The economic census is the major source of facts about the structure and functioning of the nation's economy. It provides essential information for government, business, industry, and the general public. Title 13 of the United States Code (Sections 131, 191, and 224) directs the Census Bureau to take the economic census every 5 years, covering…

The author offers a perspective of recurring technological trends and their application to training and education. These trends include (1) integrated technologies, (2) rich, multipurpose communications and information, (3) growing emphasis on the human interface, and (4) rapidly decreasing costs. (CT)

The use of cost indexes is encouraged as a method of controlling cost and aiding planning. The use of analysis of variance is encouraged as a method of controlling cost standards. (MSE)

Efforts of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst illustrate the use of cost information in decision-making. The Instructional Cost Index can be used to determine the unit costs of instruction and, combined with information from an induced course load matrix system, can provide data on the costs of programs. (LBH)

Presents the 1997 U.S. Serials Services Price Index, produced by the Library Materials Price Index Committee of the American Library Association's Association for Library Collections and Technical Services. Finds a 3.9% increase over 1996. Includes eight tables covering U.S. Serial Services, business, general and humanities, law, science and…

Describes the development and use of a policy model and algorithm for allocating continuing education (CE) resources in a large national health system. The algorithm uses a two-factor model, basing facility CE allocations on the amount of CE need and price differences in accessing CE sources. (Author/JOW)

Compares mean 1985 subscription prices and mean cents per thousand characters of scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. Similar comparisons are made for journals published by associations, scholarly organizations, and commercial publishers, and the data from this study are compared with data from a study using 1973…

Examines the behavior of long-run average cost when the firm knows it faces pecuniary economies or diseconomies of scale. Asserts that the central issue is the conditions under which the scale properties of the production function will or will not dominate the pecuniary effects of changing input prices. (CFR)

Higher education has increasingly become critical to the nation's cultural, social, and economic well-being, with 90 percent of the fastest-growing jobs in the knowledge economy requiring some postsecondary education. While a college graduate can expect to earn, on average, approximately $1 million more over the course of his or her working life…

Analyzes the use of different measures of sparsity of pupil population and discusses the relationship of pupil population density to the equality of educational programs. Describes in detail development of an index used in Florida to measure the extra cost of providing equal educational opportunity in sparsely settled school districts. (JG)

A comparison of the standard budget with two alternative indexes shows little difference in overall consumption costs. The article examines characteristics and limitations of interarea indexes with particular emphasis on the impact of the varying weight structure of budgets on these indexes. (Author/MW)

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) farm real estate value index is currently constructed with a modified Laspeyres weighted average formula, with the acreage weights changed approximately every 10 years. An analysis of acreage weights from 1974, 1978, and 1982 census data revealed, however, that substantial changes in real estate values…

An Ontario university non-salary price index is presented that attempts to measure the impact of inflation on non-salary expenditure. Using 1970-71 as the base year (in which the index equals 100), the changes in prices of non-salary expenditures for 1976-77 are shown. The non-salary expenditures covered include books and periodicals, furniture…

Summarizes the events of 1974 of interest to sericals librarians. (PF)

The proposed New York State Cost of Education Index would be a statistical measure of the price changes in the goods and services purchased by local districts. Data would be available on a regional basis. Many statistical procedures and theoretical considerations involved in constructing such an index are similar to those used for the Consumer…