• Economic Analysis
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.131-168
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• 2011

We estimate consumer price indexes of eight major cities from 1907 to 1939, and then integrate them into a national level one. The data mainly came from the Statistical Yearbooks of the Government-General of Colonial Korea, and if necessary, we supplement them using wages and unit prices of public utility charges which are used as the price of housing and various services. We apply Laspeyres index method, and the composition ratios of consumption expenditure estimated by the commodity flow method are used as weights. The price indexes of 12 item groups as well as aggregate one are also calculated. In case of Seoul, it is possible to calculate the consumer price index from 1907 to 2009, showing a century-long pattern. This consumer price index is critical for measuring the real income and expenditure before the liberation.