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Newmarch, Cairnes and Jevons on the Gold Question and Statistics
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 June 2009
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Statistical inferences have long been part of economic inquiry. But how were such inferences made and what logic was employed for them, in particular before the procedures called econometrics were developed? This question is raised in the present paper in relation to the discovery of gold in California in 1848 and in Australia in 1851. Different opinions were soon advanced on whether prices had risen as a result, and statistical inferences were often part of the arguments. I examine the arguments of three economists, William Newmarch (1820–82), John E. Cairnes (1823–75) and W. Stanley Jevons (1835–82), who all wrote about the gold question on several occasions.
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