Het koeliebudgetonderzoek op Java in 1939-40

The book is an elaborate report on earnings and expenses of labourers on plantations in Java. The purpose of this study, promoted by the government of the former Netherlands East Indies, was to examine how the coolie families lived and to find criteria to assess wages in the particular communities. Various groups of labourers showed a typical spending pattern. Huizenga analysed the changes in spending caused by an increase in income for a great number of expenses. Special attention was paid to the consumption of food. A line was drawn below which nourishment was considered inadequate. To improve nutrition, standard budgets were drafted. As a limit, at which essential needs were supplied, the income level was choosen at which energy value of the diet increased no more with increase in income. The same limit was found if the income level was taken where the income elasticities of the various spending categories began to deviate from the value one.