JOURNAL OF BUSINESS & FINANCE LIBRARIANSHIP

2020, VOL. 25, NOS. 3–4, 375–378

https://doi.org/10.1080/08963568.2020.1847558

DATABASE REVIEW

ACCRA cost of living index

Introduction
In business reference, pricing data can be particularly difficult to find espe-
cially for specific geographic regions. The Cost of Living Index (COLI) is a
dataset that provides answers to some of these more difficult questions.
COLI is compiled by the Council for Community and Economic Research
(C2ER) every quarter. It is intended to measure the difference between the
cost of living in different geographic areas of the United States. Areas
included are those with chambers of commerce that volunteer to partici-
pate. The averages are calculated based on the reported expenditure pat-
terns for households with incomes in the top 20%. COLI reports spending
across broad categories such as groceries and housing as well as the average
pricing of specific goods and services in a particular area such as a news-
paper or shampoo.

Content
COLI comes in the form of Excel spreadsheets. Upon first glance the con-
tent seems like it could be intimidating and unmanageable given that there
are multiple sheets with lots of information, but the data is surprisingly
easy to navigate. The cover sheet provides information about how the data
is obtained and how to interpret the index. With all of the index and pric-
ing data organized into separate sheets, the information is more easily
digestible. There are multiple sheets but the major subsections of this data
include the quarterly index, quarterly average prices and COLI calculator.

Index
This section of the data breaks down the differences in spending in major
sectors of a household’s budget. The index is broken down into sections
like groceries, housing, transportation and health care. For the index, all
values are calculated in relation to the national average which equals 100.
Each metropolitan area’s reported value is read as a percentage. For
example, a value less than 100 would mean that the cost for that good or
service is less than the national average and a value more than 100 would
mean it is more than the national average.

ß 2020 Mary Catherine Moeller

376 M. C. MOELLER

Average price
The average price section gives the average prices of certain goods and
services in each metropolitan area. This can give users an understanding
of the difference in price in a way that is more tangible. The average
pricing includes items like a half gallon of milk, bread and a pizza but it
also provides information about the cost of getting a haircut or going to
the dentist. Additionally, this section also has a breakdown of the average
home price and average apartment rent. Overall, it gives more granular
information about the differences averaged out in the COLI quar-
terly index.

COLI calculator
The COLI calculator is a tool built into the COLI spreadsheet that allows
users to calculate the difference in the cost of living between two places.
Users can put in a current base salary and where they are moving to and
from and the calculator shows what a comparable income would be and
how much more or less things will cost. It compares index values as well
as average prices for each area and compares both to the national average.
This is a tool that essentially synthesizes the data in the other tabs in a dir-
ect comparison format.

Potential use and drawbacks

It is important to remember that COLI data is based on the spending
of the top quintile of household incomes. COLI is upfront that they
only include data for professional and executive level households. In
certain metropolitan areas there is a major income disparity and so the
spending of professional and executive households could be very differ-
ent from the spending of the average person in that area across all
income levels. The index does also not measure inflation and because
the prices only capture a single point in time from a changing number
and mix of participants, the index data from different quarters cannot
be compared.
These limitations aside, this data could be useful in answering a variety
of questions such as those related to human resources and job location.
The data could be used to determine if a current salary is enough to cover
their basic expenses. The COLI calculator in particular could also be very
useful in helping figure out a fair salary for employees. Users could com-
pare salaries for similar jobs in other areas of the United States by using
the COLI calculator to get an idea of what a comparable salary might be.
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This could also be a good tool to assist with those tricky pricing ques-
tions. While the average price of women’s slacks would not necessarily be
the right price for all women’s slacks, it could be used to compare the pro-
posed pricing for a product to the area average for that product. Users
would also be able to see that that is what the average higher income
household spends on that particular item which could be useful depending
on their target demographic. Additionally, they could use the COLI calcula-
tor to see what typical pricing differences for their product might be across
the United States.

Competitors
When considering competitor datasets, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’
Consumer Expenditure Survey (CE) comes to mind. The CE is a national
survey that tracks expenditures both by general category and by specific
items. The CE allows users to narrow spending data by demographic cate-
gories and export to Excel. Unlike COLI, CE is open access and includes a
wide range of incomes. Both COLI and CE track consumer goods and serv-
ices, but they do so differently. COLI measures differences between costs
among different places and CE measures household spending. CE’s inclu-
sivity of incomes and tracking of demographic data makes it a more widely
usable dataset. It has information that COLI does not provide, but it does
not have the literal apples to apples comparison of price that COLI does.
While these two datasets are not exactly the same, they have potential to be
used to answer similar questions.

Pricing
C2ER offers single issue purchases as well as whole year subscriptions for
their quarterly index. Formatting options include PDF, Excel, print or a
combination of Excel and print. Depending on format, single issues range
from $82.50 to $130 and a year (four quarters) ranges from $165 to $325.
The historical dataset (1990-present) can be purchased for $1,500 for the
academic version and $2,500 for the nonacademic version. Past full years
are available for $275.

Conclusion
The format of C2ER Cost of Living Index is intimidating at first glance but
is very manageable and the COLI calculator is a built in tool that does the
math for you and could have a variety of uses in interpreting the data.
COLI is a helpful set of information if users take the time to learn about
what the data represents and how to interpret it. If users account for the
378 M. C. MOELLER

fact that the data only represents households in the top 20% of incomes in
the United States then this could have great potential use for salary calcula-
tions and pricing questions.

Mary Catherine Moeller

Kresge Library Services, University of Michigan Ross School of Business
mcmoelle@umich.edu
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