Comparing the superlative Tornqvist and Fisher ideal indexes

This paper identifies the sources of differences between the Tornqvist index and Fisher ideal index and shows mathematically why these indexes will numerically approximate each other. Since both are superlative indexes, they have similar desirable theoretical properties. However, a component's contribution to the growth of the Tornqvist index requires less data and is easier to calculate than its contribution to the growth of the Fisher ideal index and, thus, the former index appears handier in practice. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.