A Synthesis of Engel Curve Theory'

INTRODUCTION
In 1935 Allen and Bowley [3] based their analysis of family budgets on linear
Engel curves. though they were not unaware that the linear form was only a first U

approximation to a regular curve." Subsequent investigators who had available

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information over wider ranges of incomes had recourse to curvilinear forms and found
it especially compelling to postulate different curves for necessities and luxuries.
Thus Tornqvist [15] has suggested different hyperbolic forms for these two classes of
commodity and Prais and Houthakker [II] have concluded that a semi-logarithmic
form is most suited to necessities and that a double logarithmic form best describes
demand for luxuries; alternative forms have also been proposed by Champernowne [4],
while Stuvel and James [14] concluded from an analysis of Dutch budgets that the
use of only one regression equation for the complete range of income level and social
H

class" was unsatisfactory in analysing total food expenditure.

In this paper a form of Engel curve is suggested which is capable of representing
the demand both for luxuries and necessities; indeed. the form of curve implies that
what is a luxury for poor people may be a necessity for the rich. A further implication
is that a saturation level of consumption exists at very high incomes. The present
analysis has much in common with a class of problems in experimental biology where
a similar form of curve is used; we discuss this analogy in some detail and derive the
properties of the curve which are useful in economic contexts.

1. SATURATION LEVELS OF CONSUMPTION

The notion that there is a satiety level of consumption for a particular commodity
which is never exceeded. however high the consumer's income, is one which has occurred
to many analysts of family budget material and has recently been used [IOJ by Prais
in an article published in this REVIEW. He argued that it is advisable. when choosing
a mathematical formula for the Engel curve on which to base quantitative analysis.
to choose one which possesses the same asymptotic property. One of the purposes of
a quantitative analysis would then be to estimate such a saturation level. This pro-
cedure need not imply that the saturation level of consumption is greater than that
recorded in any individual budget; for the mathematical relationship represents only
the expected or average level of consumption corresponding to a given income, and it
is the average level of consumption which increases with income until the saturation
level is reached.
The desirability of an upper asymptote is most apparent in the case of necessities,
since the Engel curve flattens considerably in the upper ranges of income and the
income elasticity of demand falls fairly rapidly towards zero. In the case of luxury
goods the requirement is not so obvious, for budget studies usually display a curve
which is still rising rapidly even in the upper income ranges, and the elasticity often
does not fall below unity. Nevertheless, we may reasonably suppose that many
commodities begin life as luxuries and eventually become semi-luxuries or necessities
as increasing incomes and falling prices bring consumers nearer to an ultimate saturation
1 The authors wish to express their indebtedness to Richard Stone, Director of the Department of
Applied Economics, for his encouragement and helpful criticism; this paper has also benefited from
discussions we have held with our colleagues at the Department, in particular, Dr. S. J. Prais. Our thanks
are also due to the computing staff for carrying out the calculations and for drawing the figures.
35
 THE REVIEW OF ECONOMIC STUDIES

level. Such we might expect to have been the history of radio sets and to be the future
prospects of television, domestic refrigerators and the like. Such, too, may be the
explanation of the remarkable diagram published by Wold [16J illustrating the demand
for coffee in Greenland by linear functions of income: the slopes of these expenditure
lines become progressively less steep as the measurement is repeated for every decade
from 1840 to 1938. In the same book Wold discusses and develops the pure theory
of individual preference fields for which the more usual assumption of non-satiety is

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relaxed to admit satiety levels bounding what Wold terms regions of scarcity.
We therefore conclude that a form of Engel curve which possesses an upper
asymptote and at the same time is capable of describing luxuries and necessities will
be both elegant and useful, especially in predicting over long periods or when large
income variations are involved. The particular curve considered below is sigmoid in
appearance, and passes through the origin (Fig. I). It seems preferable to suppose
that the average rate of consumption of the good will remain non-zero though small,
even at the lowest income, rather than that there exists some particular level of income
below which the good is not bought.

SATU~ATIO~ LEVEL

QUANTITY
f EX~NDITURe

INCOME __

o
Fig. 1.
A suggested general form of Engel curve for commodities that are luxuries at low incomes and necessities
at high incomes.

