Statistisches Handbuch der Weltwirtschaft [Rezension]

Helene Lieser, Statistisches Handbuch der Weltwirtschaft [Rezension] (1936)

Helene Lieser’s short review assesses the statistical handbook compiled by the Statistisches Reichsamt as a practical instrument for economic orientation. Its coverage extends to 80 countries, principally for 1920–1933, sometimes 1934, with 1913 figures where available to support prewar comparisons. Her opening judgment stresses the achievement of organization:

Ein ungeheures statistisches Material ist hier in übersichtlicher Weise zusammengestellt worden.

English translation: An immense body of statistical material has been assembled here in a clearly organized form.

The review moves from coverage to the limits of comparison. Apparently similar statistical series can describe differently defined objects or employ different collection methods. Lieser notes the handbook’s explicit warning against mechanical comparisons: uniform subject arrangements and conversion to metric units facilitate comparison without eliminating these underlying differences.

She then describes its global overviews of mining, industrial and primary production, foreign trade, and unemployment. The handbook’s value rests less on publishing new material than on bringing together sources that practitioners cannot readily access. Organization is thus part of its substantive usefulness, not merely a presentational convenience:

Außerdem erleichtert die Gruppierung und Anordnung die Benützung auch für den Nichtstatistiker.

English translation: Moreover, the grouping and arrangement make it easier for the non-statistician, too, to use.

Lieser’s endorsement joins methodological caution to practical accessibility: the handbook offers an indispensable aid to economic understanding, provided its orderly tables are not mistaken for guarantees of statistical comparability.