The Big Mac Index: A comprehensive bibliometric and systematic review

Abstract

This study presents a comprehensive bibliometric and systematic literature review analysis of the literature on the Big Mac Index (BMI) to identify its foundational aspects and summarize key findings. The BMI, an informal measure of purchasing power parity, has garnered scholarly interest in discussions about currency valuations, trade imbalances, and cross-country cost of living. This index encompasses a rich set of fields, including pricing drugs, cigarette/smoking across countries, professors’ salaries, income inequality, and wages. The study provides the first bibliometric analysis in this field, revealing that the number of published articles and citations is relatively low, highlighting the undervaluation of the pricing of different products and services across countries. After several screening steps, 54 articles met the criteria for examination using VOSviewer. The study offers insights into the evolution of BMI literature and highlights leading authors, documents, countries, institutions, and journals. The results indicate that Tobacco Control is the top journal publishing paper and the top-cited journal article on BMI, with the United States leading in contributions. The paper presents potential future research directions in the field of BMI.