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Exam Questions Johns Hopkins Suggested Reading Syllabus Undergraduate

John Hopkins. Economic Fluctuations and Fiscal Policy. Course outline, reading list, exams. Domar, 1956

Evsey Domar turned 42 years old towards the end of the Spring term of 1955-56 when he taught his intermediate fiscal policy course to Johns Hopkins’ undergraduates. From his papers at Duke’s Economists’ Papers Archive we can bring together the tightly focussed reading list, two midterm exams, and the final exam for Political Economy 4. 

One notes that the actual dates of the mid-term exams were lagged one week relative to the announced dates in the syllabus. Happens to the best of us. I wonder if students still (ever?) read the syllabus back in the middle of the 20th century. 

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Course Announcement

Political Economy
Specialized intermediate work

Economic Fluctuations and Fiscal Policy 4. Professor Domar. Three hours weekly, second term.

The nature and causes of economic fluctuations. The economic role of government. Principal policy measures designed to achieve economic stability.

Prerequisite: Political Economy 3, or its equivalent.

Source: Johns Hopkins University. Undergraduate Programs, Announcements of Courses 1955-1956 in Circular 1955-1956. New Series 1955, Number 8, p. 102.

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Course Outline and Readings

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
ECONOMIC FLUCTUATIONS
AND FISCAL POLICY

(Political Economy 4)

E. D. Domar
Spring Term 1955-56

Course Schedule

SOURCES:

On College Reserve:

Colm, Gerhard, Essays in Public Finance and Fiscal Policy, Oxford University Press, New York 1955.

Due, John F., Government Finance—an Economic Analysis, Richard D. Irwin, Inc., Homewood, Ill., 1954.

Gordon, Robert A., Business Fluctuations, Harper & Brothers, New York, 1952.

Lindholm, Richard W., J. J. Balles, J. M. Hunter, Principles of Money and Banking Related to National Income and Fiscal Policy,W. W. Norton & Co., New York, 1954.

Public Finance and Full Employment, published by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Washington, 1945.

Ritter, Lawrence S., Money and Economic Activity, Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1952.

To Be Acquired by the Students:

Maxwell, James A., Fiscal Policy, Henry Holt & Co., New York, 1955.

Economic Report of the President, January 1956.

SCHEDULE:

Week of February 13th:

Maxwell, Ch. 1,
Ritter, pp. 20-36
Lindholm, pp. 17-31.

Week of February 20th:

Ritter, pp. 99-113,
Maxwell, Ch. 2.

Week of February 27th:

Ritter, pp. 120-130,
Lindholm, pp. 330-348

Week of March 5th:

Lindholm, pp. 370-408.

HOUR EXAMINATION: March 12th

Week of March 12th:

Maxwell, Ch. 3, 4 & 5.

Week of March 19th:

Maxwell, Ch. 6, 7, & 8,
Federal Reserve, pp. 1-21,
Colm, pp. 188-219.

Week of March 26th:

Maxwell, Ch. 9, 10, & 11,
Colm, pp. 258-286.

Week of April 2nd:

Maxwell, Ch. 12 & 13,
Federal Reserve, pp. 22-52,
Review – Due, pp. 29-61, 427-39.

Week of April 9th:

Maxwell, Ch. 14 & 15.

HOUR EXAMINATION: April 16th

Week of April 16th:

Federal Reserve, pp. 53-68, 101-130.

Week of April 23rd:

Review – Gordon, Ch. 13 & 14, and pp. 559-74.

Week of April 30th:

Gordon, Ch. 16, 17 & 18.

Week of May 7th:

Economic Report of the President

Week of May 14th:

Economic Report of the President

Week of 21st:

General Review of the Course

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Papers of Evsey Domar. Box 15, Folder “MacroEconomics, Old Reading Lists”.

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First Hour Test

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Economic Fluctuations and Fiscal Policy
(Political Economy 4)
Spring Term 1955-56

March 19, 1956

E.D. Domar

Answer all questions in any order you wish. Indicate carefully every step in your reasoning.

  1. (40%) Write a comprehensive essay on the subject of “Central Bank Monetary Policy” with special reference to our Federal Reserve System. Your essay should include the following points:
    1. The structure of the Federal Reserve System.
    2. The relation between commercial and Federal Reserve Banks.
    3. Objectives of Federal Reserve Policy.
    4. Powers given to the Federal Reserve System and methods used by it to achieve the objectives indicated in (3) under different economic conditions.
      1. General measures
      2. Selective measures
    5. Evaluate the performance of the Federal Reserve System since its inception.
      How successful has it been in achieving the objectives stated in (3)?
    6. Conclusion: the virtues and defects of Monetary Policy.
  2. (25%) Indicate clearly how DEMAND DEPOSITS, REQUIRED RESERVES, EXISTING RESERVES and EXCESS RESERVES of the commercial member banks taken as a whole are affected by the following transactions.
    Assume that all payments are made by check, that the member banks add all receipts to, and subtract all amounts paid out from, their reserves with the Federal Reserve Banks, and that the U.S. Treasury keeps all its funds with the Federal Reserve Banks:
  3. 25% Legal requirements are 15 per cent.
  4. When a transaction consists of several parts, indicate each part separately and then show the total effect.
    AFTER EACH TRANSACTION GIVE A BRIEF VERBAL ANALYSIS OF ITS ECONOMIC EFFECTS.

    1. The U.S. Treasury collects $15 million of corporate income taxes from the U.S. Steel Corporation and uses the proceeds to redeem a bond held by Mr. Smith who deposits the check with his bank.
    2. Same as (1), but the bond is held by the First National Bank.
    3. Jones borrows $1000 from the First National Bank. After a while he uses the proceeds to meet his payroll. His employees invest their earnings in Federal bonds.
    4. The U.S. Treasury sells bonds for $100 million to the public, and uses the proceeds to buy land for highway construction. The owners of the land deposit their checks at their banks. The Federal Reserve Banks buy $100 million worth of Federal bonds from (a) the public, and (b) commercial banks.
    5. The Federal Reserve Board changes reserve requirements from 20 to 18 per cent. (Assume that the amount of deposits outstanding equals to $100 billion.) Thereupon banks extend loans to their customers of $1 billion.
  5. (35%) Write a comprehensive essay on the subject of “The Identity and Divergence between Private and Social Cost.” Illustrate your discussion with examples. Why is this question important to the subject matter of our course and to economic policy in general. (No credit will be given for vague generalities.)

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Papers of Evsey Domar, Box 16, Folder “Misc. Examinations”.

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Second Hour Exam

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
ECONOMIC FLUCTUATIONS
AND FISCAL POLICY

(Political Economy 4)
Spring Term 1955-56

Hour Examination
April 23, 1956

E.D. Domar

Answer all questions in any order you wish. Indicate carefully every step in your reasoning. No credit will be given for vague generalities.

