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

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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

APE. ear IEE TT FIR UE ne 2 hil yi. Yul a wT EL UTE BR 174 ECONOMIC ESSAYS IN HONOR OF JOHN BATES CLARK hou FS eh ARN FE OTTO RE RRS Se EEL NRT STE A UT RRR Se a RRR I CHEER SEE SY Ca a Assumptions Underlying Equation (2) Re-examined Thus far, certainly, no reasonable critic can object. Any funda- ental objection must be confined to questioning the truth of he other two equations, Wy F1=W, Fs and Ws Rs=W, R,. Ve pass on, therefore, to the second set of equations. The first of these (Wy F1=W, F>) signifies that the two food rations are psychologically equivalent. To be still more specific the equation means that the psychological want-for-one-more “physical” a of food is the same in Case 1 as in Case 2. LET By what right can the equation W, FW. Fs 5 inferred frome the preceding equation, S19! & me Is it, in fact, true that fo similar families, two rations substantially equal physically are also substantially equivalent psychologically? <I As long as the families in Cases 1 and 2 do not materially differ in size or character, and have substantially the same set of foods available, though differing in price on the average by 333%, he assumption seems at least reasonable. If, to go back to ‘physical” sameness, there be similar food articles, similar hoard ng-houses, hotels, cafés, etc., in both countries, differing merely in that the price of a given ration in Oddland is 3315% higher han the corresponding grade in Evenland, we have in each coun- try a series of food opportunities distinguishable as, say, first class, second class, third class, etc., as on an ocean steamer, except that in the present instance the scale of gradations steps up con- tinuously by infinitesimal intervals instead of in big jumps. Each family merely has to choose its place on this scale. It is still possible, despite the fact that quality varies as well as quantity, o speak of a physical food unit or a physical unit of house accom- modation or clothing. To be specific, let us suppose a list of food rations in Evenland, A, B, C, D, such that B costs $1 more than A, C likewise $1 more than B, D $1 more than C and so on, and such as average families of the same size and general char- acter would choose according to their purse, the very poorest families choosing A and the very richest families choosing Z. The difference in the food as between A and B, or between B and , or any other one step-up each costing one dollar more than its predecessor in the scale, may be called one “food-unit” and this difference may henceforth be thought of i one “pound.”

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