EXPENSES IN DISTRICTS I AND II 289

course, part plus and part minus, but it is not necessary that,
as in this case, the years in which the signs agree be substantially
the same. In general, the years in which ratios of total expense
to earning assets are low or high in banks in a given city or
volume group are the same as those in which ratios are low
or high in all city and volume groups. That is, any set of influences
 tending to increase or to decrease the ratios permeates the
banking structure of the entire district.
This phenomenon is analogous to that already observed in the
discussion of the deviations of yearly district ratios of total
expense to earning assets from the levels fixed by the averages
for the period 1919-1925. It was found that districts, relative to
their own levels, tend to be high or low at the same time. It
is now found that a similar condition obtains within a single
district, when the four-year averages for the city and the volume
groups constitute the standards from which the percentage devia-TABLE

 164

PERCENTAGE DEVIATIONS OF RATIOS OF ToTAL EXPENSE TO EARNING
ASSETS FROM THE GROUP AVERAGES, 1922-1925, CLASSI-FIED
 MEMBER BANKS, BosToN FEDERAL
RESERVE DistrICT, BY YEARS

YEARS

Crry-Groups
(Population in 000's)

Average =

I —

Undero...............
ro and under 20.......
20 and under 40.......
40 and under 120.......
120 and over

VoLUME-GROUPS
{Earning Assets
tn 00.000’s)

Averace

Unders................
sand under ro........
ro and under 20........
20 and under so... .....
soandover..... ......

1022

1Qg2%

army

~T O72

~

ny n
er 400
1.11
1.17

+1.44
+o0.44
-—y -

+3.49
+0.47
+1.44
+o0.22
40.23

1

EARS

192§
+1.02
-4.01 -2.12 +2.63 +3.08
~4.85 =0.77 +1.79 +3.57
~2.35% 40.24 +1.41 +1.65
—2.04 —o0.23 +1.13 +1.13
-0.68 +0.68 +£0.00 %=0.00