  1. (15%) Define and describe the following terms or expressions and indicate their use in economic discussions:
    1. The Multiplier;
    2. Parity;
    3. Balanced budget theorem;
    4. Cash vs. conventional budget;
    5. Carryovers and carrybacks;
    6. Income elasticity of taxation;
    7. Regressive taxation;
    8. Payroll taxes;
    9. Grants-in-aid;
    10. Accelerated depreciation.
  1. (20%) Write a comprehensive essay on the subject of “Built-in Flexibility as an Instrument of Fiscal Policy.” Explain what is meant by this expression, how this instrument works, how effective it is likely to be, and what can be done to increase its effectiveness. Give a critical evaluation. Be as comprehensive and specific as you can.
  2. (20%) Write a comprehensive essay on the subject of “The Agricultural Problem in the United States since the Second World War.” Explain the origin and causes of the problem, government policies which have been adopted, and their effectiveness in dealing with the problem. Indicate and justify your own recommendations.
  3. (30%) Analyze with great care all important economic effects of agricultural price support program on the assumption of (1) that the funds for this purpose are raised by borrowing, and (2) that they are raised by taxation, in both cases under conditions of (a) unemployment, and (b) full employment. Indicate in all cases what kind of borrowing and what kind of taxation you have in mind. Give examples. When would you recommend one or the other method?
  4. (15%) “The main objective of the Federal policy should be not the balancing of the Federal budget, but of the national economic budget.” Comment.

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Papers of Evsey Domar, Box 16, Folder “Misc. Examinations”.

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Final Exam

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
ECONOMIC FLUCTUATIONS
AND FISCAL POLICY

(Political Economy 4)

FINAL EXAMINATION – Three hours
June 1, 1956

E. D. Domar

Answer all questions. Be specific.

  1. (25%) Compare and contrast monetary and fiscal policies as methods of achieving economic stabilization (reasonably full employment without inflation) in a growing society. Include (but don’t limit yourself to) the following points:
    1. The theoretical foundation of each;
    2. Methods used by each;
    3. Effects on distribution of income and wealth;
    4. Social and political effects;
    5. Their effectiveness and limitations.

Do they overlap? Can you work out a synthesis of both?

  1. (10%) Describe how business fluctuations spread internationally and discuss critically the various measures for insuring international stability that have been suggested.
  2. (15%) Suppose that sizable gold deposits were discovered in this country (a) in 1933 and (b) in 1955. Trace the economic effects of the mining of this gold as completely as you can, both on the American economy and on that of other countries.
  3. (20%) Describe the origin, functions and performance of the Council of Economic Advisers from its beginning.
    State and evaluate the basic economic philosophy and the major recommendations of the 1956 Economic Report of the President.
  4. (15%) “One of the first objectives of this Administration should be at least a partial repayment of the Federal Debt. To do otherwise is to undermine the integrity on which this Administration is founded, and to adopt a course which inevitably loads to higher taxes, inflation, the destruction of our national wealth and economic insolvency.” Comment fully.
  5. (15%) Discuss SAVING as an economic problem.

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Papers of Evsey Domar, Box 16, Folder “Misc. Examinations”.

Image source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Papers of Evsey Domar, Box 18, Folder “Photographs Domar”. Copy also available at the MIT Museum website. Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

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Exam Questions Harvard Principles Undergraduate

Harvard. Principles of Economics. Description, Enrollment, Exam Questions. Andrew, Mixter, and Sprague. 1902-1903

Over 500 students enrolled in the introductory course “Outlines of Economics” offered at Harvard in 1902-03. Frank Taussig continued his sick-leave through the academic year 1902-03 which is why his name was listed in the (ex ante) course description from June 1902 but not included in the departmental staffing report to the president (ex post) for 1902-03. 

Artifacts for the same course offered during the academic year 1901-1902 have been posted earlier. It is worth noting that of the three required texts listed below, Hadley’s Economics replaced Walker’s Political Economy (Advanced Course) that had been assigned for the previous year.

Fun Fact: Gilbert Holland Montague, one of the teaching assistants, left economics to become an anti-trust lawyer who quite apparently had the means to collect over 15,000 books and 20,000 pamphlets during his lifetime. He even owned a 14th century copy of the Magna Carta.

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Course Description, 1902-03
Economics 1

Course 1 is introductory to the other courses. It is intended to give a general survey of the subject for those who take but one course in Economics, and also to prepare for the further study of the subject in advanced courses. It is usually taken with most profit by undergraduates in the second or third year of their college career. Students who plan to take it in their first year are strongly advised to consult the instructor in advance. History 1 or Government 1, or both of these courses, will usually be taken to advantage before Economies 1.

[…]

Primarily for Undergraduates

  1. Outlines of Economics. — Lectures on Social Questions and Monetary Legislation. , Th., Sat., at 11. Professor [Frank W.] Taussig, Drs. [Abram Piatt] Andrew, [Oliver Mitchell Wentworth] Sprague, and [Charles Whitney] Mixter, and Messrs. [Gilbert Holland] Montague and [Vanderveer] Custis.

Course 1 gives a general introduction to economic study, and a general view of Economics for those who have not further time to give to the subject. It undertakes a consideration of the principles of production, distribution, exchange, money, banking, and international trade. The relations of labor and capital, the present organization of industry, and the recent currency legislation of the United States, will be treated in outline.

Course 1 will be conducted partly by lectures, partly by oral discussion in sections. A course of reading will be laid down, and weekly written exercises will test the work of students in following systematically and continuously the lectures and the prescribed reading. Large parts of Mill’s Principles of Political Economy, of Hadley’s Economics, and of Dunbar’s Theory and History of Banking will be read; and these books must be procured by all members of the course.

Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Division of History and Political Science [Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics], 1902-03. Published in The University Publications, New Series, no. 55. June 14, 1902.

______________________________ 

Course Enrollment, 1902-03
Economics 1

Primarily for Undergraduates:

Economics 1. Drs. [Abram Piatt] Andrew, [Oliver Mitchell Wentworth] Sprague, and [Charles Whitney] Mixter, and Messrs. [Charles] Beardsley [Jr.], [Vanderveer] Custis, and [Gilbert Holland] Montague. — Outlines of Economics.

Total 514: 2 Gr., 25 Se., 108 Ju., 270 So., 39 Fr., 70 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College, 1902-03, p. 67.

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Mid-year Examination 1903
Economics 1

Omit one question

  1. The population of the United States has increased from 23 millions in 1850 to about 80 millions in 1902 (not including the population of the islands acquired from Spain), and yet the “standard of living” has not fallen. Can you reconcile this with the Malthusian theory?
  2. “Economic rent and net profits are like the producers’ and consumers’ surplus described at the beginning of the chapter in being differential gains. . . .”
    Explain these terms and discuss Hadley’s comparison of profits and rent.
  3. How in your opinion does the use of labor-saving machinery in agriculture affect the value of agricultural produce, and the rent of agricultural land?
  4. What would you suppose to be the effect of immigration upon the production of wealth, upon wages, and upon the value of land in the United States?
  5. A recent Secretary of the Navy, in defending large naval appropriations, wrote as follows: “It is a taking thing to say that $100,000,000 could be better spent for education or charity; and yet, on the other hand, $100,000,000 spent in the employment of labor is the very best use to which it can be put. There is no charity in the interest of the popular welfare or of education so valuable as the employment of labor.”
    Discuss the economic argument implied in this statement.
  6. Should a railroad be compelled to charge the same rate per ton-mile for all goods of equal bulk? Why? or why not?
  7. Suppose that one piano manufacturer buys out all of the other piano manufacturers in the country, can he now sell the former aggregate output of all the factories at an advanced price? Give reasons for your answer.
  8. Explain by the theory of the value of money why prices are high in times of speculation and low when a period of depression sets in.
  9. Could a paper currency depreciate in value, if a government pledged the public lands for its redemption? Give reasons.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Mid-year Examinations 1852-1943. Box 6. Papers (in the bound volume Examination Papers Mid-years 1902-1903).

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Year-end Examination 1903
Economics 1

Omit one question from each group.

I

  1. What is meant by

unearned increment,
marginal utility,
double standard,
rapidity of circulation?

  1. Explain the relation of the law of diminishing returns to rent.
  2. It wages are determined by the productivity of labor, how would you explain the circumstance that labor organizations which impose restrictions upon individual output, have been accompanied by a rise of wages?
  3. What considerations are likely to determine the prices of trust-made commodities?

II

  1. In what ways would the repeal of our tariff duties affect our export trade?
  2. Former Speaker Reed, in an article on Protection, said: “Any system which enables our people to do our own work is a system which can give the best results. . . . The whole nation gets the benefit of it?”
    Discuss this statement.
  3. Give the principal reasons for and against the adoption of the policy of the single tax.
  4. How is the community served by the produce exchanges? by the stock exchanges?

III

  1. (a) What kinds of money are susceptible of increase under existing legislation in the United States? In what way?
    (b) In what way do clearing house loan certificates add to the circulating medium?
    Under what circumstances may they be issued?
  2. Suppose the deposits of the national banks to increase one hundred million dollars, would the position of the banks be rendered stronger thereby?
  3. Are the national banks of the United States unfairly granted the privilege of earning a double profit in respect to their circulation?
  4. In his last annual report, the Secretary of the Treasury writes: “I think a far better course for the present at least would be to provide an elastic currency available in every banking community and sufficient for the needs of that locality. This, I think, can be accomplished . . . . by several methods.”
    Explain some of these methods.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 6. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, History of Religions, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College, June 1903 (in the bound volume Examination Papers 1902-1903).

Image Sources: Abram Piatt Andrew (1920) from Wikimedia Commons. O.M.W. Sprague from Harvard Class Album 1920, p. 25.

 

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Exam Questions Finance Johns Hopkins Statistics Undergraduate

Johns Hopkins. Exam questions for mathematics of finance and applied statistics. Evans, 1937-1938

 

For an earlier post Economics in the Rear-view Mirror transcribed the examination questions for George Heberton Evans’ course on corporation finance offered to Johns Hopkins undergraduates in 1937-1938. That course and the following course on the mathematics of finance and applied statistics were not listed as prerequisites for each other. The essential difference appears to be that the following course appears to have covered themes of interest to actuaries (no pun intended). 

For some background information about Evans, see: Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University, 1925

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Course Description
Mathematics of Finance and Applied Statistics
1937-1938

24 B. Mathematics of Finance and Applied Statistics. Associate Professor Evans. Three hours weekly through the year. F., S., 11.30. Gilman Hall 314.

The first half-year of the course will include the study of annuities, sinking funds, amortization tables, and valuation of bonds.

During the second half-year mathematics and statistical method will be applied to business and economic problems.

Prerequisites: Mathematics 1 C or 2 C and Political Economy 2 C.

Source: The Johns Hopkins University Circular (1937).

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Semester Examinations for
Mathematics of Finance and Applied Statistics

1937-1938

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
MID-YEAR EXAMINATION
POLITICAL ECONOMY 24 B

Dr. Evans

February 4, 1938
1 p.m.

  1. A bond will be redeemed in 10 years for $1,000 cash. Semi-annually the owner of the bond receives $30 interest. Determine the present value of the bond if the current rate on similar investments is 5%.
  2. Find the bank discount on a $10,000 note for 6 months when the bank rate is 7%. What is the effective rate of interest charged!
  3. The XYZ Corporation has outstanding a bond issue of $10,000. It has agreed to pay to a trustee an amount at the end of each year, which invested at 4% will provide a fund to retire these bonds at the end of 10 years. Determine the amount that must be invested each year.
  4. Williams owes $7,500 due in 8 years, and $4,500 due in 5 years, each bearing 4% interest. What two equal payments will liquidate this debt, if the first is made in 1 year, and the second in 3 years? The current rate is 5%.
  5. Repairs costing $350 must be made each 2 years to a building which will last 20 years. Determine the amount that could be spent to eliminate these repairs without additional cost to the owner over the period. Interest at 4%.
  6. An estate left 110 years ago was unclaimed until recently. An heir has proved his claim and is to receive the estate of $50,000 with interest at 3% annually for 110 years. Determine the value of the estate.
  7. X has an obligation of $25,000 which he desires to liquidate by investing $3,500 now and the same sum annually thereafter, at 4½% compounded semi-annually. Determine when the fund should theoretically be large enough to liquidate the debt.
  8. Find the ordinary interest of $450 for 60 days at 8%.
  9. An insurance company agrees to pay you or your estate $2,000 a year for 15 years if you will pay them $23,875.87 cash. The salesman argues that you will get your money back and make a profit of $6,124.13. Determine the rate of interest that you will actually receive.
  10. In order to attract customers the Pacific Savings Bank advertises that it pays 3% compounded monthly. If you deposit $25 a month for 6 years what is the amount you will have accumulated at the end of 6 years?
  11. In how many years will money invested at compound interest double itself at 3%?
  12. In 10 years the bond issue of the Chemico Company will mature. An amount of $30,000 will be needed to retire this issue. The treasurer estimates that $2,300 a year will be available for investment. What rate of interest must be earned to accumulate a fund of $30,000 in 10 years? In answering, make use of the binomial theorem.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
FINAL EXAMINATION
POLITICAL ECONOMY 24 B

June 4, 1938

  1. A bequest of $150,000 was left to A, aged 36. With what life annuity will this provide him?
  2. A, aged 40, gave $75,000 to Blank University with the understanding that after 15 years he receive an equivalent life annuity. What annual amount would he receive?
  3. A party of five men at a soda fountain match coins, agreeing that the odd man is to pay for the drinks: (a) What is the probability that there will be one odd man at the first attempt? (b) What is the probability that there will be no odd man at the first attempt, but that there will be one on the second? (c) What is the probability that there be an odd man at least once in two attempts?
  4. What is the earliest age at which the “odds are against” a man living:
    (a) one year?
    (b) five years?
  5. Using the theoretical method, calculate the purchase price of the following $1000 bond which was bought on May 4, 1928 to yield 4.40%: New England Tel. & Tel. 5’s, due Oct. 1, 1932, with coupon dates of Apr. 1 and Oct. 1.
  6. Dwight Minor paid, at the end of each month, dues of $23.25 on his 31 shares of $100 par value stock in the Garfield Loan and Savings Association. Immediately after his 99th payment the stock matured. What approximate rate, converted monthly, did his association allow him?
  7. B, aged 36, took out a 20-year endowment insurance policy for $50,000 to be paid for in 20 payments. On what net annual premium did the insurance company base its charge?

