The Economics Club of Missouri State University recently released its first annual summary of the newly created Student Pricing Index for Missouri State students. The purpose of this project is to estimate the change in prices for a group of goods that a typical MSU student would buy, much like headline CPI does for a typical consumer nationally. The Economics Club gathered prices in October of 2013 and 2014 and prices were compared annually. Key consumption categories include: grocery and food items, tuition, off-campus housing, entertainment, and gasoline costs. The total consumption bundle increased in price 1.27% annually. The price changes by consumption categories are as follows:

Category	Percent Change
Groceries	5.39%
Gasoline	5.99%
Tuition	1.49%
Off-Campus Housing	0.97%
Pizza	7.67%
Movies	Unchanged
Hygiene Items	-0.81%
Beer	6.89%

This is the first release of price change data for the Economics Club at MSU. Price indexes need more than one set of observations to be meaningful. Last year’s club decided consumption bundles and collected prices, while this year’s club collected prices and calculated the percentage changes. Headline CPI on a national scale is 1.7% over the same time period, calculated from a different consumption bundle.

The Economics Club anticipates new releases to this index every Fall. For information about the club please contact Mr. Per Norander in the Economics Department at MSU. For information on the Student Pricing Index, please contact Dr. C. Patrick Scott in the Economics Department at MSU.