II. THE SIGMOID RESPONSE CURVE AND ITS PROPERTIES

Biological research workers have for some twenty years been using a technique
which displays many features in common with the study of Engel curves as outlined
above. This technique covers a group of related methods whereby living organisms
are subjected to stimuli of known strengths in order to assay their effects in terms of
some measurable reaction of the organisms. The more widely known form of assay is
that in which a number of insects, say, are subjected to known doses of insecticide,
and the effects measured in terms of the proportion dying at each level of dose. It has
been found empirically that when the proportions dying are plotted against the dose,
the relationship is adequately described by the lognormal distribution function. The
distribution function is sigmoid in shape, passes through the origin, and approaches an
asymptote of unity. For this reason the statistical analysis of this relationship has
come to be known as probit analysis, as the word probit is used to indicate a deviate
of the standardised normal curve.
 A SYNTHESIS OF ENGEL CURVE THEORY 37
A fairly close parallel to this case in economics would be provided by the market
for an indivisible good, in which income would be regarded as the stimulus and the
proportion of consumers at each level of income buying the good as the measure of
the reaction. The writers are at present investigating the use of such a model in the
market for television sets; a model with similar features has recently been applied
to the American market for motor cars by Farrell [6J.
The case of a divisible consumers' good is, however, more closely paralleled by a less

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widely known development in biology of the same type of analysis. Finney [7J has
described an experiment in which honey bees were allowed to take honey from a number
of pots to which varying amounts of a repellent had been added. The saturation level
of consumption was in this case estimated partly from a control pot containing no
repellent, and partly from the shape of the normal sigmoid curve which was again
found to describe the relation between the mean consumption of honey and the
concentration of the repellent. The closest economic parallel to this experiment would
of course be provided by the replacement of the repellent concentration by a monetary
price, in which case the assay would take the form of a controlled economic experiment
to determine the variation of demand with respect to price. But there is no reason
why the positive stimulus of income should not be investigated in a similar way. The
theory is, as its counterpart in biology, rooted ultimately in the Weber-Fechner law
of logarithmic reaction to stimuli. It may be that consumers' purchasing decisions
are in fact based on psychological mechanisms of this type, modified by the imposed
economic constraint that the budget must ultimately be balanced; this is not inconsistent
with the decision systems usually proposed in the pure theory of consumers' behaviour.
The purpose of this paper is in fact to present the results of such an investigation and
to discuss the economic significance of the estimates obtained.
The mathematical form of the sigmoid relationship used in this investigation may
be written:
'1 = JZ ~: e- ittdt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. (I)
K - 00 V 27T
where q is the average quantity consumed, K the saturation level of consumption and
z = loga.+ ~log y, y being the consumer's income; a. and ~ are parameters to be
determined along with K. Equation (I) may be rewritten in a convenient abbreviated
form as suggested elsewhere [1J by the authors:
q = KA(a.yP) ........................•............. (2)
where A(z) denotes the standardised lognormal distribution function at z and is
related to the standardised (with zero mean and unit variance) normal distribution
function by
A(z) = N(log z) (3)
For the purpose of statistical estimation equation (2) is assumed to hold in a stochastic
sense only, that is, say, with the addition of a random error term:
q = KA(a.yP) + U •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• (4)
where u is a normal variate with zero mean, or, as is more probable in economic
contexts [2J, with a multiplicative error:
q = KA(a.yP) eu .............•.............•...... (5)
u being defined as before.
It is found in the investigations presented below that in fact ~ is very close to
unity. On setting ~ = 1 we have for the basic equation of the Engel curve:
q = KA(a.y) .......•.•••••.•••••••••.•.••.•..••.... (6)
 THE REVIEW OF ECONOMIC STUDIES

the parameters of which have a particularly simple interpretation. For the parameter a.
is seen to be a parameter determining the scale, for the individual commodity, on which
income is to be measured. Since the vertical scales for the different commodities differ
again only by the scalar factor;; , model (6) is equivalent to the statement that there is
a single underlying Engel curve, which may be adapted to all commodities by simple
changes in units of measurement. The value of the parameter a. therefore controls the

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degree to which a consumer with a given income is able to approach his saturation
expenditure for each commodity, and for this reason we term it the parameter oj
cheapness; the measure is relative since IX includes a factor depending on the monetary
units in which income is measured. Correspondingly, the cheapness parameter also
controls the value of the income elasticity of demand at any given level of income.
The income elasticity 1) is readily obtained from (6); we have
_ 8 log q _ _ 1_ 8A(ay)
7J - alogy - A (ay) alogy
ay~(ay)
= A (ay) (7)

25

Z{)

1-5"

'-0

0·5

o 0-25 0-5 0'75 , -0

Fig -. 2.
The income elasticity as related to the consumption ratio tL .
IC
 A SYNTHESIS OF ENGEL CURVE THEORY 39
where ,\(IXY) denotes the ordinate of the standardised lognormal frequency curve at
the value IXy, and A(IXY) the corresponding integral, as before. It is more convenient,
since IX is a relative measure, to consider the income elasticity in relation to the
consumption ratio q
I(
attained at the given level of income. This relation is shown
graphically in Fig. 2.

