Burgernomics: The Big Mac Guide to Purchasing Power Parity (ICPSR 1298)

Version Date: Aug 12, 2004

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Principal Investigator(s):
Michael R. Pakko, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; Patricia S. Pollard, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR01298.v1

Version V1

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Summary

The theory of purchasing power parity (PPP) has long been a staple of international economic analysis. Recent years have seen the rise in popularity of a tongue-in-cheek, fastfood version of PPP: The Big Mac index. In this article, Michael Pakko and Patricia Pollard describe how comparisons of Big Mac prices around the world contain the ingredients necessary to demonstrate the fundamental principles of PPP. They show that the Big Mac index does nearly as well as more comprehensive measures of international price comparisons and that deviations from "McParity" illustrate why PPP often appears not to hold as a practical matter.

Citation

Pakko, Michael R., and Pollard, Patricia S. Burgernomics: The Big Mac Guide to Purchasing Power Parity. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2004-08-12. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR01298.v1

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Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Distributor(s)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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Data Collection Notes

  1. The files provided are the data file 0311mpd.xls and the program file 0311mpp.txt.

  2. These data are part of ICPSR's Publication-Related Archive and are distributed exactly as they arrived from the data depositor. ICPSR has not checked or processed this material. Users should consult the investigator(s) if further information is desired.

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Original Release Date

2004-08-12

Version History

2018-02-15 The citation of this study may have changed due to the new version control system that has been implemented. The previous citation was:
  • Pakko, Michael R., and Patricia S. Pollard. Burgernomics: The Big Mac Guide to Purchasing Power Parity. ICPSR01298-v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2004-08-12. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR01298.v1
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Notes

  • These data are flagged as replication datasets and are distributed exactly as they arrived from the data depositor. ICPSR has not checked or processed this material. Users should consult the investigator(s) if further information is desired.

  • The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.