Year Book of Labour Statistics, 1955. by International Labour OfficeReview by: Charles D. StewartJournal of the American Statistical Association, Vol. 52, No. 277 (Mar., 1957), pp. 111-112Published by: American Statistical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2281414 .

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BOOK REVIEWS ll

Typewriting . . . is the obvious medium to most people, but there are still some who ... pass to their printer notes that are handwritten in pencil. These authors are the first to complain of the results they receive and the prices they are charged. (Preparing, Proof Correcting and Producing)

As these bits show clearly, the author has written a knowledgeable and helpful guide to the preparation and production of technical publications. Unfortunately for most readers of this journal, it is a book written in the direction of engineers.

Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1956. U. S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. Prepared under the direction of Edwin D. Goldfield. Washington, D. C.: Govern- ment Printing Office, 1956. Pp. xvi, 1049. $3.75.

6; HIS year the text notes for the second half of the volume have been revised to I make them more comprehensive and consistent. This completes the revision of

the text material begun last year. Ninety-seven new tables have been introduced, including one group devoted to an initial presentation of data on physical geography and a second group containing information from the 1954 Census of Business...

"In addition to the 1954 Census of Business, the 1954 Censuses of Agriculture, Manufactures, and Mineral Industries are also represented. Further and more de- tailed statistics will be included in the next edition."

"Among tables shown in the last edition, 87 were omitted from this issue.... Some of the information in the omitted tables was absorbed in other tables still pres- ent."

W. A. W.

Year Book of Labour Statistics, 1955. Fifteenth Issue. International Labour Office, Geneva, 1955, Pp. xv, 455. $5.00.

CHARLES D. STEWART, U. S. Department of Labor

T HIS volume is, of course, a reference-not a book to read and hardly one to review- Users of economic data, however, especially those concerned with economic de-

velopment or comparative structure, ought to be familiar with the resources it has to offer. The ILO is a specialized agency of the United Nations, and this volume is the specialized handbook in the field of labor statistics, in the series of UN statistical yearbooks and reports.

In format and presentation the volume is of the quality we have come to expect from the statistical offices of the international agencies. The result is deceptive. The mass of economic data, systematically organized and neatly printed, covering 455 large pages, gives an exaggerated impression of progress in economic reporting. The editors carefully point out, in prefatory notes to each section, that "international comparability is subject to certain reservations," and refer users to technical, de- scriptive sources. The scope of each series is carefully indicated, but the reader is left to his own sophistication and knowledge as to the statistical validity of the data. For this the editors can hardly be blamed.

The over-all achievement, however, is not to be minimized. All of the major series in the field of labor statistics, except the relatively scattered and intermittent data on productivity, and except for Russia, are made readily accessible, to a degree rare in the official publications of the individual countries. Absolute figures are given in all instances, as in the original sources; indexes (generally on a 1948 base) have been constructed wherever appropriate for time-series and comparative purposes. In- dustry detail is reconciled to the degree possible in terms of divisions and major groups of the International Standard Industrial Classification. Annual data are shown for the 3 pre-war years and for years since 1948, with monthly or quarterly

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112 AMERICAN STATISTICAL ASSOCIATION JOURNAL, MARCH 1957

data usually from 1952 or 1953. General differences in the character of the various national series, whether from sample surveys, establishment reports, or adminis- trative sources, are ingeniously indicated in column heads; variations in scope, etc., are carefully footnoted. All of the introductory texts for the 11 sections are in English, French and Spanish.

Economic Handbook, A Visual Survey. Charles B. Fowler, John I. Griffin, Jerome B. Cohen, Joseph Cropsey, William I. Greenwald, and Frederick Sethur. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1955. Pp. x, 246. $2.45. Paper.

MARION HAMILTON GILLIM, Barnard College T HIs highly useful book treats sixty topics classified under the following ten headings familiar to every student and instructor of introductory economics:

National Income, Resources and Industries, Labor Force and Labor Economics, American Enterprise System, Money and Banking, Prices, Public Finance, Inter- national Economics, Private and Social Insurance, and Consumption and the Stand- ard of Living. It is essentially a handbook of the economy of the United States with fifty topics concerned with our internal economy and six with our foreign economic relations. Only four topics deal specifically with other parts of the earth: World Petroleum, Work Time Required to Buy Food, the Canadian Economy, and Trading Worlds and Population Worlds.

Each topic receives a uniform four-page treatment consisting of a page of descrip- tive text, a page of questions for study and testing, a table, and a chart. The page of questions with the table on its reverse side has a space for the student's name and a dotted line along its inner margin suggesting that it is to be torn from the book and turned in as a class assignment. The final pages of the book provide a tabular cross- reference to sixteen well-known introductory textbooks.,

This volume can contribute significantly to the knowledge, convenience, and inter- est of the beginning student of economics. The charts are done in red, green, and blue, as well as contrasting lines and shadings, and are attractive and easy to read. This handy book brings together important information from a variety of govern- mental and private sources. It should discourage the too-frequent attempts of first- year students to discuss current economic problems without making use of avail- able factual materials. The book, also, offers practice in the interpretation of index numbers and a variety of types of charts including semilogarithmic charts, pie charts, bar charts, and statistical maps.

When the time comes to revise this book, a few changes might make it even more useful than it is now. If the questions were grouped together in a final section, instead of being printed on the reverse of the pages containing the tables, the student would be able to remove the question sheets and still keep the tables and charts together for future reference. More specific citation of the sources of the data by reference to the titles of publications, instead of only to the names of the issuing agencies as at present, would aid the student looking for current statistics in each series. As is done in the charts of time series, room might be left in the tables for writing in data more recent than those available at the time of publication. The encouragement to the student to seek the latest statistics himself would help make him familiar with many of the publications which are the original sources of economic data. The addition of a brief, non-technical explanation of the methods used by each agency in preparing each group of statistics would assist the student in interpreting them. Among statistics which might well be added are series showing farm prices and parity indexes, family expenditures by major categories, population and labor force by age and sex, and average hours of work.

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