I. Criticism of certain aspects of recent theorizing, 237. — II. Critical survey of some recent postwar market predictions, 240. — III. Plan for further investigation, 245. — IV. Theoretical foundation of the method used, 247. — V. Survey of statistical materials, 248. — VI. Statistical derivation of the demand function for meat, 252. — VII. Further analysis of the commodity "meat, " 259. — VIII. Poultry, eggs, dairy products, and lard, 264. — IX. Predictions of demand for animal products for 1950, 271. — Conclusions, 277.

Scope of the paper, 217.— I. Elasticities of demand usually obtained by methods which are open to two objections: the time element, 218; data are for markets, 218.— A possible way out, 219.— Data available and method to be used, 220.— II. Coefficients for various commodities, 221.— Substitution, 221.— Relation to income, 224.— III. Spread of consumption around the averages, 225.— IV. Inferences concerning the desirability of price reductions, 229.

THE econometrician is often hampered by the absence of quantitative information, in spite of his efforts to restate problems of economic theory in such terms as will fit them for verification by actually existing statistics. The kind and amount of statistics available are thus very definitely limiting factors in some econometric works. But it may also be that the existing statistics invite theoretical enquiry, so that statistical information may occasionally be considered as a factor making for extension and progress of econometrics. For instance, whereas, in the field of cost theory, the state of statistical information is primarily a check on the progress of econometric studies, family budget statistics rather seem to be a branch of information which is full of promise. Dealing with some of the more terre a terre questions concerning family budget enquiries, an attempt will be made in the following to consider some of the many possibilities which this field of statistics seems to offer to the econometrician, provided he is patient enough to consider his assumptions carefully.

REFERRING to Moore's Laws of Wages, Professor Schumpeter wrote in I 9 I 6, great idea of investigating the relationship between wage differences and differences in ability opens a vast perspective. The new trail is steep and stony, but it must be followed.' Little systematic investigation has been undertaken since M\oore's work was published in I9II. The present paper, first, offers a critical review of the major theories which have been put forth on the relation between people's incomes and their abilities; second, attempts to shed further light on the dependence of labor incomes upon abilities; and, finally, sketches the elements of a theory of the skewness in the distribution of labor incomes.

Hans Staehle, Retail Sales and Labor Income: New Considerations on the Distribution of Incomes and the "Propensity to Consume" (partly in reply to Mr. Dirks), The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 20, No. 3 (Aug., 1938), pp. 134-141