Knowledge that Transforms

Importance of agriculture, — Literacy and sanitation, 501. — Agricultural holdings, 506. — Backwardness of agriculture, 508. — Peasant indebtedness, 510. — Coöperative credit institutions, 514. — Agricultural Department activities, 518. — Further coöperation in agriculture, 520. — Popular education, 522. — Coöperative activities therein, 525. — Public health, 526. — Coöperative activities therein, 528. — Rural Community Councils, 530.

Journal Article The Theory of Comparative Cost Once More Get access Gottfried Haberler Gottfried Haberler University of Vienna Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 43, Issue 2, February 1929, Pages 376–381, https://doi.org/10.2307/1882480 Published: 01 February 1929

I. Biographical. II. Method: the place of “natural principles,” 106; the importance of experience in generalising, 107; the significance of institutions and the rational control of them, 108. — III. Impetus from practical problems: population, 110; the poor laws, 112; public work, 113; mutual assurance, 114. His outlook in harmony with his social philosophy; its relation to laissez-faire, 115. — IV. Monetary and banking problems. Fluctuations in prices the main evil, 117; an advocate of paper currency and greater control over prices, 119; the need for a “tabular standard,” 121. Theory of crises, 123. — V. A critic of “orthodox” contemporaries, 126; modern analysis of demand and supply mechanism, 127; superior treatment of distribution, 129. — Bibliographical appendix, 134.

I. Effect of fertile American mines on European prices — Spain the recipient and distributor of the treasure, 437.—New sources of data, 438.—II. House of Trade and Merchant Gild of Seville, 441.—Handling of bullion in the Indies: (a) mining; (b) assaying; (c) shipping, 442.—III. Treasure fleets, 444.—Attempts to plunder, 445.—Measures taken to combat smuggling and exporting: (a) in America; (b) on fleets; (c) in Spanish waters, 448.—The silver master, 451.—The House of Trade the goal of all American treasure, 453.—How gold and silver were disposed of in Spain: (a) mints; (b) silver merchants, 454.—IV. Volume of imports, Table A, Chart I; explanation of trends, 462.—Gold and silver, Table B, 468.—Relative importance of exporting regions, Chart II, 469.— V, How imports affected motherland and colonies, 469.

Discrimination in rate making commonly based on three principles. — Rates should conform to long-period normal values, 43. — Composite demand or joint supply are involved, 44. — The case of composite demand explained; overhead should be apportioned equally to all classes of service, 46. — The case of joint supply explained; overhead should be apportioned according to demand, 53. — How this principle can be applied in practice, 60.

I. Dubious notions suggested by eighteenth- and nineteenth-century conceptions of the “laws of nature” are being discarded from natural sciences, and should be discarded from economics, 1. — II. Evolution of the idea of natural laws, since the seventeenth century; in the natural sciences, “mechanical philosophy,” belief in harmonious Order of Nature, fatalism, and the modern view that scientific laws may be only statistical laws, 6. — III. Corresponding evolution in economic thought. Eighteenth-century moral sciences mechanistic, but not rigidly deterministic. Economic optimism and fatalism. Modern view of the nature of economic laws, 16. — IV. Economic tendencies are toward adjustment, but not necessarily any ideal adjustment. Social welfare depends on human motives and on institutions. This was recognized in eighteenth-century philosophy of the moral “Law of Nature” (jus Naturae), accepted by Physiocrats and Adam Smith, 34.

The problem stated and limited, 63. — The result when sellers consider only their direct influence upon price and adjust amounts (Cournot), 66. — The same when prices are adjusted (Bertrand, Marshall, Pareto, Edgeworth, Pigou), 69. — The result when sellers consider their total influence upon price, 83. — The factor of uncertainty as to what the other seller will do, 87. — The effects of '#|201C;friction,” 89. — Summary, 91. Mathematical Appendix, 93. — Cournot, 93. — Pareto, 95. — Amoroso, 97. — Evans, 97> — Bowley, 98.

I. The situation down to 1920. — The effects of pre-war immigration, 393. — The effects of the war, 395. — The failure of post-war changes in the labor market to end the interest of business men in industrial good will, 396. — II. The post-war dread of labor trouble, 398. — The inability or unwillingness of employers to reduce wages in proportion to the drop in wholesale prices, 400. — The better appreciation by managers of the relationship between morale and efficiency, 401. — III. The methods by which enterprises have attempted to make labor more efficient and more contented: Helping employees acquire property, 404. — Helping them acquire a "stake" in the business, 408. — Protecting the magainst arbitrary treatment, 411. — Rewarding continuity of service, 414. — Giving them opportunity to advance, 416. — Giving them security, 419. — Other methods, 421. — IV. The effect of the new personnel policies upon the present labor situation. — Their effect upon productivity per worker, 424 .— Their effect upon union membership, 426. — Their effect upon the number of industrial disputes, 428. — Their effect upon the rate of turnover, 429. — V. The effect of the new labor policies upon labor's bargaining power and upon the spread of unionism, 431.

Reviews the book "The Theory of the Cost-Price System," by Arnold J.W. Keppel and introduced by J.A. Hobson.

The remainder of this article is addressed to the task of considering a course of this kind which is adapted to the use of university schools of business administration, a course to meet the needs of both advanced undergraduate and graduate students. The method which is described here uses several different means of instruction. One way in which a text book has been used to good advantage by the writer in the instruction of his students has been to assign to them the entire book to be read rapidly during the first week, indicating to them the parts which can be skipped at this first reading as well as the parts which should be glanced at more thoroughly than the others. It is often satisfactory to assign readings therein and then give the students a chance to ask questions in class about any of the points which have bothered them. It will often be found that such questions show that the students have failed to read the text with sufficient care aid directions to look up the answers to their own questions.