CH. 8 THE PROPENSITY TO CONSUME : I 103

from ambiguity ”.1 He falls back, therefore, “on theassumption that the allowance for depreciation anddepletion on the books of business firms describescorrectly the volume of consumption of already exist-ing, finished durable goods used by business firms”.On the other hand, he attempts no deduction at all inrespect of houses and other durable commodities in thehands of individuals. His very interesting results forthe United States can be summarised as follows:

(Millions of Dollars)

1925

1926

1927

1928

1929

Gross capital forma-tion (after allowingfor net change inbusiness inventories)

30,706

33,571

31,157

33,934

34,491

Entrepreneurs’ servic-ing, repairs, main-tenance, depreciationand depletion

7,685

8,288

8,223

8,481

9,010

Net capital formation(on Mr. Kuznets’ de-finition)

23,021

25,283

22,934

25,453

25,481

(Millions of Dollars)

1930

1931

1932

2933

Gross capital forma-tion (after allowingfor net change inbusiness inventories)

27,538

18,721

7,780

14,879

Entrepreneurs’ servic-ing, repairs, main-tenance, depreciationand depletion

8,502

7,623

6,543

8,204

Net capital formation(on Mr. Kuznets’ de-finition)

19,036

11,098

1,237

6,675

1 These references are taken from a Bulletin (No. 52) of the NationalBureau of Economic Research, giving preliminary results of Mr. Kuznets’forthcoming book.