CHARLES WOLF, JR. AND SIDNEY C. SUFRIN. Capital Formation and Foreign Investment in Underdeveloped Areas. Pp. viii, 134. Syracuse, N. Y.: University of Syracuse Press, 1955. $3.00

• Published date: 01 March 1956
• Date: 01 March 1956
• DOI: 10.1177/000271625630400133
• Author: Helen B. Lamb
• Subject Matter: Articles

157

on

constitutional

law

in

which

case

books

form

the

primary

text.

CHARLES

G.

FENWICK

Pan

American

Union

Washington,

D.

C.

ECONOMICS

AND

INDUSTRY

J.

FREDERIC

DEWHURST,

and

Associates.

America’s

Needs

and

Resources:

A

New

Survey.

Pp.

xxix,

1,148.

New

York:

Twentieth

Century

Fund,

1955.

$10.00.

This

impressive

volume

is

a

comprehen-

sive

examination

of

the

quantitative

record

of

the

American

economy.

It

is

a

revised

and

enlarged

version

of

a

study

that

origi-

nally

appeared

in

1947.

Past

and

prospec-

tive

growth

in

population,

output,

income,

savings,

investment,

and

consumers

expen-

ditures

are

studied

in

the

aggregate

and

in

various

degrees

of

detail.

Some

figures

are

traced

back

to

1850,

but

the

bulk

of

the

volume

is

based

on

data

accumulated

since

the

turn

of

the

century.

In

many

instances

the

Survey

performs

a

major

service

for

lay

and

professional

readers

alike

by

de-

veloping

consistent

long-term

series

from

diverse

sets

of

data

pertaining

to

different

time

periods.

This

is

done,

for

example,

for

the

data

on

consumers

expenditures.

Official

time

series

on

the

composition

of

consumers

expenditures

are

available

only

since

1929;

the

Survey

carries

the

story

back

to

1909.

The

first

section

of

the

volume

is

de-

voted

to

the

description

of

basic

trends

and

their

projection

to

1960.

The

next

part

is

given

over

to

a

study

of

consumption

re-

quirements

with

separate

chapters

for

food,

clothing,

housing,

and

so

forth.

Other

major

sections

deal

with

capital

require-

ments,

government

and

foreign

transac-

tions,

and

resources

and

capacity.

Finally,

there

is

a

summary

chapter

which,

like

most

of

the

material

in

the

first

section,

was

prepared

by

Dr.

Dewhurst.

The

other

chapters

were

written

by

a

group

of

twenty-five

specialists,

many

of

whom

are

widely

recognized

authorities

in

their

fields.

The

findings

of

the

Survey

document

the

remarkable

growth

of

almost

every

facet

of

the

American

economy.

In

the

century

following

1850,

the

population

as

reported

by

the

census

increased

by

about

six

and

one-half

fold.

Despite

a

halving

of

the

work

week,

national

income

(in

1950

prices)

was

twenty-five

times

higher

at

the

end

than

at

the

beginning

of

the

100

year

period.

The

difference

between

the

growth

in

population

and

in

real

income

reflects,

of

course,

the

enormous

increase

in

pro-

ductivity.

Output

per

manhour

has

in-

creased

at

rates

that

have

varied

widely,

but

the

average

has

been

around

18

per

cent

per

decade.

Interestingly

enough,

the

growth

in

productivity

was

greater

in

the

second

than

in

the

first

fifty

years;

from

1850

to

1900

output

per

manhour

little

more

than

doubled,

while

from

1900

to

1950

it

nearly

trebled.

The

major

upsurge

in

the

recent

past

has,

of

course,

been

as-

sociated

with

World

War

II

and

the

years

of

the

cold

war

which

followed.

Indeed,

almost

any

extrapolation

of

past

trends

into

the

future

must

be

based

on

some

decision

about

the

relative

signifi-

cance

of

this

period

of

war

and

defense-

aided

prosperity

and

the

preceding

period

of

deep

depression.

The

Survey,

perhaps

properly,

takes

a

moderately

optimistic

po-

sition

on

this

point.

Of

its

three

projec-

tions

of

gross

national

product

for

1960,

each

based

on

a

different

set

of

assump-

tions,

the

middle

one

indicates

a

29

per

cent

increase.

The

actual

increase

in

the

first

4

years

of

the

decade

has

been

17

per

cent.

IRVING

B.

KRAVIS

University

of

Pennsylvania

CHARLES

WOLF,

JR.

AND

SIDNEY

C.

SUFRIN.

Capital

Formation

and

Foreign

Invest-

ment

in

Underdeveloped

Areas.

Pp.

viii,

134.

Syracuse,

N.

Y.:

University

of

Syracuse

Press,

1955.

$3.00.

This

report

growing

out

of

a

study

sup-

ported

by

the

Ford

Foundation

analyzes

current

literature

and

research

dealing

with

the

problem

of

capital

formation

in

under-

developed

areas.

It

also

discusses

at

some

length

future

research

needs

and

program

possibilities.

Special

emphasis

is

put

on

the

problems

of

South

and

Southeast

Asia

and

the

Near

East.

The

short

text

(sixty-

six

pages)

is

concerned

with

three

aspects

of

the

development

problem-&dquo;Entrepre-

neurship

and

the

Demand

for

Capital,&dquo;