Economic essays

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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

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

Collection:: Economics Books

64 ECONOMIC ESSAYS IN HONOR OF JOHN BATES = ~e — EE ——— and’s two magnitudes, S, and W.,, taken as our standards or artic, ene ach of these four calculations forms a chain. The first link n each chain,—S; or W, as the case may be,—is supposed to be iven. This first link may be assumed as any convenient figure. et us take S, equal to $600, and W, equal to unity. To coin b ord, we may call this latter unit a “wantab” (which may be egarded as an abbreviation either of “wantability” or of “want ab,” (i.e. a unit for keeping tab on the strength of a want). et us then pass from W, toward Wi, beginning with W,—=1 antab, as the first step. The next step is to calculate the want- or-one-more pound of food per-annum of the family in Evenland y multiplying W, by Fs, the price per pound, giving W, F> or, since Wy=1 and F,—1) 1X1=1 wantab. - his multiplication is in accordance with the fundamental rinciple connecting want-for-one-more unit and price per unit. n its simplest application this principle tells us that (at the ‘margin’ or limit of purchase, or of consumption) if, say, bread osts 12 cents a pound, the want-for-one-more pound of bread twelve times the want-for-one-more cent. he next magnitude is the want-for-one-more pound of food in ase 1. By hypothesis this is to be the same as in 2. That S WwW, F, (=1)=%W; Fi. Be his follows because, according to our hypothesi kno I that: (1) The want schedules (including that for food) in all three Cases (and so in Cases 1 and 2) are identical; (2) The food rations in these two Cases are the same in quantity and quality; (3) The want-for-one-more pound of food is assumed to be a function of this food ration, and of nothing else (and so is not affected by the fact that the housing accommodation differs in the two Cases). The next magnitude to be found, and the last in this particular chain, is Wy, the want-for-one-more dollar in Case 1. This we get, by dividing W; Fy, known to be unity, by Fi, the price of food in Oddland. This figure is supposed to be known from * For a mathematical discussion of this almost self-evident principle, the reader may consult any mathematical writer on value and price such as Jevons, Marshall, Edgeworth, Gossen, Mangoldt, Laundardt, Walras. Pareto, Bowley, or my own, Mathematical Investigations. n. 36.

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