----------------- HES POSTING ----------------- Stephen Stigler's elegant History of Statistics is invaluable for economist's use of statistics and probability theory through the turn of the century. Mary Morgan's History of Econometric Ideas covers both 19th and 20th century attempts to explain and predict business cycles. Neither contains much on price indices. For the latter, see Maurice Kendall- "The Early History of Index Numbers" reprinted in Studies in the History of Statistics, Volume II, edited by Kendall and Plackett. Irving Fisher's The Making of Index Numbers (1922) is the seminal work, but you should be aware of Edgeworth's work and his article on the subject in Palgrave's Dictionary as well as Correa Walsh's book cited by Kendall. See also Walsh's article on "Index Numbers" in the Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. Ragnar Frisch had an influential paper in Econometrica proving the impossibility of an ideal index number in Irving Fisher's sense. Recent theoretical work can be found in books by Franklin Fisher & Karl Shell. You should also check the articles in the International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, and the New Palgrave's Dictionary. Hope this helps. Michael P. Lynch Arlington, VA ------------ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]