Source: Johns Hopkins University, Eisenhower Library. Ferdinand Hamburger, Jr. Archives. Department of Political Economy. Curricular Materials. Series 6. Box 2. Folder “Department of Political Economy — Exams, 1936-1940”.

Image Source: Johns Hopkins University, Sheridan Libraries, Graphic and Pictorial Collection. George Heberton Evans at approximately 40 years old. The portrait was colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

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Economic History Exam Questions Johns Hopkins Undergraduate

Johns Hopkins. Exam questions for undergraduate economic history. Broadus Mitchell, 1937-1938

 

Associate Professor Broadus Mitchell taught the standard undergraduate survey course in economic history at Johns Hopkins in 1937-1938. He resigned from Johns Hopkins the following year over the matter of admitting an African American student to the department of political economy (the admission was fought by the Johns Hopkins University administration).

Much more about Mitchell can be found in the 90 page transcript of an oral history interview with him from August 14 and 15, 1977 that can be found in the Southern Oral History Program Collection at the website Documenting the American South at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

It is the regret of my life that at Johns Hopkins University I did not pursue to the bitter end the defense of the proposal to admit a qualified Negro graduate student in the Department of Political Economy. He was Edward S. Lewis, who was the Secretary of the Urban League, of which I had been the first President in Baltimore. He was a graduate, I believe, of the University of Chicago and maybe of the Columbia University School of Social Work; I’ve forgotten. At any rate he was in every way a highly qualified, mature applicant for admission to graduate work. He was a leading black social worker in Maryland, where there’s a large negro population with a much higher incidence of poverty, disease, and so on than the whites. And he had been doing graduate work in economics at the University of Pennsylvania, commuting weekends. He could only get weekends, because he was holding his position as Secretary of the Urban League in Baltimore. And this was unsatisfactory and costly and interrupted and so on, so why shouldn’t he come to Johns Hopkins where we had every facility? … pp. 76-77.

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Course Description
Economic History
1937-1938

12 B. Economic History. Associate Professor Mitchell. Three hours weekly through the year. M., Tu., W., 9.30. Gilman Hall 314.

In the first part of this course a study is made of English economic history, the purpose being to show not only the industrial development of the English people as such but the way in which the economic motive has influence the whole of social life. Particular attention is given to the characteristic forms of economic organization—the manorial system, the guild system, the entrance of capitalism and the causes and consequences of the Industrial Revolution. Special reference is made to those features of English economic history which have influenced industrial life in the United States. The second part of the course is a survey of the economic history of our own country. Here the same effort is made, as in the case of England, to show the bearing of economic considerations on political evolution, especially in the direction of the growing importance of the Federal Government.

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Semester Examinations
Economic History
1937-1938

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
MID-YEAR EXAMINATION
POLITICAL ECONOMY 12 B

Dr. Mitchell

February 1, 1938
9 a.m.

  1. Contrast life in an English manorial village of the 13th century with agricultural life in the United States today.
  2. What were the main causes and consequences of the enclosures movement?
  3. Contrast the conduct of industry and commerce in the towns of England in the Middle Ages with industrial and commercial life in the United States today.
  4. Trace the transition from the guild system through the domestic system to capitalism.
  5. Describe the Industrial Revolution.
  6. Give a brief account of two of the following movements: labor unionism, the factory acts movement, Chartism, socialism, consumers’ co-operation.
  7. What is meant by the economic interpretation of history?
  8. What is the status of the laissez faire theory in the United States today?
  9. Make an argument that mankind would be better off if the inventors of the 18th century never lived.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
FINAL EXAMINATION
IN
POLITICAL ECONOMY 12 B

Dr. Mitchell

May 31, 1938
9 a.m.

  1. What was the economic position of the country at the time the Constitution was formed?
  2. Discuss the “American System”
  3. Give an outline of banking from 1791 to the adoption of the Federal Reserve Act.
  4. Contrast economic conditions in North and South on the eve of the Civil War.
  5. Tell what you can of the growth of large-scale business enterprise and its economic and legislative consequences.
  6. Discuss the protective tariff in America.
  7. Identify briefly: Mathew Carey, Friedrich List, Salmon P. Chase, Nicholas Biddle, James B. Duke, Samuel Slator.
  8. Tell what you know of governmental intervention in economic life during the depression which began in 1929.

Source: Johns Hopkins University, Eisenhower Library. Ferdinand Hamburger, Jr. Archives. Department of Political Economy. Curricular Materials. Series 6. Box 2. Folder “Department of Political Economy — Exams, 1936-1940”.

Image Source:  Broadus Mitchell in his office, ca. 1938. From the Johns Hopkins university graphic and pictorial collection. Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

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Exam Questions Johns Hopkins Undergraduate

Johns Hopkins. Exam questions for undergraduate principles of accounting. Cooper, 1937-1938

In the newspaper account of Howard Earl Cooper’s retirement, the Dean of the Johns Hopkins University Evening College, called him “certainly the Mr. Chips” of the cohort retiring in 1969, i.e. a professor who was loved more by his students than he apparently loved doing research. But he was apparently very much loved by his students and we all know just how fickle the reception of our own research can be. One presumes he left with overwhelming fond professional memories.

But we are here to capture the reality of economics education through the years and Cooper’s exam questions from 1937-38 provide us another archival observation.

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Howard Earl Cooper
Chronology of his life and career

1899. October 17. Born in Canon City, Colorado.

Served in an Army intelligence unit in World War I.

1922-26, 1927-28. Registrar, School of Commerce, Accounts and Finance at the University of Denver.

1923. B.C.S. from the University of Denver

1925. S.B. from the University of Denver.

1927. S.M. in banking from Columbia University.

1927-28. Assistant Professor of Accounting at the University of Denver.

1928. Appointed instructor of accounting at Johns Hopkins University.

1932. Ph.D. in Political Economy from Johns Hopkins. Dissertation: The Application of Standard Costs to Factory Overhead Expenses.

1942. Appointed associate professor of accounting.

1946. Appointed professor of accounting.

1951-1969. Associate Dean of McCoy College (earlier called the Hopkins Evening College and later called the School of Continuing Studies) of Johns Hopkins University.

1985. October 9. Died in Baltimore, Maryland.

Sources:

  • Annual Report of the President for 1931-32, p. 246. Johns Hopkins University Circular (September 1932).
  • Retirement announced in The Baltimore Sun, May 24, 1969, p. 10.
  • Obituary in The Baltimore Sun, November 3, 1985, p. 38.

__________________________

Howard E. Cooper Jr. Memorial Scholarship

Mary Cooper Evans established this fund in 1985 in honor of Dr. Howard E. Cooper Jr., professor emeritus and former associate dean of McCoy College, who taught at Johns Hopkins from 1928 until his retirement in 1964. This fund supports students majoring in business.

