Arthur L Bowley : a pioneer in modern statistics and economics

Arthur Lyon Bowley, the founding father of modern statistics, was an important and colorful figure and a leader in cementing the foundations of statistical methodology, including survey methodology, and of the applications of statistics to economical and social issues during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In many respects, he was ahead of his time.The giants in this field around that time were largely concentrated in the British Isles and Scandinavian countries; among these contributors, Arthur Bowley was one of the most active in revolutionizing statistical methodology and its economic applications. However, Bowley has been vastly undervalued by subsequent commentators -- while hundreds of articles and books have been written on Karl Pearson, those on Arthur Bowley amount to a dozen or less. This book seeks to remedy this and fill in an important omission in the monographical literature on the history of statistics. In particular, the recent resurgence of interest in poverty research has led to a renewed interest in Bowley's legacy.

Preface	p. vii
Acknowledgements	p. xi
1 Biography	p. 1
1.1 Introduction	p. 1
1.2 Education	p. 3
1.3 Early career, family & friends	p. 12
1.4 Later career	p. 17
1.5 Professional activities	p. 24
1.6 Retirement	p. 27
2 Social Statistics	p. 29
2.1 Introduction	p. 29
2.2 Livelihood and Poverty	p. 30
2.3 Measurement of Social Phenomena	p. 35
2.4 Has Poverty Diminished?	p. 46
2.5 New Survey of London Life and Labour	p. 48
2.6 Consequences of the Great War	p. 61
2.7 Aspects of population tendency	p. 70
3 National and Official Statistics	p. 73
3.1 Introduction	p. 73
3.2 Early papers	p. 73
3.3 Statistical Studies relating to National Progress	p. 84
3.4 Official Statistics	p. 96
3.5 National Income	p. 104
4 Wages and Incomes	p. 123
4.1 Introduction	p. 123
4.2 Early Papers	p. 123
4.3 Wages in the United Kingdom	p. 133
4.4 Prices and Wages, 1914-1920	p. 141
4.5 Wages and Income since 1860	p. 149
4.6 RSS presidential address	p. 163
5 Miscellaneous Books	p. 169
5.1 Introduction	p. 169
5.2 England's Foreign Trade	p. 169
5.3 British Trade in Wartime	p. 182
5.4 The Third Winter of Unemployment	p. 184
5.5 Is Unemployment Inevitable?	p. 194
5.6 Economic Census of India	p. 203
6 Statistical Papers	p. 213
6.1 Introduction	p. 213
6.2 Averages	p. 214
6.3 On goodness-of-fit	p. 221
6.4 The double median	p. 225
6.5 Inference from sample to population	p. 230
6.6 Statistics in economics	p. 235
7 Statistical Books	p. 239
7.1 Introduction	p. 239
7.2 Elements of Statistics	p. 239
7.3 Groups and Series	p. 272
7.4 An Elementary Manual of Statistics	p. 283
8 Index Numbers	p. 295
8.1 Introduction	p. 295
8.2 Papers on index numbers	p. 296
8.3 Other indices	p. 317
9 Sampling	p. 323
9.1 Introduction	p. 323
9.2 Representative Sampling	p. 324
9.3 Bowley's memorandum on sampling	p. 326
9.4 The application of sampling	p. 345
10 Economics	p. 351
10.1 Introduction	p. 351
10.2 Economic statistics	p. 351
10.3 Mathematical Groundwork	p. 357
11 Mathematics	p. 385
11.1 Introduction	p. 385
11.2 Kinetic energy	p. 386
11.3 Mathematics in statistics	p. 387
11.4 Pure Mathematics	p. 389
12 Miscellaneous	p. 401
12.1 Introduction	p. 401
12.2 Obituaries and Reviews	p. 401
12.3 Demography	p. 405
12.4 The Economic Service	p. 413
12.5 The Dock Labour Inquiry	p. 414
12.6 International Housing Statistics	p. 415
Notes	p. 417
Bibliography	p. 467
Index	p. 517

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