The figure shows that the elasticity is zero for fJ = where the saturation level

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I,
I(

is reached (though it will be recalled that this level is reached only with an infinitely
large income) but continuously increases as fJ. declines, that is, as income declines.
I(

An elasticity of unity is reached when the quantity consumed is approximately 38 per

cent of the saturation level.

III. AN APPLICATION TO THE 1938 INQUIRY INTO WORKING-CLASS

EXPENDITURES
There exists a maximum likelihood method of estimating the parameters 1(, IX
and ~ in (4) which is moderately easy to apply: it involves essentially an iterative
procedure which seems suitable for computation on modem automatic computers.'
The method of maximum likelihood applied to equation (5) is similar except that new
tables of working probits and weighting factors are required; these will be published
elsewhere [2].
In order to test the validity of model (4) a preliminary graphical analysis using
logarithmic-probability paper was carried out on data for a number of individual
commodities which included pre-war expenditure and consumption figures for beef
and veal, bacon and ham, all food, and expenditure on meals outside the horne. All
but the last mentioned yielded Engel curves which flattened in the higher ranges of
income, suggesting that the saturation level was nearly attained, but the last mentioned
showed a highly elastic relationship over the whole range of incomes. All were closely
approximated by model (4) and a striking feature was that for all curves the value of
the ~-parameterappeared to be close to unity. This was confirmed by numerical analysis,
for in all cases the divergence between the estimated value of ~ and unity was less
than the standard error of the estimate, itself less than 0.1.
The analysis was therefore extended to a classification of commodities which
included those other than food. Graphical analysis again suggested that the value of ~
was close to unity, and the final numerical analysis- which we present below was
based on the following model, in which the assumption ~ = 1 is made.
q = I(A(IXY) u + (8)
Later a full variance analysis confirmed that the assumption of a multiplicative error
would have been better founded, but the loss is but a slight one in the efficiency of the
estimation procedure.
The data used are those of the 1937-38 budgets collected from industrial working-
class households by the Ministry of Labour for the purpose of revising the Cost of
Living Index, and we have to thank the Ministry for making them available.f The
1 The analyses in this paper were carried out on desk machines; the number of iterations required
was very small.
S See Appendix for an account of the method of estimation.
S The data have been classified into ten income-per-person groups; about 200 households fall into each
group. They are the same data as used by Stone [12] and by Prais and Houthakker [I IJ.
 THE REVIEW OF ECONOMIC STUDIES

classification is exhaustive in the sense that the item all other expenditure" is obtained
(I

by subtracting the total of the other items from total expenditure, which is here taken
as a measure of income.

TABLE I.

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PARAMETERS OF ENGEL CURVES DERIVED FROM AN ANALYSIS OF INDUSTRIAL
WORKING-CLASS EXPENDITURES 1937-8

Mean Saturation
expenditure expenditure Elasticity at
by sample (per person Cheapness mean value
(per person per week) coefficient of total
Commodity per week) K (Xt expenditure

d. d. 10-I X
Farinaceous food ·. 18.6 23. 8 ( 0·4) 0. 827 (0.033) 0.30
Dairy produce .· 24.6 35. 2 ( 0·5) 0.624 (0.0 19) 0.4 2
Vegetables · . ·. 8·5 13.8 ( 0·3) 0.49 I (0.020) 0·54
All food ·
. ·. 118.1 201.8 ( 1.7) 0.445 (0.004) 0·59
Meat · . ·. ·. 27·9 48.9 ( 0·9) 0.429 (0.0 13) . 0.61
Fuel ·. · . ·. 22.1 45·4 ( 1.4) 0.33 6 (0.017) 0·75
Fish ·. ·. ·. 4·9 10.2 ( 0·4) 0.329 (0.020) 0·77
Rent ·. ·. .· 38.6 92.6 ( 0·4) 0.277 (0.003) 0.88
Clothing ·
. ·. 22·7 55·5 ( 3·7) 0.270 (0.022) 0.89
Fruit ·. ·. ·. 6·7 18.8 ( 0.8) 0.233 (0.012) 1.00
All other expenditure .. 81.0 398.4 ( 28.0) 0.140 (0.008) 1.38
Durables ·. ·. 35. 2 4763 (4 19 ) 0.023 (0.001) 2.90

t The units of a are those appropriate to the measurement of total expenditure in pence per person
per week.

