Fictions of the market
The shelter component of the consumer price index in theory and practice
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12979459 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Karen Rogan (Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 390-401 |
| Publication date | 2025-02-26 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Human Geography (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1942-7786 • E-ISSN: 2633-674X |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/19427786251316868 |
| OpenAlex | W4408006038 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 34 |
The consumer price index (CPI), calculated in the United States by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is a gauge of commodity prices’ fluctuations month-over-month as they are experienced by consumer households. The CPI has wide-ranging influence on economic expectations, especially in inflationary periods. The influence of the so-called “shelter component” of the CPI, which purports to measure fluctuations in housing prices nationally, is considerable. Despite its primacy, the shelter component is deeply flawed and has only limited use when it comes to providing an actual picture of fluctuations in housing and rental prices. In the CPI, housing is not treated as a produced commodity but as a tap from which something called ‘housing services’ flows, to be consumed by households. The failures of the shelter component, I find, are the failures of orthodox economics, also springing from a steadfast refusal to center production. I argue that the reigning economic treatments of housing are based on untenable theoretical assumptions that severely constrain their usefulness; as such, the shelter component of the CPI should be rejected entirely. But first, it is necessary to understand it fully
Commodity · Component (thermodynamics · Consumer price index (South Africa · Economics · Index (typography · Macroeconomics · Market economy · Monetary policy · Political science · Price index · Renting · Springing · Economic theories and models · Housing Market and Economics · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Law
Capitalism
Estimating eviction prevalence across the United States
The Composition of Hedonic Pricing Models
"The Positive Theory of Capital"
Untangling Eviction, Disadvantage, Race, and Social Processes
The Arena of Capital
Do the Consumer Price Index's Utilities Adjustments for Owners’ Equivalent Rent Distort Inflation Measurement
Measuring the Cost of Shelter for Homeowners
Working to Improve the Consumer Price Index
Marx, Marginalism and Modern Sociology
Wages, Rents, and the Quality of Life
Hedonic Prices and Implicit Markets
Capitalism
The Impact of Legal Counsel on Outcomes for Poor Tenants in New York City's Housing Court
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |