Economic essays

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 1753623200

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-136107

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Economic essays

Place of publication:: New York

Publisher:: Macmillan

Year of publication:: 1927

Scope:: viii, 368 S.; Ill., graph. Darst.

Digitisation:: 2021

Collection:: Economics Books

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Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: A statistical method for measuring "marginal utility" and testing the justice of a progressive income tax / Irving Fisher

Collection:: Economics Books

160 ECONOMIC ESSAYS IN HONOR OF JOHN BATES CLARK It is further assumed that, between these three families, which we may distinguish as Case 1, Case 2, and Case 3, respectively, there is no difference in the want schedules. That is, we assume that all three families’ appetites and tastes are the same, so that in all three cases they will react in precisely the same way to the same opportunities to spend money. These opportunities, however, are not supposed to be the same, because of two vari- ables, namely, (1) the incomes are supposed to be different in the three cases, and (2) the prices in the two countries, England and America, are supposed to be different. Because of these differ- ences, in prices and incomes, the family budgets will necessarily differ. We shall see that the behavior of the families, in response to the changes in price and income, can be used to reveal the varying strength of their wants or desires in accordance with their want schedules. While their three want schedules are identical, their positions ¢n this common schedule are not. That is, the three families would behave alike if their circumstances were alike, but actually do behave differently because their circum- stances are different. Since the calculations here to be presented are purely illus- trative and make no pretense of being statistical, and since we wish the formule to be general, we shall call the two countries, not America and England, but Oddland and Evenland. The odd numbered Cases, the first and third, are in Oddland and the even numbered, the second, is in Evenland. A “map” of these coun- tries and of the families or Cases concerned is suggested by Chart I. What a typical family would do under different circumstances as to income and prices is assumed to be in accordance with the known statistics of family budgets in Oddland and Evenland. When, as I hope to do in a later paper, I come to actual sta- tistics, the figures used will be those averaged from actual families who have kept records of their total income and of their expenses for food, clothing, rent, etc., such figures as those col- lected by Le Play and the United States Bureau of Labor Sta- tistics. In order that the averages may be significant, it is, of course, necessary to have a sufficient number of cases within each income group (as, say, between $1000 and $1100 total income) to avoid the over-influence of one or two erratic cases. Even so, some method of “smoothing” will need to be employed.

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