prominent part of debates about American political economy. By the early twentieth century, that prominence had taken a quantitative turn, as businessmen, unions, economists, and politicians all turned to cost-of-living statistics in their struggle to control and reshape the American economy. Today, the continuing power of these statistics is exemplified by the U.S Consumer Price Index, whose fluctuations have enormous consequences for economic policy and the federal budget (including the allocation of hundreds of billions of dollars annually through cost-of-living escalator clauses in programs such as Social Security). In this book, Stapleford interweaves economic theory with political history to create a novel account of the quantitative knowledge that underpins much of American political economy. Demonstrating that statistical calculations inevitably require political judgments, he reveals what choices were made in constructing and using cost-of-living statistics and why those choices matter both for our understanding of American history and for contemporary political and economic life.
'What could be more objective than collecting cost-of-living statistics? Stapleford masterfully shows that the process of determining what it cost to live in America was actually deeply political and contested over the course of the twentieth century. Who was doing the counting, with what measures, and to what ends made all the difference. More broadly, this is a fascinating and important case study of the political uses of social science research.' Lizabeth Cohen, author of A Consumers' Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America
'This exceptionally fine book gives the all-important Consumer Price Index the nuanced, contextualized, probing, century-long history that it deserves. Starting with the first official price, wage, and family budget series, Stapleford details the tensions between theoretical and practical knowledge, between professional and bureaucratic standing, and between those asserting 'objective' as against normative purposes for measuring and comparing across income classes real changes in buying power and in the definition of 'living.' The measurement of poverty – or the failure to measure it fairly and seek its causes – is rightly a big part of this compelling narrative. This book is a vital addition to the growing literature of the making of policy knowledge.' Mary O. Furner, University of California, Santa Barbara
'Thomas Stapleford has done a magnificent job taking us inside the Bureau of Labor Statistics to demonstrate the political and ideological structures, in the government and out, that have so decisively framed the single most important index generated by the American state. Henceforth, no student of the economy, of labor, or of the welfare state can think intelligently about their subject without making use of this insightful and learned analysis.' Nelson Lichtenstein, University of California, Santa Barbara
'The Cost of Living in America is about an index number, which is to say, about the compression and homogenization of a plethora of diverse goods and activities into a single figure. Stapleford uses history brilliantly to disassemble that index into its historical constituents, demonstrating how economic measurement has reconfigured labor and business, war and poverty – indeed, the modern American state.' Ted Porter, University of California, Los Angeles
'… I am fully convinced by this book and would recommend it strongly … it is an extremely informative book with much index theory and politics. It is very fascinating and extremely useful for everybody who is interested in price indices, inflation measurement, social policy and the general political problems of official statistics or, as Stapleford's put it, in 'the deep and complicated entanglement of rationalized governance, cost-of-living statistics, and economic reforms' … One might also add 'and in the constitution of official statistics in a democracy'.' Peter von der Lippe, Journal of Economics and Statistics
ISBN: 9780521719247
Dimensions: 228mm x 154mm x 25mm
Weight: 580g
440 pages