Bargaining and Group Decision Making: Experiments in Bilateral Monopoly

and statistical methods. The present volumes clearly bring out the significance of the various viewpoints that are most relevant to a unified theory of consumption and saving. Though commendable for their content and make-up, these volumes are not entirely free from some minor criticisms. The studies in these volumes, which mostly relate to the urban sector of the United States, give an impression that they were organised mainly to test certain recent hypotheses regarding consumer behaviour. Theirresults are perhaps too tentative and are mainly of academic interest; no attempt appears to have been made to use them for practical purposes such as the prediction of aggregate demand. Moreover, the methods used in these studies are based in most cases on the principle of least squares involving two or more variables and slight modification here and there, and do not seem to contribute significantly to existing statistical methodology. These criticisms, however, are not peculiar to the present studies but are shared by all empirical studies on consumption. For the economists and statisticians interested in the analysis and use of family budgets, these two volumes can give considerable guidance. Advanced students of consumption should find the book equally useful, as it contains a wealth of expository material frequently highlighted by exciting discussions and rejoinders that help to clarify various doubts that are still associated with the present theories of consumer behaviour. Much of the valuable data found in these two volumes could probably lend themselves to further analyses using alternative techniques. But after reading the book one might ask in wonder whether the conclusions found in many places in the book are not too obvious to require such elaborate statistical analysis. Is not, after all, the main objective of all quantitative analysis to verify the truth of the common-place notions and, where feasible, to evaluate the actual magnitudes involved?