Table I contains the main results of the analysis and a graphical representation is
given in Fig. 3. The commodity groups have been ordered by descending value of the
parameter (x, with the consequence that the most income-inelastic item, farinaceous
foods, occurs first, and the most elastic item, household durables, occurs last in the list.
On the figure the horizontal scales are total expenditure per person, and are the same
for each individual figure; the vertical scales, which represent expenditure per person
on the individual commodity groups, have been chosen so that the saturation ex-
penditure coincides with the top of each individual figure, with the exception of house-
hold durables, where one-tenth only of the vertical axis is shown. For convenience of
interpretation we have marked, by the figure 0.5, on the vertical scale the point
corresponding to an expenditure equal to one-half the saturation expenditure (the
income elasticity is approximately 0.8 at this point). Again the exception is household
durables, where the figure marked is 0.05, or one-twentieth of the saturation expenditure
(corresponding to an elasticity of 2. I ).
It may be appropriate to remark here, as Prais [10] did earlier, that the elasticity
measure is extremely sensitive to. the form of curve assumed. The point seems of
 A SYNTHESIS OF ENGEL CURVE THEORY

5"

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FARINACeou~ FOODO OAIRY PROJlUCE VEGETABLES

'5 I / 5

ALL FOOD M£AT ':UEL

.:
/
'5 5

FllSH CLOTHING

FRUIT
-: ALL OT~ER EXPENDITURE HOUSE~Ot..D OURABLES

..
5 /
5 05
} 05

....... - /
150 .[100 £150 /50 £100 £150 Iso £100 1150

( PM"' ptt1<m- P. 0... )

Fig. 3.
Engel curves for twelve commodity groups. Industrial working class budgets 1937-8.

sufficient importance to illustrate with an enlarged diagram, given in Fig. 4, of one

of our commodity groups, dairy produce, in which we show three fitted forms of Engel
curve, the double-logarithmic (constant elasticity), the semi-logarithmic, and the curve
of model (8).
All three curves lie close to the majority of observed points, though the curve of
model (8), as is obvious from inspection, is consistently the best. The variation in
 THE REVIEW OF ECONOMIC 'STUDIES
Pet\.C.C;.,pc-r
('fIdCtft. pu- wult.

10_--------------~...--_.

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,i
• • -J
.'
,',
r,
--,
../ ,'
....)'
;/
:,.>'
.'/
zo ;1

1ft
I:
/
I'
-,'. .'

ii'
t .
IO~ i.
..
,, ,
'

.-

~
MODEL 8
::
,.,
r :
;
SEMI -LOGARITHMIC

/. .
l

DOUBLE -LOGARITHMIC

o 250 500 750 100u

TOTAL EXPENDITUKE
(I'e.t\C£ pu rtHO\'\. po- ~)

Fig, 4.
Expenditure on dairy produce.

elasticities over the observed range of incomes is considerable, as is shown in the

following table.
Elasticity
At lowest income At mean income At highestincome
DOll ble-Iogarithmic .5 1 .5 1 .5 1
Semi-logarithmic ·77 ,45 ·34
Model (8) ·97 .42 .17
 A SYNTHESIS OF ENGEL CURVE THEORY 43
The concept of elasticity is therefore to be used with extreme care: for many purposes
it may be preferable to work explicitly with one of the above forms rather than with
any derivative measures.

