Papers and reports

After the publication of the volume of statistics of the data derived from the Continuous Mortality Investigation 1924—29, experiments were made by the author in fitting the curves developed by Perks in 1931 (J.I.A. 63) to various sections of the data. The experiments were later extended to include the data for the Light and Heavy tables and the experience for the period 1924—38.

The author’s hope is that the details of developments included in this paper and the discussion thereon will provide an up-to-date picture of the business which will be of value to students, and that the purely personal ideas put forward with regard to the bases on which it is transacted will promote discussion which will at least assist in crystallizing thought with regard to the lines on which investigation of the mortality experience of group business should proceed.

As an organization increases in size, so must its management increasingly depend on statistical measurement of performance and statistical presentation of fact. The nature and range of the statistics will be governed largely by the functions of the organization concerned but, if the staff is of more than modest size, personnel statistics will certainly be among them.