First discussions on several topics of this book took place at a symposium held at the University of Karlsruhe (July 14 - 21, 1985). The book is divided into nine parts with the headings "Methodology and Methods" (4 papers), "Prices" (9), "Efficiency" (5), "Preferences" (7), "Quality" (2), "Inequality" (6), "Taxation" (6), "Aggregation" (6), and "Econometrics" (6). The topics range from the "equation of measurement", a functional equation which plays an important role in the subject, through various approaches to price, efficiency, inequality and tax progression measurement to results on consistency, efficiency and separability in aggregation, productivity measurement, cost functions, allocation inefficiencies, key sector indices, and testing of integrability conditions in econometrics. There are applications to the economies of the U.S.A., Japan and Germany. It contains also papers which deal with preferences, environmental quality and with noxiousness of substances.

InhaltsangabeI Methodology and Methods.- 'Cheaper by the Dozen': Twelve Functional Equations and their Applications to the 'Laws of Science' and to Measurement in Economics.- The Equation of Measurement.- The Solutions of Important Special Cases of the Equation of Measurement.- On a Functional Equation with Applications to Measurement in Economics.- II Prices.- The Precision of Consumer Price Indices Caused by the Sampling Variability of Budget Surveys; an Example.- On the Factorial Approach to Index Number Problems, Consumption Analysis and Orthogonal Decomposition of National Income: A Review.- Test Approaches to International Comparisons.- Production-Theoretic Input Price Indices and the Measurement of Real Aggregate Input Use.- Mean Value Properties of the Weights of Linear Price Indices.- Axiomatic Characterization of Statistical Price Indices.- A System of Functional Equations Considered by Krtscha.- A Probabilistic Model for Price Levels in Discontinuous Markets.- Weighting and Additivity Problems of Multilateral Comparison.- III Efficiency.- On the Definition of Efficiency Measures: A Note.- Efficiency Gains from Addition of Technologies: A Nonparametric Approach.- Efficiency Measures for Multiplant Firms with Limited Data.- Testing for Aggregation Bias in Efficiency Measurement.- On the Axiomatic Approach to the Measurement of Technical Efficiency.- IV Preferences.- On the Role of Income Compensation Functions as Money - Metric Utility Functions.- Algebra and Topology in Cardinal Utility Theory.- Binary Inversions and Transitive Majorities.- Evaluation Techniques for Paired Ratio-Comparison Matrices in a Hierachical Decision Model.- On the Effects of Bayesian Learning for a Risk-Averse Consumer.- Measurement by Public Opinion Polls and Consequences for Modelling Pure Competition.- Characterizations of Quasilinear Representations and Specified Forms of These.- V Quality.- A Measure or Index of Noxiousness.- Environmental Quality Indices: Problems, Concepts, Examples.- VI Inequality.- How to Retrieve the Lorenz Curve from Sparse Data.- Axiomatizations of the Entropy Numbers Equivalent Index of Industrial Concentration.- On the Decomposition of Inequality: Partitions into Nonoverlapping Sub-Groups.- On the Shannon - Theil Concentration Measure and its Characterizations.- Aggregation Issues in Inequality Measurement.- On the Construction of an Index of Bequest Behavior.- VII Taxation.- Risk-Taking Under Progressive Taxation: Three Partial Effects.- Measuring the Burden of Taxation: An Index Number Approach.- Net Fiscal Incidence Progressivity: Some Approaches to Measurement.- Distributional Equity and Measurement of Tax Progressivity.- Measures of Tax Progression - An Axiomatic Approach.- Equal Sacrifice in Taxation.- VIII Aggregation.- Consistent Commodity Aggregates in Market Demand Equations.- The Problem of Aggregation of Individual Economic Relations; Consistency and Representativity in a Historical Perspective.- Aggregation and Efficiency.- Separability and the Existence of Aggregates.- Nataf's Theorem, Taylor's Expansion and Homogeneity in Consumer Demand.- Consistent Aggregation of a General Equilibrium Model.- IX Econometrics.- The Concept of "Scale" and Related Topics in the Specification of Econometric Cost Functions: Theory and Application to Hospitals.- Theory and Measurement of Productivity and Cost Gaps: A Comparison for the Manufacturing Industry in US, Japan and Germany, 1960-1979.- Indices of Allocation Inefficiencies for Heterogeneous Labor.- On the Identification of Key Sectors: Critical Theoretical and Empirical Analysis of Key Sector Indices.- Testing Integrability Conditions in a Dynamic Framework.- Value-Added Total-Factor-Productivity Measurement: A Monte-Carlo Assessment.