Providing a valuable resource for government economists, academics, and research libraries, this volume contains twelve papers by Robert Pollak--four previously unpublished--that explore the theory of the cost of living index. In addition to Pollak's classic paper, "e;The Theory of the Cost of Living Index,"e; the volume includes papers on subindexes, the intertemporal cost of living index, welfare comparisons and equivalence scales, the social cost of living index, the treatment of "e;quality,"e; and consumer durables in the cost of living index.