IV. SUGGESTED EXTENSIONS OF THE ANALYSIS

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We tum now to a more general discussion of the implication of our system of
Engel curves. First, the system of curves described by (8) is not additive: that is,
the sum of expenditures predicted by the individual curves is not identically equal to
total expenditure, at least if the curves are fitted with the assumption of independent
errors which we have used. The calculation of the differences, however, confirms the
impression to be gained from Fig. 3, namely that these are of a very small order, in
most cases below 1 per cent of total expenditure. Thus it would be very difficult if
not impossible to distinguish between the present system and one which included the
additional restraint of additivity, since the discrepancies are within the errors of the
estimates. Secondly, in our discussion we have not so far taken account of inferior
goods; that is, those possessing a negative income elasticity. If the good is inferior
over the whole range of income, it may be analysed with the use of equation (2), in
which case the numerical value of ~ will be negative. But it must be admitted that our
system of curves cannot easily be adapted to the case of a commodity which, whilst in
the lower ranges of income it behaves like a necessity or even a luxury, is treated by
the very rich as an inferior good. This phenomenon is considered by Wold [16, p. 276J
though the interpretation of the examples' he gives is not unambiguous.
Model (8) may be transformed for the investigation of market data (aggregated
over consumers) by means of a suitable assumption about the distribution of consumers'
incomes. Elsewhere [IJ the writers have put forward arguments for using the lognormal
distribution in such a context, and its application here is particularly simple. For if
incomes are distributed lognormally with parameters fl and 0'2, the distribution function
being written A(ylfl,0'2), the total quantity demanded by the community is given by

q* = f
KA (ay) ~ (ylfl"a 2) dy
= KA (al-ft, I+a 2) (9)
Before investigating market data of this type we must make provision for the
effect of prices, both of the commodity itself, and of possible substitutes and comple-
ments. It is tempting to suggest that prices enter the model analogously to income:

31 3n )
q = KA ( a'yp'Y PI , ,Pn (10)
where P is the price of the commodity and Pt, pn are the prices of the n
remaining commodities in the system. With this formulation the Engel curve is a
cross-section of the demand surface at a given constellation of prices, and the saturation
parameter K is independent of prices and incomes. When aggregated over the community
this yields :
s, I
31
q* = KA ( a'p'Ypl Pn - ft' I +a)
2
(II)
The most convenient method of applying this aggregated form is to estimate K from
budget data, fl and 0'2 from a time series of income distributions, and then, with the
44 THE REVIEW OF ECONOMIC STUDIES

pro bit transformation, to estimate the price parameters y and 81 •••••• an from the
linear relation:

(I + as)l { Probit (~') -,. } = log a' + y log P + 8

1 log Pi + ... + 8"logp,. .. (I2)
Work on these lines is now being undertaken; though the assumption that I< is
independent of prices may be assailed on theoretical grounds and may not be justified
for wide price variations. The question can be decided only with empirical tests, of

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which the most important will be the study of Engel curves for different periods.
Without such further experimental work it seems idle to do more than sketch a
possible theory of the factors influencing the value of saturation expenditures. These
factors will include most of those which are usually classed as sociological or taste
factors. In particular those taste factors associated with the age-sex composition of
households are of great importance. Some preliminary analysis of data on post-war
food consumption suggests, as is to be expected, that the value of I< differs according
to the size and composition of the household. On the basis of a separation between those
effects of composition which are specific to the commodity and those which affect the
standard of living as a whole, the obvious formulation is
qi = El<ij nj A (y IE aj nj) •••••••••.••••.....•••.•••••.•.••• (13)
where qi is the household expenditure on, or consumption of, the i tk commodity, y is
the household income, nj the number of individuals of the j'tk category in the household,
and I<ij and fXj coefficients corresponding to the specific and income effects respectively.
This formulation is particularly attractive in that it allows, in principle, for the separate
estimation of the coefficients I<ij and rxj, by comparing Engel curves for groups of
families of constant composition.
Recently, demand analysts have been devoting more attention to those factors
which influence consumption but are not included in the classical categories of
economics. In particular, attention has been paid to the possibility of rigidities in
consumer behaviour, as evidenced by the irreversibility of demand functions through
time [5], the influence of previous peaks in the level of consumption [9]. and, recently,
the concept of a set of expenditures to which the consumer is committed before he can
make any free purchasing decisions [13]. The present paper and the ideas it contains
are put forward as a contribution to this line of thought.

