II I do know, however, that central bank research papers which take a critical look at statistical methods are not always welcomed with open arms by statistical offices. For instance, it is often argued that studies oriented towards the ideal world of a cost-of-living index are hardly relevant to official statistics since price statistics are founded on the principle of pure price comparisons.
I do not want to go into details of this rather fundamental discussion at this stage. However, I believe that from an economic policy perspective it is not possible to generate a meaningful consumer price index without taking recourse to economic criteria.