ABSTRACT
The data for the induction are derived from some remarkable investigations conducted by Pareto and published by him in his Cours d’économie politique. Statistics of income in a number of countries, principally during the nineteenth century, are brought together. The inference which he appears to draw from them in the Cours d’économie politique contains two parts. He defines diminished inequality among incomes thus: “Incomes can tend towards equality in two quite different ways; that is, either because the larger incomes diminish, or because the smaller incomes increase. The statistics adduced by Pareto do not provide a basis for any counter-argument. For, as a matter of logic, it is plain that, if all the different groups to which his statistics refer possess any common characteristic in addition to the fact that they are all in receipt of income, no general inference about income distribution that is based upon them can be extended to groups not possessing these characteristics.
