On Automobile Demand: A Reply (original) (raw)

Journal of Marketing, 1958

Abstract

metric investigations of demand for perishable commodities have long been based on what Professor Hans Brems chooses to call "Marshallian static analysis."' These investigations have been highly successful for perishable commodities and not quite so successful for durable goods. What is needed is a dynamic theory of demand. In his attempt to find one, it seems that Brems has disregarded the implications of econometric investigations of demand for perishable commodities. An adequate dynamic theor) of demand can be built on Marshallian analysis. The main advantages of such a formulation2 is that it provides a link between the theory of demand for durables and the theory of demand for perishable commodities. If we follow Brems, we have two theories of demand. One, however, is not only sufficient, but preferable. Stocks and numbers. No question has been raised about Brems' idea that ". . . when a new-car buyer trades in his used car, the latter will replace somebody's still older car which in turn will replace somebody else's still older car, until finally a jalopy is junked." However, this "bumping" has no particular bearing on the questionable procedure which Brems followed in his article; in defining an economically relevant stock variable, Brems added together numbers of cars of different ages. While it is true that four apples plus six pears make ten pieces

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