1(14 Book Reviews/Comptes Rendus intellectual endeavour or for making public choices, and with no clear evidence of the relation between expenditure and quality of university programs, there appears to be no "right" answer. There is, however, no question that it is the prerogative and responsibility of the Government to determine answers on all such matters of public choice. The question of the appropriate level of financial support for universities ultimately is a political issue. Graham Allison's Essence of Decision which proposes an analysis of decision-making utilizing a synthesis of bureaucratic and political approaches comes to mind as an example of a possibly useful way of understanding these related processes of government's resource allocation decision-making and the financial behaviour of universities. The Skolnick and Rowen study provides, in the Canadian context, a comprehensive foundation upon which to advance our knowledge of higher education financial behaviour. Indeed, the authors' own wide ranging literature survey and discussion of further work thoughtfully provoke philosophical questions about higher education's orientation to society which, as noted in the beginning of this review, could be of value to all those who maintain an interest in the development of higher education. Lee Southern Universities Council of British Columbia Anisef, Paul and Etta Baichman What Jobs Pay: The Complete Guide to Careers and Salaries in Canada Edmonton: Hurtig Publishers, 1984. This is a book pieced together from numerous data sources in an attempt to indicate to the reader an accurate relative wage for a large number of occupations. If you ever wanted to be able to quote what a public health inspector in Grand'Mere makes or what Gary Maddox of the Phillies makes, this is the book to get such useless information. On the other hand, this book does have some very important information about what is expected in different occupations, training required and some useful information regarding salary levels. For instance, there are data on median salaries for clerical and support positions in trust companies, banks, mean salaries for advertising executives by location and size of operation. Coupled with as useful information on incomes of professionals and tradespeople which are also found in this book, the book becomes a reference for student counselling offices in the nation's elementary, secondary, and postsecondary schools. For a student looking at this book to try to decide on a career there are a number of cautionary notes. Although the tables indicate whether data are median, mean, or starting salaries, the reader must be careful not to compare unlike data. 1(14 Book Reviews/Comptes Rendus Secondly, in only a few tables are there indications that there is a wide variation in salaries within an occupation and that just because some do rather well does not mean that most do that well. An example in the book is Table 5-9 where the average salary for real estate salespersons is $6,779 higher than the median indicating that a few salespeople must have very high salaries but the majority lie at the lower end of the range. In many tables this kind of information is not available and consequently the reader ought to be cautioned about interpretation of the data. Although this reviewer is conscious of the difficulties of getting the data, some use could have been made of starting salaries and maximum salaries. For many occupations, the starting salary may be quite high but with no prospect of promotion or increase over a working life the person may be deceived by the starting salary. Also, because of physical capacity required to carry out some occupations, the length of career may be somewhat shortened and consequently lifetime incomes may be less than for an occupation which is less physically demanding, pays less per hour (annum) but can be long lasting. The book appears to be a hodge-podge of many separate smaller studies hastily drawn together. Yet, this reviewer tends to believe that "some" information is better than "no" information and this took has the look of something which will have to be repeated every few years so it is worth the editor's and authors' time to improve the quality of the presentation, perhaps explaining the differences between mean and median and how to interpret data while at the same time trying to improve the quality and availability of data. Because of the nature of the work involved in compiling the data and presenting it, this reviewer is surprised that the publisher proceeded. In Canada, all too often, such data collection is left to Statistics Canada and the project is left in the hands of the government. It is also surprising that the information in this book, including information on occupational training and duties, starting salary, median salary, mean salary and maximum Salary isn't contained in a computerized information bank at Canada Employment Centres and at school counselling offices for that would be more useful than this book. Douglas J. McCready Associate Professor of Economics