National Income, Expenditure and Output of the United Kingdom, 1855–1965 . By C. H. Feinstein. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1972. Pp. ix + 244 and 141 pages of Tables. £10.00.
National Income, Expenditure and Output of the United Kingdom, 1855–1965 . By C. H. Feinstein. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1972. Pp. ix + 244 and 141 pages of Tables. £10.00.
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英国国民收入、支出和产出，C. H. Feinstein，剑桥大学出版社，1972 年。第 ix 页 + 141 页表格。
DOI：
10.2307/3113291
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发表时间：
1973
影响因子：
1.2
通讯作者：
D. Aldcroft
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
D. Aldcroft
人们只能钦佩c·h·范斯坦的能力和精力。在过去十年左右的时间里，他为英国经济提供了大量的历史统计数据。本书为多年的艰苦工作提供了一个恰当的高潮，毫无疑问，它将在未来很长一段时间内成为历史学家和经济学家的采石场。这也确保了范斯坦的名字将在统计调查的编年史上占据一席之地。毫无疑问，范斯坦博士会是第一个承认这不是一本容易读的书的人，原因显而易见。它包括65个总表，包括国民收入及其主要分总额利润、资本形成、生产指数、人口和劳动力、价格、工资和国际收支，以及案文中的许多汇总表。换句话说，它包含了研究19世纪中叶以来英国经济所需的大部分主要宏观经济数据，这是在适当的时候承诺的。本卷的第一部分专门详细说明编制估计数所用的资料来源和方法。尽管这本书很长（超过200页），但仍然存在一些疑问和疑问，由于在简短的回顾中不可能详细地浏览这本书，我将把注意力集中在提出阅读这本书时想到的一两个要点上。这些数据的使用者应该意识到这样一个事实，即一些估计存在相当大的误差幅度，尽管范斯坦博士经常对他的许多计算表示出相当程度的信心。毫不奇怪，越久远的时间回溯，以及那些包含重大战争的时期，估计就越不可靠。有些部门的估计，例如对公路运输和某些服务的产出的估计，并不是建立在非常牢固的基础上的。此外，无论读者希望使用哪一部分数据，他都必须首先仔细阅读有关汇编的解释性说明。即使到那时，一些疑虑仍将存在。例如，第209页指出，在两次世界大战期间，有23个指标用于编制运输和通讯的产出，49个用于分配行业，29个用于专业和杂项服务，但我们几乎没有得到关于具体包括哪些指标的信息。该行业的一些估计并没有让人有足够的信心。1920年至1938年的公路运输是一个比较困难的指标，因此必须使用货车的加权指数。考虑到1933年的许可制度抑制了这种增长，这显然不是特别令人满意
One can only admire C. H. Feinstein's ability and energy. Over the last decade or so he has provided an enormous amount of historical statistical data for the British economy. The present volume provides a fitting culmination of many years of laborious work, and it will no doubt serve as a quarry for historians and economists for a long time to come. It ensures too that the name of Feinstein will secure a firm placing in the annals of statistical inquiry. No doubt Dr. Feinstein would be the first to admit that this is not an easy book to read, for obvious reasons. It comprises sixty-five master tables covering national income and its main sub-aggregates profits, capital formation, indices of production, population and labor force, prices, wages and balance of payments, as well as many summary tables in the text. In other words, it includes most of the main macroeconomic data necessary for a study of the U.K. economy since the mid-nineteenth century, which is promised in due course. The first part of the volume is devoted to a detailed explanation of the sources and methods used in compiling the estimates. Despite its length (over 200 pages), a number of doubts and queries remain, and since it would be impossible in a short review to go through the volume in detail, I shall confine my attention to raising one or two points which came to mind when reading the volume. Users of the data should be aware of the fact that some of the estimates are subject to considerable margins of error, though Dr. Feinstein frequently expresses a quiet degree of confidence in many of his calculations. Not surprisingly, the farther one goes back in time, and for those periods which include major wars, the less reliable are the estimates. Some of the sector estimates, for example those for the output of road haulage and certain services, are not based on very firm foundations. Moreover, it is essential that whatever section of the data the reader wishes to utilize he first reads carefully the relevant explanatory notes on compilation. Even then some doubts will remain. For instance, on page 209 it is stated that twenty-three indicators were used for compiling the output of transport and communication, forty-nine for the distributive trades, and twenty-nine for professional and miscellaneous services for the inter-war period, but we are given very little information as to exactly what is included. Some of the sector estimates do not give grounds for great confidence. A difficult one proved to be road haulage for the years 1920-1938, and here resort was had to a weighted index of goods vehicles in use. This is obviously not particularly satisfactory, given the fact that the licensing system of 1933 checked the growth