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The purpose of this paper is to provide long‐run annual series of the value of the consumer bundle and related variables.

Benchmark data are assembled for each of the variables. Interpolative techniques are used to obtain values for missing years.

Continuous annual series for 1900‐2004 are developed for value of the consumer bundle, number of consumer units, and average size of the consumer unit. Behavior of the series over time is consistent with what economic and demographic experience would suggest.

Generation of long‐run series as extensions of aggregate‐type data in the Consumer Expenditure Survey of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

We develop the concept of the slave-trade balance of payments and generate its table for the United States for 1790–1860. In the process, we construct new data for the slave trade, including both the physical movement and revenue figures, and we analyze these numbers. The balance of payments includes slave imports, carrying trade in slaves, purchases of slaves that fail to be imported, outfitting and provisioning slave ships, and slave-ship sales. The slave-trade balance is integrated into the standard balance of payments. Among the findings are the following: slave imports were dominated by natural growth except for one decade; US ships had the greater role than foreign ships in the import trade, but were of small—and eventually nil—consequence in the carrying trade; federal and state laws to prohibit the slave trade in all its aspects were generally effective; and the slave-trade balance of payments was a small component of the overall balance.

The purchasing power parity hypothesis is investigated within a highly economically integrated set of nations, namely the European Monetary System. We use the Phillips‐Hansen Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares procedure, which for the first time allows for an unrestricted cointegration test of the PPP doctrine. We sequentially test for the weak and strong form of PPP.

This paper evaluates the commonly used CPI and WPI proxies for the real exchange rate by comparing them to new measures constructed from a different data series of traded and nontraded goods prices. The tests provide mixed evidence in favor of using the general price indexes to construct measures of the real exchange rate.

The Baumol effect follows from simple but deep microeconomic reasoning. All prices are relative prices, so if some goods are getting cheaper, others must be getting more expensive. Simple. But in transferring our attention about the cause of rising prices from stagnating sectors to progressive sectors, the Baumol effect radically changes our understanding of the causes, consequences, and evaluation of rising prices. Even today, the power of the Baumol effect to explain price changes through different time periods and places is underestimated. Throughout his career, Baumol returned to this simple idea many times, making it a key to his thought and his evolving views on long-term economic development.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight some testing procedures, both in time/frequency framework, useful to test for significant cycles in insurance data. The US underwriting cycle is measured using the growth rates of real premiums.

In addition to the traditional AR(2) model, two new approaches are suggested: testing for a significant peak in the periodogram using Fisher g test and a nonparametric version of it, and testing for unit root cycles in insurance data.

All approaches find empirical evidence for a cyclical behaviour of the growth rates of property‐liability real premiums. Results on the length of dominant cycle still diverge, according to the approach (time/frequency domain).

Compared to the existing literature, the present study innovates in that it highlights additional testing procedures, helpful to detect significant cycles in insurance time series. The underwriting cycle is analysed through the growth rates of real premiums.

Aarhus Kommunes Biblioteker (Teknisk Bibliotek), Ingerslevs Plads 7, Aarhus, Denmark. Representative: V. NEDERGAARD PEDERSEN (Librarian).