CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

We describe a case of web scraping data-based price indices implementedin a mid-size city in a moderate inflationary country. Full consumer price(CPI) and construction cost (CCI) indices were implemented for an entire cityobtaining efficient results compared to statistics using traditional datacollection methods. We state that web scraping combined with big data techniqueswill allow estimating more individualized and efficient metrics comparable inquality to official statistics. Web scraping technologies empower civil societyand small research groups alike by allowing them gather and interpretsocioeconomic data. It also helps to create new dimensions of analysis byallowing changes in frequency and focus on specific groups of products andservices.