__________________________

Course Description
Principles of Accounting
1937-1938

11 B. Principles of Accounting. Dr. Cooper. Three hours weekly, through the year. M., T., F., 2 p.m. Gilman Hall 312.

A study is made of financial statements as the goals of accounting endeavor, of the analysis and recording of business facts in the accounting books and records, and of the methods of opening and closing the books for a single proprietorship, partnership and corporation as well as the use of controlling accounts, and consignment accounts. Many practical problems are assigned to give facility in the handling of accounting records and a ready appreciation of their significance.

Prerequisite: Political Economy 1 C.

__________________________

Semester Examinations
Principles of Accounting
1937-1938

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
MID-YEAR EXAMINATION
POLITICAL ECONOMY 11 B

Dr. Cooper

February 2, 1938

Please write your answers to these questions legibly and in ink.

  1. (a) What is the purpose of classifying the items in a Balance Sheet?
    (b) What is the purpose of classifying the items in a Profit and Loss Statement?
    (10 points)
  2. (a) What is a trial balance?
    (b) What function does a trial balance serve?
    (10 points)
  3. Set up a schedule of debit and credit showing what kinds of items are to be debited and credited.
    (10 points)
  4. (a) What is the purpose of subdividing the journal?
    (b) What is the purpose of subdividing the ledger?
    (10 points)
  5. (a) What is a controlling account?
    (b) How would you account for the withdrawal of stock in trade by the proprietor in a set of books which had a sales and purchase journal and general journal and a subsidiary accounts receivable ledger?
    (10 points)
  6. From the following information prepare a worksheet.
Advertising $ 6,000 Miscellaneous Selling Expense $ 1,700
Accounts Payable 20,000 Notes Payable 25,000
Accounts Receivable 28,000 Motes Receivable 12,000
Bonds (Investments) 2,000 Purchases 128,000
Buildings 24,000 Purchase Discounts 2,400
Cash 14,000 Reserve for Bad Debts 700
Delivery Equipment 1,900 Returned Pur. and Allowances 4,000
Freight In 1,000 Returned Sales and Allow. 1,600
Furniture and Fixtures 5,800 L. A. Roberts, Capital 68,940
General Expense 5,600 L. A, Roberts, Per. (debit) 8,000
General Salaries 4,000 Sales 178,350
Insurance Expense 1,200 Salesmen’s Salaries 11,000
Interest Expense 1,000 Sales Discounts 680
Land 12,000 Store Equipment 3,000
Merchandise Inventory 24,000 Taxes 2,910
Depreciation on Buildings 5%.
Depreciation on Del. Equip. $720.
Depreciation on Furniture and Fixtures $800.
Depreciation on Store Equipment $400.
Bad Debts $1,760.
Prepaid Advertising $2,000.
Prepaid Insurance $200.
Accrued General Salaries $100.
Interest Accrued on Notes Payable $700.
Accrued Salesmen’s Salaries $350.
Accrued Taxes $300.
Deferred Income-Liability for Gift Certificates $750.
Accrued Interest on Bonds $60.
Accrued Interest on Notes Receivable $300.
Final Inventory $21,000

(50 points)

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
FINAL EXAMINATION
POLITICAL ECONOMY 11 B

June 2, 1938
1 p.m.

Please use ink and write clearly.

  1. Pic and Pat are partners with capital accounts of $15,000 and $20,000 respectively. Business has not been good. Their assets are converted into $30,000 cash. There are liabilities of $8,000. Set up T accounts and show how the business should be dissolved.
  2. Bergen and McCarthy were engaged in a partnership with capital investments of $10,000 and $20,000 respectively. They decide to admit Lamour into the partnership for a one third interest for an investment of $20,000 in the partnership. Set up T accounts illustrating the admission of the new partner.
  3. Benny and Allen are partners with investments of $10,000 and $25,000 respectively. Their profit and loss sharing ratio is 2 and 3 respectively. Benny is to be allowed a salary of $3,000. Allen receives no salary. Each are to be allowed interest of 6% on their investments. The profits for the year are $4,500. How should they be distributed.
  4. The Baker Corporation is organized under the laws of the State of Maryland with an authorized Capital stock of 10,000 shares with a per value of $100 each. On April 1, 1938 the stock was sold at 90. On April 15, 10% of the stock was donated back to the company and on the 20th was resold for 80. Journalize the above data.
  5. On January 1, 1937 the Vallee Corporation issues $500,000 worth of 5% bonds at 95. Coupons payable on June 30 and December 31. These bonds have ten years to run. Show journal entries for:
    (a) Issuing the bonds
    (b) Payment of interest on June 30 and December 31.
    (c) Ammortizing the discount as of December 31 on a straight line basis.
  6. Set up a cost of goods sold section of a profit and loss statement of a manufacturing company supported by a schedule of the cost to manufacture using your own figures.
  7. What are the advantages and disadvantages in the use of a voucher system?
  8. How would you calculate an open to buy estimate? Illustrate.
  9. Illustrate two methods of accounting for consignments out.
  10. Illustrate the accounting for neglected purchase discounts.

Source: Johns Hopkins University, Eisenhower Library. Ferdinand Hamburger, Jr. Archives. Department of Political Economy. Curricular Materials. Series 6. Box 2. Folder “Department of Political Economy — Exams, 1936-1940”.

Image Source: Portrait of Howard Earl Cooper in the 1940 Johns Hopkins’ yearbook Hullabaloo, p. 9. Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Categories
Exam Questions Johns Hopkins Principles Undergraduate

Johns Hopkins. Exams for the five sections of principles of economics, 1937-1938

 

This post is the first of transcribed mid-year and end-year course examinations in political economy at Johns Hopkins University for the academic year 1937-1938. Principles of economics was taught in five sections: three for the College of Arts and Sciences, one for the School of Business Economics and one for the School of Engineering.

Related earlier material from Johns Hopkins:

Exams 1921-22;  Exams 1923-24Exams 1932-33

A report of activities of the department of political economy for 1935-1936 has also been transcribed and posted earlier.

Blog News

Today’s post is the first content getting a toot at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror’s new outpost at Mastodon.

Twitter and Facebook outposts will continue announcing new content as well as occasional retweets, toots, shared-links and other such social stuff. Different strokes and all that jazz, but so far no requests for music or dance videos.

__________________________

Course Description

1 C. Elements of Economics. Three hours weekly through the year. Section 1: Dr. Bullock, Th., F., S., 8.30. Maryland Hall 110. Section 2: Associate Professor Mitchell, M., Tu., W., 8.30. Maryland Hall 110. Section 3: Associate Professor Weyforth, M. Tu., W., 11.30. Gilman Hall 314. Section 4: Dr. Cooper, M., Tu., W., 10.30. Gilman Hall 311. Section 5: Mr. Deupree, M., Tu., W., 8.30. Gilman Hall 314.

Note: Students in the School of Engineering will be assigned to Section 1; students in the School of Business Economics to Section 3; and students in the College of Arts and Sciences to Sections 2, 4, and 5.

