IN SUCH fields of investigation as economics, psychology, and anthropology, where observations on several variables are taken into account simultaneously, it is at least as important to study relationships among the variables as to consider the variables separately. In fact, if there are significant relationships within a system of variables, a considerable part of the information furnished by the observations will be lost unless the relationships are taken into account. In general, very little is known a priori about such a set of variables, and hence our knowledge of them and their various interrelations must be inferred from observations. Questions relating to the problem of making inferences from observations resolve themselves into those of, (1) devising suitable functions of the observations for estimating parameters which characterize the hypothetical population of the variables and (2) determining frequency laws from which the degree of credibility to be placed in the departure of these functions from expectation can be evaluated. The more complicated the hypothesis concerning the interrelations of the variables, the more complex, of course, will be the functions of observations for measuring the relationships and testing the hypothesis. It frequently happens in multivariate analysis that a number of variables can be rationally classed into several mutually exclusive categories. For example, certain measurable traits of individuals may be classed as physical or mental. In the study of wholesale prices of farm products in a certain region over a certain period of time, the products may be classed as (1) fruits, (2) vegetables, or (3) dairy products, and the deviations of the prices of products within each group from seasonal and secular trends may be taken as the variables. When variables can be grouped in such a manner the question naturally arises as to whether or not there is any significant relationship between the groups of variables. That is, on the basis of the available observations, with what degree of credibility can we assert that the groups are mutually independent, so that knowledge relative to one of the groups gives us no significant information about the others? If they are significantly non-independent how can we measure the amount of dependence? It will become apparent as we proceed that statistical functions' and significance tests more general and comprehensive than I See R. Frisch, Correlation and Scatter in Statistical Variables, Nordielk

Experiments in Wheat Control: The Agricultural Adjustment Act, 1933 Get access Joseph S. Davis Joseph S. Davis Food Research Institute, Stanford University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 49, Issue 2, February 1935, Pages 358–363, https://doi.org/10.2307/1884071 Published: 01 February 1935

Journal Article The National Recovery Administration Get access Edward S. Mason Edward S. Mason Harvard University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 49, Issue 4, August 1935, Pages 668–679, https://doi.org/10.2307/1885404 Published: 01 August 1935

Abstract A C.P.A.-review course seems to be regarded generally as designed to meet certain needs of a relatively small group of students. It usually appeals to those who are interested primarily in professional accounting work and who hope to receive the certificate of certified public accountant, that magic parchment which, in the eyes of the layman, approximates a guaranteed income of anything above ten thousand dollars per annum to the holder thereof. One should include among these "professional students" the few who are interested in the executive accounting positions of certain of the larger corporations, the positions of auditor, comptroller, cost accountant, or budget officer. Students enrolling in the C.P.A.-review course must have a minimum of fifteen hours in prerequisite courses, elementary accounting, intermediate accounting, and cost accounting. It is customary for the student to have, in addition to the foregoing, credit in accounting systems, one semester of the year course in auditing, advanced accounting, and a second course in cost accounting. The basic textbook selected should provide answers and solutions in loose-leaf form.

Reviews the book "Problems in Accounting," by Windsor A. Hosmer, Thomas H. Sanders, and Arthur W. Hanson.

Abstract Adopting Professor Henry Rand Hatfield's broad statement of the function of accounting, the possible objectives of accounting research are almost unlimited. Professor Hatfield once stated that the function of accounting is "to place responsibility, to prevent fraud, to guide industry, to determine equities, to solve the all essential conundrum of business. In order to perform this function adequately it is essential for accountants to take full cognizance of the outstanding characteristics of modern business life, to develop and to use effectively available tools of analysis and to recognize in all respects their social responsibilities. The author in this papers confines himself to a series of observations regarding the weakness of present-day accountancy, which will readily bring to mind certain desirable objectives to be attained through accounting research. According to the author, with accountants becoming business advisers, exponents of good financial practice, and fiscal agents of stockholders, the objectives which he had suggested to be attained through accounting research, in view of certain shortcomings of present-day accountancy, may even be too narrow rather than too broad.

Abstract The article focuses on the graduate study of Accounting by means of a survey of members of the American Association of Schools of Commerce. Statistical surveys of the extent of such activity in the colleges and universities of the country, and patterns for planning graduate work are suggested time and again. Graduate study of accounting includes all courses in accounting which give graduate credit except the introductory course. Generally speaking, such graduate credit involves four factors, students who are graduates, subjects that are advanced, not elementary, instructors qualified to give graduate work, an institution equipped for advanced or graduate study. In order to be considered graduate study of accounting, it is here assumed that there should be undergraduate preparation in accounting. The range of the percentage of students specializing in accounting indicates the uncertainty that characterizes this graduate work. This would seem to give evidence of the undeveloped character of such graduate study.

Abstract The article discusses the right to devaluation and damages. The Supreme Court of the United States, in its decision in Perry versus the United States, handed down February 18, 1935, holds that the government did not have the right to repudiate its promise to the holder of a liberty bond to pay in dollars of 25.8 grains of gold as fine. The court holds that the owner of the bond is not entitled to enrichment. He is entitled only to damages. He is denied damages by this decision because he does not possess the legal right to use gold, and because he is denied the right to sue in the Court of Claims. But the question of damages is very important because these rights might sometime be restored. Changes in the price level, as shown by index numbers, are only a generalization. As far as any individual owner of dollars is concerned, a change in their purchasing power depends upon the changes in prices of the particular things he purchases. Individual prices may he higher or lower or remain the same as before devaluation, and in order to be actually damaged the identical thing purchased must be higher in price.

Introduction, 286. — 1. Elasticity of real demand for labor in a particular occupation, 287. —2. The relation of employment in non-wage-good industries and wage-good industries, 291. — 3. Elasticity of discounting. — The effects on the rate of interest and hence on employment of changes in the wage bill that follow movements in the real rate of wages, 293. — 4. The elasticity of demand for labor over all occupations, 301. — 6. Monetary elasticity of demand for labor, 305. — 6. Factors other than money affecting the level and variations of the real demand for labor, 308. — (a) Variations in demand for durable commodities, 308. — (b) Costs of various methods of state stimulation of emplo3rment, 310. — (c) Employment and the supply of wage-goods, 311. — (d) Special problems relating to the flow of wage-goods, 313. — 7. The difference made by money, 315. — (a) Money and the real demand function for labor, 315. — (b) The removal of some assumptions, 317. — (c) An error in estimating the intervals between receipt and expenditure of income and between expenditure and subsequent reincarnation as new income, 318. — 8. Problems in the causation of unemployment, 319. — Conclusion.