Journal Article Mr. Pearce's General Equilibrium Model Get access S. A. Ozga S. A. Ozga London Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Review of Economic Studies, Volume 23, Issue 2, 1955, Pages 145–152, https://doi.org/10.2307/2296298 Published: 01 January 1955

Journal Article The Use of Index Numbers in Demand Analysis Get access A. R. Bergstrom A. R. Bergstrom Auckland, N.Z. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Review of Economic Studies, Volume 23, Issue 1, 1955, Pages 17–26, https://doi.org/10.2307/2296147 Published: 01 April 1955

Journal Article Professor Samuelson on Operationalism in Economic Theory: Comment Get access Paul A. Samuelson Paul A. Samuelson Massachusetts Institute of Technology Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 69, Issue 2, May 1955, Pages 310–314, https://doi.org/10.2307/1882156 Published: 01 May 1955

Introduction, 99. — I. Some general features of rational choice, 100.— II. The essential simplifications, 103. — III. Existence and uniqueness of solutions, 111. — IV. Further comments on dynamics, 113. — V. Conclusion, 114. — Appendix, 115.

M OST economists agree that the primary source of cyclical instability is to be found in the determinants of investment behavior. Current cycle theory largely takes the following simple form. Today's value of output is equal to today's aggregate demand, which is the sum of consumption and investment (plus government expenditures). Consumption is assumed to be more or less inflexibly tied to current or past income. Hence the essence of the problem is to find the determinants of current investment. These determinants, so far as they are considered endogenous, are usually taken to be either the rate of change in total output (the acceleration principle) or the level of total output and the size of the total capital stock. The business-cycle models which result from this approach are open to a number of objections. They are unable to account for the important differences among past cycles; they abstract from most of the complexities of economic growth; they ignore some features of the cumulative process which observation suggests may be important in shaping the course of the cycle; and they yield explanations of investment behavior which, as often as not, do not seem to fit the facts. The purpose of the present paper is to suggest a different approach to the study of economic fluctuations one which links cyclical change more closely to the underlying forces making for growth and structural change than is usually the case today.2 First, we shall examine whether cyclical fluctuations are likely to take place in the absence of significant variations in (long-term) investment. Following this, we shall attempt to lay the groundwork for a theory of investment behavior in terms of the opening up of investment opportunities and the varying inducements to exploit these opportunities. The analytical framework resulting from these two sections is then used to elaborate and refine the usual distinction between major and minor cycles. In a concluding section, we shall try briefly to evaluate this way of looking at the causes of cyclical instability.

QTATE per capita incomes are computed by dividing estimated income payments to the residents of a state by the state's total population at midyear.1 This computation implicitly assumes that the denominator, total population, does not vary from one state to another in any important way. Yet it is known that states vary with respect to family size and composition, birth and death rates, participation in the labor force, and a host of other demographic attributes. It is the purpose of this paper to investigate the extent to which state differences in two of these attributes age composition and participation in the labor force -help to explain differences in state per capita incomes. Attention is confined largely to describing the direct effects on the distribution of per capita incomes among states of using alternative denominators that take account of variations in age composition and labor force participation. The study is confined to the three years, I930, I940, and I950 for which both Census data and official state income payment estimates are available.