While overall beer production in the United States has declined the past several years, craft beer production has increased dramatically. The table below lists the U.S. craft beer production (in millions of barrels) for the period 2004-2015.
a. Use 2004 as the base period to compute the simple index for this time series. Interpret the value for 2015.
b. Refer to part a. Is this an example of a quantity index or a price index?
c. Recompute the simple index using 2010 as the base period. Plot the two indexes on the same graph. What pattern do you observe?
Year Craft Beer Production
2004..............................................5.83
2005..............................................6.29
2006..............................................7.10
2007..............................................7.98
2008..............................................8.49
2009..............................................9.07
2010............................................10.13
2011............................................11.46
2012............................................13.24
2013............................................15.51
2014............................................22.16
2015............................................24.52