On Price Indices in the Almost Ideal Demand System

Abstract

Abstract A number of papers have discussed the relationship between the Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS) and its linear approximation (LA/AIDS). In this paper, it is shown that if the prices in the system are normalized to one, the AIDS and LA/AIDS representations are identical at the point of normalization. Also, at the point of normalization, the expressions for price and expenditure elasticities from both systems are identical.