The Big Mac Index

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvi

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2. Purchasing Power Parity: A Survey of the Issues

   • Li Lian Ong

   Pages 1-28

3. The Growing Evidence on Purchasing Power Parity

   • Li Lian Ong, Yihui Lan

   Pages 29-50

4. The Economics of the Big Mac Standard

   • Li Lian Ong

   Pages 51-87

5. ‘Burgernomics’ and the ASEAN Currency Crisis

   • Li Lian Ong

   Pages 88-91

6. Big Macs and Wages To Go, Please: Comparing the Purchasing Power of Earnings Around the World

   • Li Lian Ong

   Pages 92-108

7. Professors and Hamburgers: An International Comparison of Real Academic Salaries

   • Li Lian Ong, Jason D. Mitchell

   Pages 109-121

8. Back Matter

   Pages 123-126

   PDF

PPP is one of the most widely researched areas in international finance and one of the most controversial in the theory of exchange rate determination. This book demonstrates the applications of Purchasing Power Parity in exchange rate determination as well as more practical applications of salary comparison and the cost-of living across borders. It uses The Economist's annual Big Mac Index in place of the traditional basket of services used in PPP research. The author demonstrates that this is a good solution to the index-number problem since it is readily available and more appealing as an international monetary standard. The book also shows how The Big Mac Index could have been used to predict the Asian Currency Crisis and the Mexican Peso stand-off where more traditional economic measures failed.

• ASEAN
• Asia
• earnings
• economics
• finance
• international finance
• research
• science and technology
• service

'The survey chapters, articles, and references will be valuable to anyone interested in purchasing powe parity.' - E. Kacapyr, Choice

LI LIAN ONG is an economist with the International Capital Markets Department at the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC. Prior to joining the IMF in 2002, Li Lian worked in Sydney and Hong Kong as the Asia economist for the Macquarie Group. She has also worked as a staff assistant at Arthur Andersen in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

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