This course teaches the elements of the science, aiming to show the principles upon which economic society is organized and operated. Particular attention is given to the theory of value and the theory of distribution together with their application to leading economic problems. Such subjects as Money and Banking, Rent, Wages, Interest, Profits, Industrial Combinations, International Trade, are treated in the course. It is part of the purpose of the course to indicate the application of scientific principles to current economic problems.

Required of all students before graduation.

Source: The Johns Hopkins University Circular (1937). Vol. LVI, No. 486 (April, p. 61).

__________________________

Elements of Economics
Mid-year and End-year Examinations
1937-1938

Elements of Economics. Section 1
Dr. Roy J. Bullock

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
MID-YEAR EXAMINATION
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1 C

Dr. Bullock

Wednesday
February 2, 1938, 9 a.m.

I.

Define or identify:

1. Property
2. Utility
3. Laissez-faire
4. Intensive margin of cultivation
5. Cumulative preferred stock
6. Time preference
7. Craft gild
8. Marginal revenue
9. Vertical combination
10. Demand

II.

What would be the difference between monopoly and competitive price under the following conditions:

    1. Elastic demand and increasing costs
    2. Elastic demand and rapidly decreasing costs
    3. Inelastic demand and increasing costs
    4. Inelastic demand and decreasing costs?

Illustrate each with a diagram.

III.

President Roosevelt has proposed a revision of the Federal Anti-Trust Laws. What reasons are there for being dissatisfied with our existing anti-trust laws? Are there any reasons for changing the objectives that have guided our anti-trust policy in the past? In what respects is the trust problem a price problem? Discuss.

IV.

Assume the following data with regard to a grain farm for the years 1930 and 1936:

1930 1936
Number of bushels produced 5,000 7,000
Total expenses of production $4,500 $8,000
Price of grain per bushel $.90 $1.30
Rate of return expected on farm investments 5% 4%
    1. What was the economic rent of this farm in 1930? in 1936? As a tenant what rent could you have afforded to pay in each year?
    2. Does the rent paid by the former have any effect on the price of grain at the primary market? Explain.
    3. As a buyer of land how much would you have been willing to pay for this farm in 1930? in 1936? Why?
    4. If grain alcohol became a commercial success as a substitute for gasoline, what would be the probable effect on the economic rent of this farm?

V.

Compare the advantages and disadvantages of the individual proprietorship, the corporation and the partnership from the point of view of the organizer of a business. Why has the corporation gained in relative importance during recent years?

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
FINAL EXAMINATION
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1 C

Dr. Bullock

Friday, June 3, 1938 – 9 a.m.

I

Explain briefly the meaning or significance of:

1. Legal tender
2. Favorable balance of trade
3. Interstate Commerce Act of 1887
4. American Federation of Labor
5. Fiat money
6. Stoppage at the source
7. Elastic currency
8. Committee for Industrial Organization
9. Taxation according to benefit
10. Workmen’s compensation law.

II

(a) Explain clearly how commercial banks are able to make loans greatly in excess of their cash resources.

(b) Explain the difference between the equation of exchange and the quantity theory of money.

III

A popular slogan of recent years has been, “More business in government, less government in business.” Developments have been in the opposite direction to that advocated. Have these developments been the result of party politics or are they in accord with underlying economic tendencies? Evaluate the slogan in the light of current conditions.

IV

Appraise national legislation to stablish a minimum weekly wage and a maximum number of hours work per week with regard to its probable effect on laborers income and on the business cycle.

V

(a) “The restoration of the pound sterling to its pre-war value was equivalent to the imposition of a heavy tax upon the British exporting industries.” Explain. Did the increase in the value of the pound make it easier or more difficult for other countries on the gold standard to sell in the British market? Explain.

(b) Explain and illustrate the difference between a tariff schedule designed as a revenue measure and a schedule aimed primarily at protection.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Elements of Economics. Section 2
Associate Professor Broadus Mitchell

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
MID-YEAR EXAMINATION
Political Economy 1 C

[Monday, Jan. 31, 1938. 9 a.m. Dr. Mitchell]

  1. What is the general theory of the competitive economic system?
  2. (a) Show how prices are determined under conditions of competition.
    (b) What are some of the forces which, in fact, interfere with this perfect operation of competition?
  3. On what economic theory do inflationists rely? Explain this theory briefly.
  4. State and explain the marginal utility theory of value.
  5. Identify briefly: the Physiocrats, Colbert, Kirkcaldy, James Watt, P. S. DuPont, Salmon P. Chase, R. B. Taney, Friedrich Engels, holding company, consumer‘s surplus, elastic demand.
  6. (a) Discuss the chief means used in this country to cope with the problem of unemployment.
    (b) What is meant by “technological unemployment”?
  7. Explain the changes made in the Federal Reserve System as a result of the depression of 1929.

 

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
FINAL EXAMINATION
IN
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1 C

Dr. Mitchell

May 30, 1938
9 a.m.

  1. (a) Give the purposes, structure, and method of operation of the Federal Reserve System.
    (b) Why, in your opinion, did it fail to prevent the depression of 1929 and the subsequent closing of the banks of the country?
  2. (a) Explain the differential or Ricardian theory of rent.
    (b) What were the influences responsible for Henry George’s book, Progress and Poverty?
    (c) What is the Socialist’s criticism of the single tax proposal?
  3. State and discuss the Wage Fund Theory and the Exploitation theory of wages.
  4. (a) How do pure profits arise?
    (b) What developments in American economic life appear to make our old reliance upon the profit motive inappropriate now?
  5. In what sense is it true that the cost known as interest would be present even in a collectivist economy?
  6. What forces are responsible for the present increased demand for industrial unionism as against craft unionism in the United States?
  7. Contrast the teachings of Robert Owen with those of Karl Marx.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Elements of Economics. Section 3
Assoc. Professor William O. Weyforth

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
MID-YEAR EXAMINATION
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1 C

Dr. Weyforth

February 3, 1938
9 a.m.

  1. What is meant by the doctrine of “laissez faire”? That were the conditions under which the doctrine was developed? Explain the arguments in favor of the doctrine, and the factors responsible for a departure from the doctrine in recent years.
  2. What are the essential features of the corporation as a form of business organization? How do you account for the rise of the corporate form of business organization in recent years? Distinguish the following: common stock, preferred stock, bonds.
  3. What are the “factors of production” and the “agents of production”? What is meant by the “best combination of the agents of production” as applied to any business enterprise. Distinguish between the average total unit cost of production and the marginal cost of production. Illustrate by diagram.
  4. Explain what is meant by an individual demand schedule for any commodity. Show the relationship between such a demand schedule and the theory of marginal utility. Upon what principles does a consumer tend to divide his expenditures among different commodities? How is the total demand schedule in any market for a certain commodity related to the individual demand schedules?
  5. Show how the market price is determined by supply and demand under conditions of competition. Show how an increase in supply, demand remaining constant, will lead to a decline in price. Would the decline in price be greater where the demand is elastic or inelastic? Explain the problem by the use of diagrams.
  6. In what way is the monopolist able to control price? What is the theory of monopoly price? Explain the statement that the monopolist will tend to fix the price at the point where the marginal revenue curve intersects the marginal cost curve.
  7. What is meant by monopolistic competition? State some of the circumstances under which it tends to appear. Explain the difference in the shape of the demand curve for the product of an individual producer under conditions of pure competition and those of monopolistic competition.
  8. Explain the distinction between industries of constant cost, increasing cost, and decreasing cost. What are the factors primarily responsible for these differences, that is, under what circumstances are we likely to have each type of industry? How can we have an industry of increasing cost and at the same time constant or falling prices for the product of that industry over a period of years.
THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
FINAL EXAMINATION
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1 C

Dr. Weyforth

June 2, 1938
9 a.m.

