Using unit value indices as proxies for international merchandise trade prices
In light of the need for detailed and timely internationally comparable trade price
indices, this paper describes a multi-tiered methodology to mitigate many of the empirical
challenges associated with using customs data, to provide more robust estimates of
unit value indices (UVIs) by country and product. UVIs are available for both exports
and imports, by reporting country and the CPA 2-digit level of classification. Although
the approach cannot capture changes in the quality of products nor compositional changes
happening at a lower than HS 6-digit classification, the results indicate that at
higher levels of aggregation (SITC 1-digit level), estimated UVIs closely follow price
changes obtained from other sources. This is observed both for products with significant
and rapid quality changes, such as hi-tech products, and for products with a low rate
of quality changes, such as commodities, other primary and low-tech goods. Furthermore,
products where little quality change occurs over time show similarity between UVIs
and price changes from other sources at lower levels of disaggregation. The methodology
is used to produce the Merchandise Trade Price Index and the data is made publically
available on .Stat under the International Trade and Balance of Payments heading.
Available from February 17, 2022
In series:OECD Statistics Working Papersview more titles