which is free from the influence of prices. Bank debits, which afford the most general index of business activity, measure the dollar volume of transactions made through checks, and hence reflect the prices of goods, services (i.e., wages in general), and securities, as well as the volume of transactions; whereas most series expressed in physical units, however well they may reflect general movements, actually apply to some particular phase of activity, such as freight shipments or manufacturing.

I. The Rise and Fall of Material Culture. Population, cultivated area, and wealth have swelled and dwindled almost rhythmically for thousands of years — the moving frontier of settled agriculture. — II. Rainfall and Cultivated Area. Relation of topography to rainfall and cost of transport by zones, 48. — Significance of the alternate fallow year, 53. — Cereal and olive production the one index of economic development applicable to all periods, 54. — Extent of the economically valuable area. The change since ancient times has been economic, not geographic, 56. — III. Irrigation. Irrigation important, not so much for itself as because of its effects upon the dry-farming area. Evidence from ruins that climate has not basically changed, 58. — Ancient and modern dry-farming similar, 60. — Limited resources of North Africa in irrigation water, 65. — IV. Soil Exhaustion. Soil exhaustion rather an effect or accompaniment of economic decay than a cause, 68. — Some damage from erosion and deforestation, but this less important than commercial, social, and technical changes, 70. — V. Population and its Economic Basis. Growth of Algerian population during the past century. Professor Pearl over emphasizes war-losses, under emphasizes drought periods; but his results are extremely significant, 71. — Algeria a liability to France during the first half-century of fumbling. Followed by a half-century of progress under policies built upon knowledge of North African geography, 74. — VI. The Economics of Empire. Agricultural and administrative policies under which North Africa has prospered roughly similar in all ages, but the differences in detail are important, 79. — "Arabization" has been mainly social and economic, not biological, 82. — Economic significance of Roman and modern frontiers: the camel, the railway, and the motorcar, 83. — "Environmental resistance, " 85. — Can North Africa be a self-supporting or self-governing economic unit? 86. — The benefits of "imperialism, " 87.

Journal Article Pigou, Industrial Fluctuations Get access Warren M. Persons Warren M. Persons Harvard University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 42, Issue 4, August 1928, Pages 669–677, https://doi.org/10.2307/1882538 Published: 01 August 1928

A,NALYSIS of business conditions in the I 2 federal reserve districts, as shown by the fluctuations in the volume of check payments (bank debits) since the beginning of I9I9, supports the following conclusions: (I) Business in the individual districts usually fluctuates in sympathy with that in the United States as a whole. There are no systematic differences in either the timing or nature of the business fluctuations among the various federal reserve (listricts, after due allowance has been made for varying seasonal movements and trends. Such differences as do appear are clearly less significant than the fundamental similarity in the broader movements. This condition is indicative of the close economic interrelationship of the several areas of our country. (2) Substantial improvement has been taking place in agricultural conditions in recent years. This is clearly reflected in the figures for the primarily agricultural districts, notably the Kansas City and Dallas districts. The sharpest recent movement is to be found in the Minneapolis district, where the marketing of a large spring wheat crop in I927 has been clearly reflected in the figures for debits. The Kansas City and Dallas districts exhibit a more steady gain, and have advanced materially above their I924 levels. (3) The recurrent brief periods of expansion, recession, and renewed expansion are less marked in bank debits than in basic production. This condition is explained by the fact that fluctuations in such production, while important, do not represent the movements of general business. Bank debits, on the other hand, constitute an extremely representative measure of the complex of activities included under the term general business. Production of consumption goods, wholesale and retail trade, construction of buildings and engineering projects, and agriculture these and all other forms of economic activity have a share in making up the total of check transactions. Thus, while production indexes have moved sharply during these intermediate movements, it seems probable that the narrower movements of total debits depict more accurately the course of general business over the past few years. Except in those districts which are primarily agricultural, the several districts contain such a diversity of economic interests that the volume of check transactions is relatively insensitive to changes in any one line of activity. There are, however, some instances (notably the Cleveland district, where the iron and steel trade is of such great importance) in which sharp changes in the pace of basic industry are reflected in the figures for debits. These conclusions are based upon adjusted relatives for bank debits which appear on Charts 3 and 5 and in Table 4. Conditions in the various federal reserve districts are discussed in the following sections and a map of the I2 districts appears on page I46. A full description of the actual data and the statistical methods employed in adjusting the figures for irregularities of the calendar, trend, and seasonal variation is given in the section on data and methods,

Abstract At the present time it is becoming more generally recognized than formerly that a business concern is made up of a series of interlocking activities or functions. To a considerable extent the administration of a business means the adequate and thorough control of the major functions. To facilitate this administration, various devices are set up, the purpose of which is to supply information to the executive or to aid him in putting into effect the policies which have been adopted. One of the means of control which has been receiving an increasing degree of attention in recent years is factory cost accounting. Hence one of the tasks which has confronted university schools of business is that of teaching their students something of the nature, operation and use of the system of records and accounts by means of which information concerning factory costs may be obtained. While a system of cost accounts and records may serve various ends, in most instances its primary reason for being is that it provides a very valuable means of control for the assistance of the general manager, his associates and assistants.