Neuere Entwicklungen in der Preisstatistik und Indextheorie: Wie mit der traditionellen deutschen Theorie und Praxis gebrochen wurde

German economists as for example Laspeyres and Paasche made remarkable contributions to index theory in the 19th and early 20th century. Typical for the German school was the idea of "pure price comparison" and the emphasis on a verbal interpretation of index formulas. However, it lost ground compared to a quite different Anglo-American tradition due to de-emphasizing purely formal reasoning. In particular the move to chain indices, violating the principle of a "pure" comparison and to a utility based index theory was a radical departure from traditional concepts like Laspeyres indices. Nonetheless German official statistics proved to be an active partner in international co-operations as regards harmonized indices in Europe, conceptualizing new price indices, methodological studies, and training of European statisticians.