A regional price index for Bavaria

Tasks

In contrast to many other countries, in Germany, official consumer price indices and thus price levels and inflation figures are currently calculated for the entire country and its federal states. There are no official price statistics with a more detailed regional breakdown, making evidence-based statements about visible local differences in the cost of living and the 'equalization of living conditions' required by the Basic Law difficult to impossible.

The aim of this project is to close this gap and develop a regional price index for Bavaria at the level of districts and, if possible, at the municipal level. In the course of the project, some methodological issues need to be addressed, as the (federal) consumer price statistics are not designed for regionalization. In this initial collaboration with the Bavarian State Office for Statistics and the University of Bamberg, researchers from the ifo Institute in Munich and Fürth will specialize in capturing the regionally varying housing costs and combine official data with privately collected rental and purchase prices to obtain a meaningful picture.