Introducing the URISUS Index
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by Ananias
For several weeks discussions regarding taxation have been careening through the Congressional Forums, the eRepublik media and directly into the eliving rooms of citizens, not just in the eUS, but, Im certain around the eGlobe. To my chagrin as an unrepentant numbers geek, a critical component to the debate has remained inexplicably absent: hard data regarding the influence of taxation on consumer prices.
So, several days ago, I began a project, that I have title the URISUS Index, which has a very basic goal: Establish the relationship between market prices and taxation. While I many may disagree with me, statistically monitoring the US alone provides a nominal sample of data because, simply put (now is when you will need to hold in the loud guffaw), the eUS does not have enough tax changes or a broad enough market to provide an adequate sample for real analysis; additionally, no one, until now, that I am aware of, has dedicated enough time to effectively analyze the effect of taxation. The evidence I hear used is purely anecdotal. For example you might rea😛
“The taxes in the eUS suck?”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because I can’t buy that Q5 House that I have been longing for!”
“Would that change if the taxes were different?”
“Hell yes, we should have taxes like they do in Indonesia. I have a friend there who told me that Q5 Houses there are on the market every day for like 12 IDR and a Q2 Gift.”
“And that is because of our taxes?”
“Hell yes, the taxes in the eUS suck!”
And it all becomes a circular argument.
So, anyway, the URISUS index is a comprehensive daily analysis of the taxation, currency value and pricing for every level of consumer good and raw material on the market in the 6 nations with the highest GDP according to the eRepublik rankings: the United States, Romania, Indonesia, Spain, United Kingdom and Sweden (thus URISUS). The calculation fairly simple, I research the three lowest prices on the markets for every quality level of every consumer product and raw material, determine the average price per unit; convert that amount into its gold equivalent using the three highest average posted conversion rates for the native currency, and then convert that into USD using the average of the three highest conversion rates from Gold to the USD. I then calculate the mean price for every quality level of every consumer product and post the approximate deviation of the pricing in a given nation.
Sounds simple right…no it’s a pain in the ass because I don’t use a script, I manually enter the data mentioned (and a host of other items related to specific taxation) into a spreadsheet.
That was my shameless plug for votes, subscribers, gifts of Gold/USD or for anyone that wants to purchase the spreadsheet data behind the URISUS Index..heh...
So without further ado I am going to summarize the URISUS Index in these articles by offering the average low cost of all products at all quality levels offered in the URISUS nations for day 444 (all are stated in USD) followed by the nation and index for the lowest price (greatest negative deviation as a percentage from the mean) and the highest price (greatest positive deviation as a percentage from the mean)…or in layman’s terms, where you want to buy and where you want to avoi😛
Q1 – Food – 1.50 (Spain -37.19%, Romania +25.37😵
Q2 – Food -3.50 (Sweden -30.94%, Indonesia +57.82😵
Q3 – Food – 6.52 (Sweden -22.59%, Spain +22.67😵
Q4 – Food – 10.87 (Sweden -36.95%, Indonesia +41.45😵
Q5 – Food – 25.96 (Sweden -55.52%, Indonesia +123.12😵
Q1 – Gift – 3.44 (Sweden -28.49%, UK +61.77😵
Q2 – Gift – 6.99 (Sweden -30.24%, Spain +82.94😵
Q3 – Gift – 15.60 (Sweden -34.52%, UK +36.79😵
Q4 – Gift – 16.68 (Indonesia -28.67%, Spain +23.11😵
Q5 – Gift – No Data
