Source: National Bureau of Economic Research  

Release: NBER Macrohistory Database  

Units:  Index 1929=100, Not Seasonally Adjusted

Frequency:  Monthly

Notes:

This Series Was Compiled By The Federal Employment Stabilization Board, Whose Functions Were Taken Over In The Late Thirties By The Federal Stabilization Office, And In 1939 By The National Resources Planning Board. The Series Was Discontinued In May 1942. By 1930, The Index Was Composed Of Thirty Individual Series On The Quantity Of Shipments Of Construction Materials. Twelve Series Were Used Beginning In 1925, And Additional Series Were Added As They Became Available. The Individual Series Are Weighted In The Index According To Relative Cost Of The Construction Materials. The Materials Included In The Index As Of January 1925 Were: Terra Cotta, Floor And Wall Tile, Steel Plate, Enameled Sanitary Ware, Asphalt, Cement, Explosives, Face Brick, Cast Iron Boilers, Radiators, Oak Flooring, And Maple Flooring. These Were Added To As Follows: July 1925, Vitreous China Plumbing; January 1926, Water Softening Apparatus; January 1927, Pumps And Water Systems, Limestone, Concrete Reinforcing Steel; February 1927, Steel Boilers; September 1927, Plumbing Porcelain; January 1928, Prepared Roofing, Gas-Fired Boilers, Rubber Flooring, Window Glass; January 1929, Oil Burners, Paint And Varnish, Lead Pipe, Oakum; January 1930, Range Boilers, Plumbers' Woodwork, Plastic Paints. Seasonal Adjustment Is By The Compiling Agency. For The Period January 1941 To May 1942 The Unadjusted And Seasonally Adjusted Data Are Inconsistent As To Level. Since It Has Not Been Possible For Us To Determine Which Is Correct, There Is Not An Annual Figure For 1941. An Earlier Index, Which Was A Simple Average Of Six Items, Was Compiled By Associated General Contractors And Published In The"Survey Of Current Business", May 1927, P.22, The 1932 Annual Supplement, P.36, And Later Issues. It Covered 1913 Through 1920, Annually, And 1921 Through March 1932, Monthly (Lipsey And Preston, P 283). Source: 1925-1937: Standard & Poor'S "Basic Statistics" Section 5, 1942 1938-1942: Standard & Poor'S"Current Statistics" Vol. 97, No. 9, Section 1, Sept. 1942 (See Lipsey And Preston, P. 282).

This NBER data series m02109 appears on the NBER website in Chapter 2 at http://www.nber.org/databases/macrohistory/contents/chapter02.html.

NBER Indicator: m02109