has just published POPULATION PROBLEMS [ By WARREN S. THOMPSON Scripps Foundation for Research in Population Problems in Miami University 462 pages, 6×9, 150 charts and tables, $3.75 The latest volume in the series of McGraw-Hill Publications in Sociology Increasingly, it is becoming evident that the growth in Man's numbers and the distribution of these numbers over the world very directly affect human welfare. On the problems which spring from these patent factors the author has brought to bear intensive study and penetrating analysis. Fortified with many charts, tables, and figures and a wealth of illuminating data, the author traces in the present volume the onrushing tide of mankind, its ebbs and flows, across continents and hemispheres, its surges into urban areas of high concentration-against the background of the findings and theories of the oldest and newest authorities and commentators on the subjects. Make-up of population, rise and fall of birth-rates, the factors involved, famine and disease, future growth of population in the United States, world-wide trends in population, migration and emigration and the control of population growth are among the significant phases of the problem herein carefully analyzed and helpfully discussed. Send for a copy on approval MCGRAW-HILL BOOK COMPANY, INC. PENN TERMINAL BUILDING 370 Seventh Avenue New York nothing is gained through the use of the more complicated curve B or B' so long as one of the variables is considered to be free from errors of observation, and that when both variables are treated as being affected by errors, the straight line N gives as good a fit as can be expected.21 (See also Fig. 12.) Of course, it might be argued that if the "typical equation" were also fitted on the assumption that both X and Y are subject to error, we should obtain a curve which is superior to the straight line N for purposes of extrapolation. Without stopping to consider the mathematical difficulties which must be overcome if the newer method of curve-fitting is to be applied to the more complicated functions, we may reply that to extend any empirical demand curve much beyond the range of observation is not a safe procedure, as is evident from curve B′ (Fig. 11), and that in most practical problems the extreme ends of the demand curve are of no importance anyway.22 We therefore conclude that the "best" demand curve that may be derived from the data before us is the straight line N. 3. THE LAW OF DEMAND IN TERMS OF TREND RATIOS The equation to our demand curve is Y=-1.9782 X+2.979 (7) the origin being at 0,0. This means that, based upon the experience from 1890 to 1914, an increase of one point (or, roughly, I "In comparing the straight lines with the other curves of Figure 11, allowance must be made for the fact that the former were fitted to the absolute values of the trend ratios, while the latter were fitted to the logarithms of these values, without making any allowance for the difference in weighting thus introduced. The same curve may sometimes give widely different results, depending upon whether it was fitted by minimizing the sum of the squares of the absolute figures or of their logarithms. By properly weighting the logarithms of the trend ratios it is possible to fit the curves B and B' so as to make the sum of the squares of the absolute figures a minimum. At the time of fitting, however, we believed (perhaps erroneously) that the extra labor involved would not be worth while. Perhaps it is also worth while to mention in this connection that the method of fitting which takes the errors in both variables into consideration can be applied not only to the straight line but to all curves which are reducible to linear form by logarithmic or other transformation. "See Marshall, Principles of Economics (8th edition), p. 133 and note. December 1930 Volume XXXVIII, No. 6 THE JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY EDITED BY JACOB VINER AND F. H. KNIGHT, WITH THE CO-OPERATION The Journal of Political Economy is published bi-monthly, by the University of Chicago at the University of Chicago Press, 5750 Ellis Avenue, Chicago, Illinois. The subscription price is $4.00 per year; the price of single copies is 75 cents. Orders for service of less than a half-year will be charged at the single-copy rate. 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Communications for the editors and manuscripts should be addressed to the Editors of THE JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill. The articles in this Journal are indexed in the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature, New York, New York. Entered as second-class matter January 16, 1893, at the Post-office at Chicago, Illinois, under the Act of March 3, 1879Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in Section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized on July 15, 1918. PRINTED YALE UNIVERSITY Strathcona Memorial Fellowships in Transportation IVE Strathcona Memorial Fellowships in Transportation, of Twelve Transportation, with special reference to the construction, equipment, and operation of railroads, and other engineering problems connected with the efficient transportation of passengers and freight, as well as the financial and legislative questions involved. 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