ABSTRACT
Six years ago, in a review of the fifth edition of Marshall’s Principles of Economics,1 Professor Pigou said: “The conception of the National Dividend is not an academic toy, but a practical instrument of great power designed for service in the concrete solution of social problems.” This statement accurately defines the purpose, scope, and method of Professor Pigou’s new book.2 Its spirit, like that of Marshall’s great treatise, is one of sane conservatism, tempered by an attitude of open-minded receptivity toward such new proposals as seem to stand the test of careful analysis. Yet the boldness of Professor Pigou’s theoretical analysis and the fact that the practical problems he discusses are suggested, for the most part, by very recent proposals for social reform give to his book a distinctly fresh and unconventional flavor.
