INFLATION AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF PRICE CHANGES ACROSS MARKETS: A CAUSAL ANALYSIS

Recent advances in time series methodology are applied to the investigation of causal relationships between monthly changes in the consumer price index and changes in its dispersion across different consumption categories. This dispersion is associated with the degree to which relative prices are changing. Past inflation rates seem useful in forecasting changes in relative prices, but not vice-versa; there is also a significant contemporaneous correlation between these series. Hence, it is concluded that fluctuations in the inflation rate help cause fluctuations in relative prices, but not vice-versa unless the entire effect occurs within a month. The analysis also serves to illustrate a new way to implement the Granger causality concept.     

A survey of ethnographic approaches to the Eastern Cree-Montagnais-Naskapi

Professional ethnographers selected on the basis of extensive field research and publication are described in terms of the duration of their fieldwork, their ethnographic orientation, language competence, and bibliography. While the orientation to fieldwork and to analytical writing has changed since 1908, the change has not led to integrative theoretical work. Some of the basic, hard questions for anthropologists are at stake, and the materials described here are only a beginning.     

THE HARVESTING DECISION WHENA STANDING FOREST HAS VALUEA

This paper analyzes the optimal harvest age of a forest if the forest provides a flow of valuable services while standing in addition to the value of the timber when it is harvested. A basic conclusion is that the presence of recreational or other services provided by a standing forest may well have an important impact on when or whether to harvest.