关键词: 国际比较项目, 购买力平价, 数据质量, 汇总方法, 区域化方法

Abstract: Based on the regional comparison method adopted by the International Comparison Program (ICP), this paper uses the price and expenditure data of 155 basic headings of 154 economies in year 2011 to simulate and analyze the effects of changes in data quality, aggregation methods, and regional affiliation of economies on the estimation results of purchasing power parity in ICP. Simulation results show that for data quality, the greater the share of a certain expenditure category in the economy’s total expenditure, the greater the impact of the data quality of the expenditure category on the results. On average, the data quality of food and non-alcoholic beverages, construction products, and housing services has the greatest impact on the results. It is further found that when we keep the price deviation the same, the impact of the downward adjustment of the price on the results is greater than that of the upward adjustment. For aggregation methods, changes in global aggregation methods and intra-regional aggregation methods have significant heterogeneous effects, and the results are more sensitive to changes in intra-regional aggregation methods. For the regional affiliation of the economy, it is shown that the results are closely related to regional affiliation. The economies in the West Asia and CIS region are most susceptible to the changes in regional division, while economies in the EU-OECD region are the least affected. This paper also conducts a simulation study in the influence of the above three factors on China?s PPP results. Finally, specific policy suggestions are given for the future improvement of ICP methods and practices.

Key words: International Comparison Program, Purchasing Power Parity, Data Quality, Aggregation Method, Regionalization Approach.