Economic essays

Bibliographic data

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

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

Chapter

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

A STATISTICAL METHOD FOR MEASURING ‘MARGINAL UTILITY’ 163 1, and similarly as to W; in Case 2, and W3 in Case 3, thus add- ing three more symbols to the previous list, namely: Want-for-one-more dollar: Wy, W., W3 Pa Ra J The larger the income available, the more and better will be the food and shelter obtained. Changes in quality will, under all ordinary circumstances, accompany changes in quantity so that to designate the quantity would practically be sufficient to com- pletely determine the entire character—quality as well as quan- tity—of the ration used. For convenience, therefore, we need pay no attention to the accompanying changes in quality but may give attention only to changes in quantity,—the number of pounds of food used; likewise we may describe housing by a quantitative index, say the number of square feet of floor space. These somewhat naive methods of picturing the matter can be revised later, as we approach the practical statistical problem. All that is meant here is that, for convenience in thought, we may distinguish the housing conditions of our three families exclusively on the basis of floor space. A family of five occupying a tene- ment of 2000 square feet has, naturally, a better, as well as a larger, housing accommodation than one occupying a 1000 square feet tenement; but the housing conditions for such a family are sufficiently specified and determined by specifying the number of square feet used. Again, to fix our ideas, let us think (also somewhat inaccurately) of the index number Fy, or its equal Fj, as the average price of food per pound in Oddland, and likewise Fs, as the average price of food per pound in Evenland. Similarly R; (or its equal Rj) is taken as rent per square foot in Oddland, and R, rent per square foot in Evenland. Since we shall only need the relative magnitudes of Fy (or Fs) and Fs, we shall, for simplicity and convenience, assume that the Evenland average price of food, Fs, is $1 per pound, while, similarly, R,, is $1 per square foot. Calculating Wy and Ws from Ws It is now possible to calculate S; from S, or vice uersa; and Ss from S, or vice versa. 1 shall start with S, and from it calculate S: and Ss, and likewise, starting with Ws, calculate W; and Ws. We thus measure Oddland’s four magnitudes in terms of Even-

Access restriction

Copyright

fullscreen: Economic essays

Monograph

Chapter

Table of contents

Download

Monograph

Chapter

This page

Image fragment

Citation links

Citation recommendation