Q1 – Weapon – 7.87 (Romania -12.64%, Sweden +22.17😵
Q2 – Weapon – 18.34 (US -38.57%, UK +36.54😵
Q3 – Weapon – 33.23 (Spain - 9.65%, Indonesia +5.35😵
Q4 – Weapon – 52.65 (Indonesia -12.11%, Romania +26.95)
Q5 – Weapon – 96.28 (Sweden -15.58%, Spain +26.27😵
Q1 - Moving Tickets – 16.29 (UK -24.25%, Sweden +24.88😵
Q2 - Moving Tickets – 48.83 (US -59.14%, Spain +57.87😵
Q3 - Moving Tickets – 71.31 (Indonesia -37.18%, Spain +37.18😵
Q4 - Moving Tickets – No Data
Q5 - Moving Tickets – No Data
Q1 – Grain – 0.98 (US -25.88%, Sweden +13.12😵
Q2 – Grain – 1.71 (US -14.90%, Indonesia +23.30😵
Q3 – Grain – 2.48 (Spain -6.92%, Indonesia +21.6😎
Q4 – Grain – 3.44 (Indonesia – 12.18%, Romania +12.16😵
Q5 – Grain – No Data
Q1 – Diamonds – 1.20 (Sweden -16.81%, Spain +17.90😵
Q2 – Diamonds – 2.35 (Indonesia -19.06%, Romania +24.39😵
Q3 – Diamonds – 3.18 (US -17.73%, UK +21.05😵
Q4 – Diamonds – 3.43 (US Only)
Q5 – Diamonds – 4.96 (Sweden Only)
Q1 – Iron – 1.32 (Romania -39.76%, Indonesia +87.42😵
Q2 – Iron – 1.73 (Spain -28.79%, Indonesia +41.52😵
Q3 – Iron – 2.79 (Spain -36.02%, Indonesia +70.71😵
Q4 – Iron – 3.25 (Sweden -13.92%, UK +14.59😵
Q5 – Iron – 3.56 (Sweden -1.20%, US +1.20😵
Q1 – Oil – 1.21 (US -37.06%, UK +21.35😵
Q2 – Oil – 1.79 (US -36.36%, Indonesia +37.97😵
Q3 – Oil – 3.06 (US -43.12%, Romania +81.83😵
Q4 – Oil – 4.55 (Spain Only)
Q5 – Oil – No Data
Q1 – Wood – 2.15 (US -60.71%, UK +156.09😵
Q2 – Wood – 2.69 (US -40.97%, Indonesia +63.85😵
Q3 – Wood – 4.12 (US -42.10%, UK +61.32😵
Q4 – Wood – 4.60 (US -32.57%, Spain +45.17😵
Q5 – Wood – No Data
Q1 – House – 332.89 (Spain -25.90%, Indonesia +49.38😵
Q2 – House – 654.66 (UK -19.78%, Spain +22.54😵
Q3 – House – 1114.70 (US -15.69%, Romania +15.05😵
Q4 – House – 1538.77 (Sweden -13.18%, Romania +16.95😵
Q5 – House – 2480.92 (Indonesia -9.71%, Romania +5.92😵
Note that the big winners for day 444 were the citizens of Sweden (13 Best, 3 Worst) and of course the US (14 Best, 1 Worst). Not sure yet what this tells us about taxation in general, but I will be keeping the index up to date and should have some running averages and tie-ins to tax policies and resources in the nex index update.
And, yes, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Again, as a numbers geek, I have found my own little statistical Nirvana on eRepublik….more to come…let me know if you have questions in the comments…
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Comments
This is very interesting.
It must have taken at least 2 hours to compile that data... interesting, loking forward to more resultes
eRepublik - offering you 15 minutes of play every day, or several hours of work!
This analysis is missing a piece, though. You're giving us prices of goods without any adjustment for wages. If people in Sweden are getting paid 50 cents a day then their consumer goods are going to cost less, regardless of the taxation policy, because the cost of making the good is less, and the consumers can't afford to pay more, changing both the supply and the demand curve to lean towards lower prices.
I think this is great data. While the idea of purchasing power parity suggested by Jythier is also important, I think this is very useful information.
There seem to be several people spending quite a bit of their time performing in-depth analyses like this. It might be a good idea is we organized a group, maybe through the eUSforums, and coordinate our efforts.
@Jythier-Excellent point about wages, I will begin tracking avg wages as a barmeter as well. The base data that I am collecting takes several hours to collect and format, so I am a little hesitant to go for more than the average national wage since this is volunteer work 🙂.
@Tony-I agree! A group that could share the load and increase the depth of analysis, I think, would be a huge advantage in understanding the markets and making information based decisions. Thanks for the comment!