

The Big Mac was chosen because it is available to a common specification in many countries around the world as local McDonald’s franchisees at least in theory have significant responsibility for negotiating input prices. In the Big Mac Index, the basket in question is a single Big Mac burger as sold by the McDonald’s fast food restaurant chain.

One suggested method of predicting exchange rate movements is that the rate between two currencies should naturally adjust so that a sample basket of goods and services should cost the same in both currencies. The index also gave rise to the word burgernomics. The Big Mac index was introduced in The Economist in September 1986 by Pam Woodall as a semi-humorous illustration of PPP and has been published by that paper annually since then. It “seeks to make exchange-rate theory a bit more digestible”. The Big Mac Index is published by The Economist as an informal way of measuring the purchasing power parity (PPP) between two currencies and provides a test of the extent to which market exchange rates result in goods costing the same in different countries. īased on the sources available, here are approximate dollar amounts that fast-food burgers cost in the US the year you were born.McDonald’s prices around the world are an incredibly useful means to measuring purchasing power parity between countries but how much does a McDonald’s meal cost around the world for a South African. K eep in mind that Wendy's didn't join the competition until 1969 - but their single patties have always weighed 4 ounces. And, some burger prices were not readily available. Like anything else, the prices for these competing products have varied by region since the beginning - so all prices below are approximate, and will vary based on your geographic location.

per patty, they're about half the size of their competitors - but they've been around since 1921, and the chain is arguably the first fast-food chain in the US. If you've never had one, White Castle burgers are also called sliders for several reasons - not the least of which is that they're tiny. in a pound, so to keep a level playing field, that's 4 oz. īy contrast, Burger King's Whopper has been around since 1957 - and the patty was a 1/4 lb. The Quarter Pounder didn't exist until 1971. The chain's iconic Big Mac - which prompted the Economist to begin publishing its Big Mac Index as an international indicator of comparative individual purchasing power in 1986 - wasn't introduced until 1967. INSIDER compared each chain's most basic burger offerings to one another.Ī McDonald's hamburger in 1955 - when the company started - weighed 3.7 ounces, according to BuzzFeed. Some chains have differently sized patties.
