Step 1: The Marshall-Edgeworth index number formula is \[ P_{01} = \frac{\sum p_1 (q_0 + q_1)}{\sum p_0 (q_0 + q_1)} \times 100 \]
Step 2: Here the weight attached to each commodity is \( (q_0 + q_1) \), the sum of its base year quantity \(q_0\) and its current year quantity \(q_1\), rather than either quantity alone.
Step 3: This is designed to remove the one sided bias of Laspeyre's (only \(q_0\)) and Paasche's (only \(q_1\)) formulas by averaging the quantity weights from both periods.
Step 4: So Marshall-Edgeworth's index uses quantities of both the base year and the current year as weights.