Professor Paul Smith - New book charting the rise and fall of the Retail Prices Index published

Prof. Paul Smith (S3RI and Dept of Social Statistics & Demography) and Southampton visitor Jeff Ralph have renewed their collaboration with Robert O’Neill (University of Manchester) to tell the story of the Retail Prices Index from its inception after the second world war and formal introduction in 1956 to more recent times when its position has been much more controversial. The book The Retail Prices Index – a short history also summarises the earlier history of price measurement which created the conditions which made an RPI-style measurement possible. It follows on from their earlier book Inflation – History and Measurement , but covers the tale of the RPI in more detail, drawing on material from the minutes of the RPI Advisory Committees, and recounting the challenges created by the existence of both RPI and the Consumer Prices Index in recent years. e-access is available through the UoS library.