166 ECONOMIC ESSAYS IN HONOR OF JOHN BATES CLARK 
Discussion of the Results 
Our two chains of calculations show that if we take as our 
unit, or “one wantab,” Ws, the want-for-one-more dollar of Case 
2 in Evenland,—we can compute the wants-for-one-more dollar, 
Wi, and Ws, in Cases 1 and 3 in Oddland. These are .75 and 
3315 wantabs respectively. 
We may express the result by saying: 
In one country, Oddland, where food prices are 4/3 as high as 
in another country, Evenland, a family, Case 1, so circumstanced 
as to choose the same food ration as a given family, Case 2, in 
Evenland, will esteem the dollar 34 as much. That is, the want- 
for-one-more unit of food being the same in the two Cases, that 
for one more unit of money will vary inversely as the price of 
food. 
Similarly the want-for-one-more unit of housing accommoda- 
tion being the same in Cases 2 and 3, that for money varies 
inversely as the price of housing. Rents of any given quality 
being three times as high in Oddland as in Evenland, the 
desire for an extra dollar in Case 3 is 14 as great as it was in 
Case 2. 
These two simple and obvious comparisons, each being between 
a pair of Cases, taken one in Oddland and the other in Evenland, 
enable us next to compare the two Cases in one and the same 
country, Oddland. We can now say that the wants-for-one-more 
dollar in Cases 1 and 3 are as 34 is to 14 (or as .75 to .3314 or as 
100 to 44 4/9). 
It will be noticed that these figures depend solely on the price 
‘ndexes. The budget ratios are not involved in the two chains. 
We have, in effect, used Evenland conditions merely as a 
measuring rod by which to compare the two cases in Oddland 
with each other. In order that these two Cases should show 
any contrast it is essential that the two prices—those of food 
and of rent—shall, in Oddland, bear different ratios to their 
prices in Evenland. If, instead of the widely different price 
indexes 4/3 and 3/1 or (1.3314 and 3.00) we had had equal 
indexes, such as 1.50 and 1.50, the two Cases 1 and 3 would show 
no contrast at all in the wants-for-one-more unit. 
We have reached. as our first numerical result, that, as to the