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

176 ECONOMIC ESSAYS IN HONOR OF JOHN BATES CLARK to be independent of all variables other than housing itself, and so as to Ws, R.. Such independence of food and housing would clearly not hold true of an individual item within the food group or the housing group. We know, for instance, that the desirability of, or want-for-one-more loaf of bread depends on many other vari- ables besides the quantity of bread. Especially does it depend on the quantity of, say, butter as a complementary or “complet- ing” * article, and on the quantity of, say, cake, as a substitute or “competing” * article. But these interrelations within the food group would probably not appreciably affect the want for food as a whole, especially as, in the two Cases 1 and 2, such interrelations within the food group are assumed to be very similar in Oddland and Evenland. Certainly slight internal differences within the food groups,— such differences as we find between, say, England and the United States,—could be neglected. One country may emphasize jam more than marmalade on its tables and the other vice versa with- out appreciably influencing the comparative desirability of the food régimens as a whole. Such interrelations, therefore, merely affect the adjustments within the food group. There is practically no corresponding relationship outside the group. That is, there is no substitute for food and no complementary group. Only in extreme cases can we say that clothing, for instance, can even partially take the place of food in keeping one warm or that flowers on the table are a complement to the food important enough to appreciably inter- fere with the equation WiF;—W,F,. Any such extreme cases will scarcely cast doubt on the truth of the proposition that similar families having similar food rations in two countries— though differing in housing conditions and (perhaps) other cir- cumstances—will equally crave a given improvement in that ration. In short, it is here assumed—and the assumption seems to be reasonable—that, taking food as a group, there is no other group of importance—neither housing, nor clothing, nor anything else —which is sufficiently a “complementary” or a “substitute” group to vitiate the equality of the want-for-more or better food, given physically equal or corresponding rations. 1 See my Mathematical Investigations, D. 65.

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