This study analyzes the 1980s upturn in per capita consumption of dairy products in the United States. The study found that per capita consumption of total dairy products in the United States first trended downward then stagnated for the two decades prior to the early 1980s. Per capita consumption of items such as whole milk declined, whereas…

World food production reached a record high in 1986, exceeding 1985's record by about 1 percent, despite declining food output in Latin America, the United States, Western Europe, and Oceania. World food production generally increased faster than population from 1977 to 1986. Production of agricultural commodities increased at an annual compound…

In periods of rising costs and changing economic conditions, school administrators are faced with difficult problems in projecting school budgets, estimating probable cost increases, and determining salary needs of school personnel. The Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor offers information that can be of value to school…

Summary of a project for developing and testing standard systems and methods for cost accounting; establishing indices for the costs of activities; and developing approaches to and methods of determining the level of performance, efficiency, and usefulness of information and documentation systems. (Author/KP)

The author defends his conceptualization of a cost of education index against criticisms made in the preceding article. The defense focuses on the availability of teachers and the impact of this availability on education costs. (IRT)

Early announcements show many colleges are raising tuition 5 to 11 percent, squeezed by pressures to keep costs down and spend more to improve educational quality. A federal investigation of possible tuition price-fixing at 56 institutions has also increased anxiety among administrators. (MSE)

The distribution of food item prices was compared across Tucson-area stores and to a local newspaper's annual price survey. Price distributions for national brands and cheapest alternative brands coincided closely with the newspaper report, suggesting that comparative food-store price reports provide useful information to consumers. (SK)

Hedonic models of the price of college to construct quality-adjusted net price indexes for U.S. four-year colleges were estimated. A 22 percent decline in the estimated price index is reported by adjusting for financial aid, while quality adjusting results lead to a smaller decline, for academic years 1990-91 to 1994-95.

This paper provides a guide to statistically based methods for estimating the extra costs of educating disadvantaged students, shows how these methods are related, and compares state aid programs that account for these costs in different ways. We show how pupil weights, which are included in many state aid programs, can be estimated from an…

The purpose of this Information Aid is to alert school officials to changes and revisions in the Consumer Price Index (CPI), to familiarize them with differences between the former CPI and the new and revised indexes, to demonstrate how the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) computes changes in the CPI, to indicate appropriate uses of the CPI,…

Describes the purpose, scope, and methodology of an annual survey of periodicals prices and reports results of 1987 study. Tables present data on subject categories in various rank orders, average of average annual percentages of increase since 1978, and prices compared to the Consumer Price Index. (EM)

Presents results of price survey of periodicals published in the United States and serial services. Tables are organized by subject categories to show number of titles included in the survey, rank order by average subscription price, and price increases. (LRW)

Figures for 1981 median and per capita income are used to construct an index for adjusting state income figures for differences in living costs and taxes. (MLF)

In the last two decades, college textbook prices have increased at twice the rate of inflation but have followed close behind tuition increases. Increasing at an average of 6 percent per year, textbook prices nearly tripled from December 1986 to December 2004, while tuition and fees increased by 240 percent and overall inflation was 72…