  1. In the regulation of public utilities, what are the important economic problems involved in the determination of a fair price to be charged for the services rendered?
  2. Show how bank deposits subject to check serve as a medium of exchange. Explain how the volume of such deposits may be affected by the loan and investment policies of banks.
  3. What are business cycles? Explain the theory that fluctuations in general business activity are due primarily to fluctuations in the volume of investment. What are the possibilities of public spending as a means of remedying business depression?
  4. Explain the theory that under conditions of competition the rate of wages in any occupation tends to correspond to the marginal productivity of labor in that occupation. According to this theory how do you explain the relatively higher wages paid to skilled workers as compared with unskilled workers?
  5. Explain how, other things being equal, the growth of population will affect the rent of land. How is this explanation related to Henry George’s proposal. for a single tax on land?
  6. Show how interest rates are determined by the supply of and the demand for loanable funds. What are the sources of the supply of and demand for loanable funds? How may banking policy affect interest rates? What are the limits of banking policy in this respect?
  7. What are the factors that give rise to profits? What functions do profits perform in an economic system of free enterprise?
  8. What are the characteristic features of capitalism? What do you mean by socialism? by communism? What is “utopian” socialism? “scientific socialism”?
  9. Explain the law of comparative cost as applied to international trade.

    *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Elements of Economics. Section 4
Dr. Howard E. Cooper

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UMIVERSITY
MID-YEAR EXAMINATION
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1 C

[Dr. Cooper]

January 31, 1938
9 a.m.

Please write your answers to these questions legibly and in ink.

  1. “The Production of wealth may take the form of the creation of form utility, of place utility, or of time utility.”
    Explain and give examples of each.
  2. What would be the effect on our industrial system of too much saving, of too little saving?
  3. “The division of labor promotes production by economizing labor, increasing its efficiency, and making more effective use of capital.” This is all helpful from the point of view of capital. How about the laborer?
  4. What is the concept of marginal utility?
  5. What are some examples of elastic demand?
    What are some examples of elastic supply?
  6. Distinguish between increasing costs and decreasing costs.
  7. What is the meaning of imperfect competition?
  8. What are some of the limitations on monopoly price?
  9. Suppose the quantity of money held by everyone were to be doubled. Would we be twice as wealthy? Explain.
  10. Discuss briefly some of the factors which influence the rate of interest.
THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
FINAL EXAMINATION
IN
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1 C

Dr. Cooper

Monday [May] 30, 1938
9 A.M.

Please use ink and write clearly.

  1. In what ways does the Federal Reserve System seek to control credit?
  2. (a) What is the significance of the double budget made use of by President Roosevelt?
    (b) Trace briefly the National Debt of the United States?
  3. (a) What is meant by combining business risks to prevent their harmful effects? Illustrate.
    (b) What is meant by passing risks to the shoulders of others more able or willing to bear them? Illustrate.
  4. Define the following:
    (a) a pool
    (b) a trust
    (c) a holding company
    (d) a consolidation
    (e) a merger.
  5. The newspapers frequently carry statements to the effect that local patriotism requires that you patronize local merchants and industries in order to keep money at home. Criticize.
  6. What factors lead to fluctuations in foreign exchange?
  7. Would you advocate an early return to the gold standard? Give reasons for and against.
  8. Discuss briefly the factors affecting the supply and demand for labor.
  9. Distinguish between the craft or trade union, and the industrial union. Which do you think will be the union of the future? Why?
  10. Marx held that the tendency toward concentration, and the increasing numbers and misery of the laboring class would lead us into Socialism. Taking into consideration the long time period, is it possible that he was right?

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Elements of Economics. Section 5
Dr. Robert G. Deupree

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
MID-YEAR EXAMINATION
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1 C

Dr. Deupree

February 1, 1938
1 p.m.

  1. Define: wealth, utility, income, capital, functional distribution.
  2. Contrast: the manorial system, guild system, and domestic system.
  3. Distinguish between the following forms of the business unit: Individual proprietorship, partnership, limited partnership, and corporation.
  4. Discuss the economic effects of division of labor.
  5. Explain the marginal utility concept.
    How does it relate to price?
    Explain marginal cost of production.
    How does it relate to price?
  6. Distinguish between production under conditions of increasing, decreasing, and constant costs, giving examples of each.
  7. A monopolist finds the following cost and demand schedules prevailing in the market for his commodity:
Quantity Cost per unit Selling price per unit
1,000,000 1.00 1.00
750,000 1.07 1.10
500,000 1.36 1.40
250,000 1.49 1.50

What would be the monopoly price in this market? Why? Are there any limitations upon the monopolists’ power to fix price? Explain.

  1. Show how economic rent arises on urban lands. Does the law of diminishing returns apply to urban lands? If so, in what manner? Explain what is meant by the extensive and intensive margins of cultivation in agriculture and their relation to economic rent.
  2. What is the time preference theory of interest?
    How would the rate of time preference be affected by:
  1. a steady growth of the national income?
  2. extravagance in consumption?
  3. old age pensions paid by the government?
THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
FINAL EXAMINATION
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1 C

Dr. Deupree

June 1, 1938
9 a.m.

  1. Identify or define:
    1. Karl Marx
    2. Thomas Malthus
    3. Gresham’s law
    4. Knights of Labor
    5. Rochdale system
    6. Law of large numbers
    7. Hedging
    8. Processing taxes
    9. Gold export point
    10. Mint par of exchange.
  2. a. Discuss money.
    b. Define a commercial bank and discuss its functions.
    c. Define a central bank and discuss its functions.
  3. Summarize the major provisions of and evaluate any two of the following:
    a. Banking Act of 1935
    b. Social Security Act
    c. Trade Agreements Act
    d. National Labor Relations Act
    e. National Industrial Recovery Act
    f. Clayton Anti-trust Act
  4. a. Sketch the basis of the conflict between the American Federation of Labor and the Committee for Industrial Organization. Discuss the relative merits of the arguments.
    b. How would you account for the wages paid a particular group of workers — for example, carpenters in Baltimore?
  5. a. What are the basic Socialist proposals?
    b. Distinguish: Socialism, Communism, Fascism.
  6. How would you meet the unemployment problem in the United States? Give reasons for each step you propose.

Source: Johns Hopkins University, Eisenhower Library. Ferdinand Hamburger, Jr. Archives. Department of Political Economy. Curricular Materials. Series 6. Box 2. Folder “Department of Political Economy — Exams, 1936-1940”.

