Observation of prices with hand-held computers

Abstract

Miniaturization of electronics has recently produced hand-held computers. The use of hand-held computers in data collection can boost efficiency by reduction of the amount of paper work, by instantaneous error checking and by fast transmission of the (machine readable) data. Therefore, in May 1984, the Netherlands Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) conducted the experiment ‘Observation of prices with hand-held computers’. The object of the experiment was to test this data collection method in practice: is it possible to carry out these observations, needed for the calculation of consumer price index numbers, with this new equipment? The results show that this is possible as soon as several technical problems regarding memory size, speed, weight and size of the equipment have been solved.