The problem and its relation to the supply and demand control of rates of exchange involving future goods, — I. Comparative values of futures and spots in relation to available supplies from crops, 368. — A future trade is an exchange of future money for a future commodity, and does not involve present goods, 370. — II. Indications of a downward bias in grain and cotton futures call for explanation, 372. — III. Bohm-Bawerk's theory of a discount on the future is quite another matter, 375. — IV. But a difference in the relative valuation of money and any specific commodity may be expected according to whether the comparison pertains to the present or to the future, 377. — This situation as expressed in terms of mathematical inequalities, 379. — V. Commercial experience and observation of the comparative value of “immediates,” 379. — The downward bias costly to hedge sellers, 383. — VI. Conclusion, — The present article calls attention to a neglected condition, and perhaps suggests a needed addition to theory, 385.

I. Introductory. The economic foundation of differentiation, 682. — II. No natural tendency to uniformity in prices; uniformity sustained by the moral force of public opinion, 683. — III. The public the judge of homogeneity of goods or services, differences being the occasion for price differences; electrical examples, 686. — Homogeneity in relation to joint cost, 687. — Degrees of jointness; illustrations, 688. — IV. Jointcost v. monopoly as the basis of differentiation, 690. — Differentiation might develop largely under competition, 691. — Danger of arguing from a single “cause,” 693. — V. Wholesale discounts usually differential, and a differential element in retail price-fixing, 695. — VI. Deterioration and cost often in proportion to time rather than to use, 696. — Fixed-capital cost is of this nature, 698. — VII. Service the ultimate standard in judging differentiation, 699. — This principle opposed to rates lower than separable cost, as well as in favor of a differential treatment of general or joint-cost, 700. — Suggestiveness of electrical rates for impersonal methods, 701. — Public policy, 702.

Scope of this paper, 519. — I. The load factor important in electricity because of a peculiar technical situation, 521. — Relates especially to fixed charges, 523.— Load curves, 525. — Diversity as important as long hours' use, 527. — Explicit load-factor rates, 529. — Adequate metering practicable for large consumers, 531. — The load factor an instrument of price-differentiation; its application a matter of commercial policy, 532. — II. Quantity discounts in practice especially difficult to deal with, 533. — The grounds of especially low rates to large consumers; such rates tend to be discriminatory, 534. — Step and block rates, 536. — Effects of isolated-plant competition, 538. — Proposed density factor discounts, 539. — Differentiation thus instead of discrimination, 540. — III. Cost analysis only one among several elements in electrical rate-making, 540. — Differential policy in load-factor rates, 541. — Wholesale discounts, also, are actually differential, 544.

Electrical Rates in the Opinions of the Wisconsin Commission Get access G. P. Watkins G. P. Watkins Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 27, Issue 2, February 1913, Pages 373–378, https://doi.org/10.2307/1881907 Published: 01 February 1913

The word statistics may denote either the method or the material, 673 — The character of the material depends upon that of the unit, 674 — Classes of units, 675. — A. Individual things the quantity of which is determined by counting: (1) Natural kinds and events pertaining to natural kinds; (2) Produced kinds and produced qualities of things, 675. — B. Mensurational units which are applied to determine quantity without regard to individuality: (3) Physical measures (of length, capacity, etc.); (4) Measures of pecuniary value, 675. — (1) J. S. Mill's conception of the natural kind, 675. — Fulness of meaning follows from the definition, 676. — Recognizability apart from definition, 677. — Counting is the typical method of determining the quantity of units of the first order, 679. — (2) Products are usually defined by way of purpose and function, 680. — Difficulties of definition, 681. — Careful attention to classification required, 681. — (3) A measure is arbitrary and is useful chiefly because standard, 682. — Individuality is ignored, 683. — Desirability of counting by size-classes, 684. — Measurement is a supplement to, not properly a substitute for, counting, 684. — (4) The importance of the pecuniary unit is due to its being the most universal of common denominators, 690. — This involves abstractness, 691. — Lack of uniformity of accounting practice a large factor in uncertainty of meaning, 692. — Economic and pecuniary statistics are not identical, 696. — The purpose of index numbers, 696. — An important way to better statistical material is to make use of the higher orders of statistical unit, so far as possible, supporting in this way all data of lower order, 697. — The development of physical and operating statistics in support of financial reports of corporations, 698. — Physical valuation in the interest of the investor, 698. — Cost-keeping a similar statistical development, 700. — Pecuniary statistics especially need supporting data of higher order, 702.

I. The principle of differentiation: Apparently opposite characteristics of steam-railroad and street-railway rates, 624, — Summary of principles at the foundation of the differential rates of steam railroads, 625. — Their relation to branch-line deficits, 626. — II. Character of the street-railway flat rate: The street-railway flat rate, equally with the differential rates of steam roads, is not adjusted to cost, 628. — The nickel is the convenient price for a service that will be generally demanded only if the price be small, 629. — This price once adopted, concessions and adjustments to new developments have more easily been made elsewhere than in the rate, 630. — Costs of street-railway carriage vary greatly, 634. — Even the zone system does not adjust rates to costs, 635. — Passenger business in general is less susceptible to external differentiation, 636. — The responsiveness to lowered rates of the demand for street-railway service is about maximal for all classes at the nickel, 637. — Importance of combining "lean" with "fat, " 639. — III. Certain applications of differentiation in street-railway practice: The distance limit of the ride from the center of the city to be had for 5 cents is not fixed by the prime cost of the particular service, 640. — The growth of a comprehensive system does not necessarily mean an increase in the average length of ride, 642. — Rapid transit lines may be expected to preserve the 5-cent rate to distant residence districts, 643. — Transfers are an accident of the passenger trip which should not ordinarily affect the rate, tho joint-rates may well be higher, 645. — Differentiation in the quality of service may be economically justifiable, 647. — Overcrowding at rush periods is not to be determined by merely physical standards, 648.