Revising the cost of living index of the city of Buenos Aires, 1933-1945

Resumo

From the 1930s to the mid 1940s, social and labour statistics in Argentina flourished, mainly fostered by the National Labour Department. This paper shows that in the early 1930s, a cost of living index with specific methodological pitfalls was elaborated, which, among other problems, only accounted for the behaviour of the poorest segment of society. The development of new estimates—with official data that has never been used before—shows that the official index might be underestimating the cost of living faced by workers and by society as a whole. As such, this paper is proof that it is important to consider the context in which statistics are produced and the methodology carried out to gather the information or to develop indicators.