A researcher has a question about the ‘dollars’ mentioned in two CANSIM tables, and is asking for more details. Specifically, he writes:
“I'm interested in Table 153-0074 and 153-0075 (water acquisition costs for manufacturing industries). It doesn't specify if these are simple prices, constant dollars etc. Many related tables are in Chained 2002 dollars (i.e. inflation adjusted) - are these available with chained dollars?”
There are no footnotes or other information about these ‘dollar’ figures. I could suggest that he apply an inflation correction, but don’t know which one I would use (Consumer Price Index, Producer Price Index). What would you suggest?
Answer
The author division explained that: "These tables report data in current dollar so there is no adjustment for inflation. In this case, the fact that the survey has a short time frame and that water acquisition costs area pretty stable over time make the adjustment for inflation having less of an impact. All of this also depends on what the researcher wants to do."