CONCLUSIONS
The following are the main conclusions of the paper.
(i) The idea of a saturation level of expenditure on a commodity leads to
the concept of a sigmoid Engel curve; the form of curve adopted implies that a
typical commodity behaves as a luxury at low incomes and as a necessity at high
incomes.
(ii) An analogy may usefully be drawn between such Engel curves and the
sigmoid response curves used by biologists to describe the effects of measurable
stimuli on the behaviour of living organisms.
(iii) A specific mathematical form for the curve, based on the cumulative form
of the normal curve of error, is suggested in equation (I) and a simplified form in
equation (8). Efficient procedures are available for estimating the parameters.
(iv) A very satisfactory fit was obtained when the simplified curve was used
to analyse working-class expenditures for 1937-8.
(v) The two parameters I< and rx of the simplified curve are referred to as the
parameters of saturation and of cheapness; this interpretation arises from the
 A SYNTHESIS OF ENGEL CURVE THEORY 45
simple way in which K and lX influence the scales of the amount consumed q, and
the consumer's income y, respectively. For the same reason, comparison of the
K and lX obtained for households of varying composition enables us to separate the
effect of household composition on the demand for the individual commodity
from its influence on the general standard of living of the household.
(vi) The further assumption of a lognormal distribution of consumers'
incomes facilitates the extension of the analysis to market data; it is suggested

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that cross-section studies should be used in conjunction with this data, especially
in investigations of possible changes in saturation levels.
Cambridge J. AITCHISON.
J. A. C. BROWN.

APPENDIX: METHOD OF ESTIMATING THE SIGMOID ENGEL CURVE

UNDER THE HYPOTHESIS ~ = I
This Appendix describes in outline the method used in fitting the simplified
form of curve (8).

Tables of Z (x) = ~ /1 e -IX! and P (x) = Jx Z (t) dt are required for the com-
v 211 -00

putational method detailed below. For given x, Z(x) is obtained directly from Table II
and P(x) by inverse use of Table IX of [8J; the value of x corresponding to a given
P(x) is obtained directly from Table IX.
The computation proceeds as follows.
(i) From the appearance of the original expenditure data, grouped according
to the income variable y, make a guess KO at the value of the saturation parameter K.
(ii) Express the grouped average expenditures as proportions p = CL of the
KO
estimated saturation expenditure.
(iii) Use Table IX to obtain x corresponding to each p = P(x).
(iv) Plot each x against the corresponding u = logeY. Any systematic
curvature in the array of plotted points is an indication that KO is either too large
or too small. After correction for any curvature fit a straight line, say x = (}o + u,
with unit slope and determine (}o; 1Xo, the initial guess at the cheapness parameter lX,
is then given by (Xo = eOo.
(v) For each given value of u, determine the predicted value of x from the
fitted line x = (}o + u and obtain Z(x) and P(x) from Tables II and IX respectively.
(vi) Calculate the sums EnZ 2, EnZP, EnP2, EnZ (P-P) and EnP (P-P) over
all income groups, where n is the number of observations in each income group.
(vii) Obtain the new approximations KI and (}l (and hence (Xl) by solving
the equations
EnP2 EnPZ --I ,-- KI - K O -- = - EnZ (P-P) --
KO •••••••••••••••• (AI)
2
EnPZ EnZ _II _ (}l -
I
(}o EnP (P-P)
(viii) If necessary, use the new approximations to inaugurate a new cycle of
calculations from step (v) until a satisfactory degree of convergence is attained,
say at the m th stage.
 THE REVIEW OF ECONOMIC STUDIES

(ix) Estimate the residual variance s2 either from the weighted sum of squared
deviations En(q-KmP)2 or from the pooled sums of squared deviations of the
individual observations of consumption from their income group means.
(x) The covariance matrix of Km and 8m is then S2 times the inverse matrix
of coefficients on the left-hand side of (AI).
Graphical evidence that the slope of the relation between x and u differs from
unity indicates that the value of ~ should be estimated along with K and Qt. The

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reader is referred in this case to Finney [7, znd edition, pp. 185--97]. Evidence
that the variance of q increases proportionately with the square of q suggests
that equation (5) with a multiplicative error term would be more appropriate.
For the method of estimation in this case the reader is referred to Aitchison and
Brown [2].

REFERENCES
[1] J. Aitchison and J. A. C. Brown, "On Criteria for the Description of Income Distribution,"
Metroeconomica, 1954, to be published.
[2] J. Aitchison and J. A. C. Brown, " An Estimation Problem in Quantitative Assay," to be published
in Biometrika, 41, December 1954.
[3] R. G. D. Allen and A. L. Bowley, Family Expenditure, Staples Press Limited, 1935.
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