ABSTRACT
Dr Salter’s book is an important addition to the distinguished series of Monographs of the Department of Applied Economics, Cambridge. He has examined, theoretically and empirically, using British and American data, the relationships between technical progress and movements in productivity, costs and prices at the industry level. The theoretical sections (Part I) contain an elegant application of neoclassical value theory to this problem. They are simply and lucidly written, and while they throw considerable light on some difficult problems at the moment bedevilling the theory of capital, for example, the measurement of capital in the production function, Salter does not allow these asides to distract him long from the main purpose in hand. The result is an original contribution to economic theory. The empirical sections (Part II) consist of a statistical analysis of changes in productivity, costs, prices, output and employment in selected British and American industries over the period 1923-50. The limitations of the statistical data and results, and the relevance of the results to the models developed in Part I, are clearly brought out. Salter uses, in the main, simple statistical techniques, but in a manner which enables the extraction of as many results as the basic data will allow. The book is addressed primarily to professional economists but is in a form that makes it suitable for use in teaching students.
