Steve Walker, CFA, is attending an economics lecture, during which the lecturer makes the following two statements about consumer price inflation: Statement 1: High-definition televisions are considerably more expensive than traditional models. This means consumers are spending more money per television unit, which represents a form of inflation. Statement 2: Employment contracts with cost-of-living increases based on the Consumer Price Index result in optimal economic decisions because they adjust wage costs automatically for the rate of inflation. Should Walker agree or disagree with these statements Statement 1 Statement 2 （） ①A. Agree Agree ②B. Agree Disagree ③C. Disagree Disagree
A．①
B．②
C．③
参考答案：C
解析：
Walker should disagree with both statements. Price changes resulting from increases in the quality of goods, or from consumers choosing to substitute more expensive goods for less expensive ones, do not represent inflation and should not be reflected in price indexes. However, the Consumer Price Index does change based on these and other effects, causing it to overstate the rate of inflation by roughly 1% per year. Bias in the CPI means that it is only an approximation of the actual inflation faced by workers, so both workers’ and employers’ decisions based on CPI-adjusted wages may be less than optimal.