Journal Article A Note on Mr. Meade's Theory of Competitive Speculation Get access Holbrook Working Holbrook Working Stanford, California Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Review of Economic Studies, Volume 18, Issue 3, 1950, Pages 188–189, https://doi.org/10.2307/2295979 Published: 01 September 1950

One type of study is concerned with the relation between price and consumers' demand, 503. — Illustrated in the study of potatoes, 505. — Price data should relate to a specific market, 508. — Allowance must be made for effects of other forces, 509. — Demand must be expressed in terms of rates and must cover all uses, 512. — Elasticity depends on market point at which it is measured, 512. — A second and more common type of study is concerned with “ speculators'” demand, 518. — Cannot be expressed in terms of rates, 519. — But may yield some knowledge of consumers' demand, 521. — Current “demand and supply” can rarely be measured satisfactorily, 522. — A modification of the second type of study gives better results, 524. — The two types compared, 525. — Relation between theoretical and empirical demand curves, 526. — Three divergent statistical results, 529. — Determining the true relationship, 536.

An attempt to find a method for forecasting price changes develops important theoretical conclusions. — The quantity theory of money furnishes a basis for an hypothesis (229), a test of which requires an index number of general price level, an index number of total circulating medium, and an index number of the normal value of V/T, 234. — The reciprocal of the latter is an index of the circulating medium necessary to maintain a constant price level, 239. — From the index number of circulating medium and the index number of the normal value of V is calculated an index number of normal price level, 000. — This index number compared with the index number of actual price level, 1890–1916, shows a good correlation with a lag apparently slightly less than one year, 242; which substantiates the original hypothesis, as applied to that period, 245. — The hypothesis, however, does not explain the price changes of 1917–20, 246. — Some related conclusions, 248.— Supplementary note, 252. — Appendix: Construction of the index number of circulating medium, 253.