The Variability of Industry Profit Rates.

THIS paper provides an analysis of the variability of United Kingdom profit rates grouped by industry for the period 1950-1964. It is the second in a series of studies on the post-war behaviour of profits in the United Kingdom being undertaken by the authors. The first dealt with the relationship between profits and their variability and the size of firms.[1]
Some appreciation of the marked differences in the variability of the aggregate profitability in different industries over time can be gained from Table 1[2]. The column labelled 'total variance' gives the variance about the mean annual profit rate over the period 1950-1964 for each industry. It is apparent that there are marked differences in behaviour between industries, ranging from 0.99 in the Drink industry to 47-49 in the Electrical Engineering and Electrical Goods industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]