Abstract
Numeracy is increasingly esteemed in modern societies, and (some cynics might add) literacy is increasingly devalued. The first of these developments can, in principle, only be welcomed. Social, economic and scientific statistics play a vital part in the processes of decision-making, and the work of modern government would be impossible without the collection and use of vast amounts of quantitative data. Problems about the use and misuse of statistics need to be widely studied and understood.
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Notes and References
Sir Geoffrey Vickers, The Art of Judgement (London, 1965) pp. 31–4.
M. H. Cooper and A. J. Colyer (eds), Health Economics (London, 1973).
Charles L. Schultze, The Politics and Economics of Public Spending (Washington D.C.: The Brookings Institution, 1968) p. 91.
M. Blaug (ed.), Economics of Education, 1 (Harmondsworth, 1968), chapters, 5, 7, 11, 13.
G. P. Wibberley, Agriculture and Urban Growth (London, 1959). See also Peters, Cost-Benefit Analysis and Public Expenditure, pp. 38–42.
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© 1975 Peter Self
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Self, P. (1975). The Quest for Quantification. In: Econocrats and the Policy Process. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-86169-9_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-86169-9_4
Publisher Name: Palgrave, London
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