Wikipedia English escribió:The burger methodology has limitations in its estimates of the PPP.
In many countries, eating at international fast-food chain restaurants
such as
McDonald's is relatively expensive in comparison to eating at a local restaurant,
and the demand for Big Macs is not as large in countries like
India as in the
United
States.
Social status of eating at fast food restaurants like McDonald's,
local taxes, levels of competition, and import duties on selected items
may not be representative of the country's economy as a whole.
In addition, there is no theoretical reason why non-tradable goods
and services such as property costs should be equal in different
countries: this is the theoretical reason for PPPs being different from
market exchange rates over time.
Nevertheless, economists widely cite the Big Mac Index as a
'reasonable' real world measurement of purchasing power parity.
[11] McDonald's is also using different commercial strategies which can result in huge
differences for a product, whereas there is a smaller price difference
between both countries.
- For example, a Hamburger sandwich costs only 1 € in France, and 1,50
€ in Belgium, but in overall, McDonald's restaurants are cheaper in
Belgium.
- In Estonia, the price difference between a Big Mac burger and the
whole meal is sometimes as small as 3 EEK (0,20 USD), or 5% of the price
of the burger alone.