Categories
Economists Funny Business Harvard Undergraduate

Vermont. Yearbook account of economics lecture by Harvard PhD Charles W. Mixter, 1904

While trolling the yearbook of the University of Vermont in search of a portrait of Professor Charles W. Mixter (Harvard Ph.D. 1897), I came across the following student account of what one presumes is a not an untypical classroom performance by Professor Mixter. He appears to have been pretty proud of his Harvard connection, in particular with Professor O.M.W. Sprague.

Incidentally, I have yet to discover a photograph of Charles W. Mixter anywhere on the internet, and I have tried…

…and what pray are “Persian Alexis overshoes” anyhow?

_______________________________

Pol. Econ. à la Mixter

A room in the Old Mill. The bell strikes and during the next ten minutes the class straggles in. The second bell strikes; some minutes elapse during which Burrows ’o4 amuses himself — and the class — by crayon sketches from life ( ?). Macrae, to whom art of so high an order does not appeal, looks at his watch and announces that the five minutes are up. A discussion follows as to the advisability of cutting. Finally better instincts prevail and the class decides to stay. At the end of another five minutes, Pomeroy, from his lookout at the window, descries the Professor in the distance. Informed of the fact the class rushes up just in time to see His Portlyship, in Persian Alexis overshoes, and English Ulster [Note: apparently the sort of overcoat worn by Sherlock Holmes], rounding the statue of Lafayette and puffing like a tug under full steam.

 

The Professor’s tread is soon heard on the stair and the class take their seats just as he enters the room. In answer to the chorus of good-mornings, he nods a general recognition, divests himself of ulster, overshoes and Alexis and takes his seat. These preliminaries over, he fumbles for some time in the recesses of an inner pocket and at length pulls forth a slip of paper upon which is the frame-work of a lecture. After vainly trying to read his own writing, the Professor gives up in despair, puts back the notes, and launches out on another tack.

 

His eye lighting on Macrae nodding on the back seat, he explodes this poser at the offending member:

 

My friend Sprague — the great economist — of course you’ve all heard of him — edited Dunbar blur—r—r um and all that sort of thing — well he’s just returned from Oklahoma — he says the banks are holding the largest deposit in the Territory’s history. What does that indicate for general prosperity, Mr. Macrae?

 

Macrae, to whom reciting is a bore, pulls himself together with a supreme effort and begins a learned disquisition on the inter-relation of loans to deposits and the utter uselessness as an index to prosperity of bank statements in general and of this report in particular.

 

Whenever a glint of truth appears in Macrae’s remarks — which is far from often — the Professor nods approvingly, assumes his Rooseveltian grin and rumples his hair encouragingly.

 

Macrae finally comes to the end of his rope and the Professor, suddenly recollecting an anecdote that “my friend Sprague” told him at Harvard, springs it on the guileless members of Economics II. When the laughter incident on this effort has subsided, the Professor has some interesting things to say on railroad stocks.

 

Prof. (clearing his throat and groping for his handkerchief in a hip pocket) Um — yum yum yum yum yum — I own some stock myself — huh — oh yes — huh (grimace à la Roosevelt). Hasn’t paid me any dividend for seventeen years, though. Speaking of railroads puts me in mind of a man I met up in the Berkshire Hills once. Oh yes — um I — I was up in the Berkshires and I met a man who had lost his fortune during the war — well he — huh — huh huh. The Professor, anticipating the ludicrous end of his tale, cannot resist the temptation to laugh, and the rest of his speech is lost in a gurgle of merriment, in which the class feels itself called upon to join.

 

Turning from the Berkshire Hermit the Professor travels to Tennessee, where he tells how he proffered a check in payment and how that check was actually received! Next he leads the class a pretty pace through Threadneedle Street, where they enter the Bank of England and help the Professor cash a ten pun’ note, after which they awake to find themselves reposing quietly in their seats none the worse for wear but a little dazed in spirit.

 

The remainder of the Professor’s talk is a brilliant counterpane, with which he covers his subject, resplendent with purple patches of travel, finance, the stock exchange, international trade, panics, industrial organization, underwriting, indigestible securities, and bank history from Daniel to Dunbar, freely interspersed with the dicta of Ami Sprague. The Professor is in the midst of an interesting Harvard reminiscence when the bell strikes and he makes a hasty end, regretting  — as always — that he hasn’t covered as much ground as he had hoped to. The class escapes furtively while the Professor worms himself into his ulster, sticks on the Alexis and descends the stair ruminating on the value of anecdote as a means of inculcating the fundamental principles of that most abstruse science of political economy.

Source: The University of Vermont Libraries, Digital Collections.Yearbook, The Ariel 1905, Vol. XVIII, pp. 277-278.

Image Source: University of Vermont (between 1900 and 1906) from the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Undergraduate

Harvard. Undergraduate courses taken by John F. Kennedy, Class of 1940

 

In an earlier post Economics in the Rear-view Mirror presented James Laurence Laughlin’s recollection of Theodore Roosevelt’s economics education at Harvard.

This post moves us forward to the graduate of the Class of 1940, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, who it took the standard two term principles of economics followed by three semester courses in economics at Harvard. The future president was a concentrator in the government department which accounted for much more of his studies.

We begin with a complete list of the courses taken by Kennedy that is probably not untypical for your average government major except for maybe the junior semester abroad to England where his father, Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., happened to be serving as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom.

As it turns out, material for three of the courses taken by Kennedy have already been transcribed and posted.

Economics A. Principles of Economics (1936-37).
Economics 11bEconomics of Socialism (2nd term, 1940).
Economics 62bIndustrial Organization and Control (2nd term, 1940).

To help complete the picture this post adds the final examination for Kennedy’s junior year course Economics 61a, The Corporation and its Regulation. The reading list for this course used in the following year (Kennedy’s senior year, 1939-40) has been transcribed and posted earlier.

Fun fact: Nobel prize economist and economic adviser to JFK, Professor James Tobin of Yale was a fellow student in the Principles of Economics course taken by Kennedy. Plot spoiler: Tobin got an A in Economics A.

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Undergraduate Courses Taken by John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Class of 1940

Note: Second term senior year courses are listed without a final grade because final examination were waived for the history, government, and economics division honors examination

JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY
S.B. cum laude June 20, 1940
Field of Concentration Government

Freshman year (1936-37)

English A. Rhetoric and English Composition, Oral and Written. (Not Required)

English 1. History and Development of English Literature in Outline. Professor Munn. (C)

Economics A. Principles of Economics. Professor Burbank. (B)

History 1. European History from the Fall of the Roman Empire to the Present Time. Professor Merriman. (C)

French F. Introduction to France. Professor Morize. (C)

Sophomore year (1937-38)

English F1. Public Speaking. Asst. Professor Packard. (C)

Fine Arts 1e. Interpretation of Selected Works of Art: an Introduction to Art History. Professor Koehler. (C)

Government 1. Modern Government. Professors Holcombe and Elliott. (C)

History 32a1. Continental Europe; 1815-1871. Professor Langer. (D)

History 32b2. Continental Europe; 1871-1914. Professor Langer. (C)

Government 302. New Factors in International Relations: Asia. Asst. Professor Hopper. (B)

Junior year (1938-39)

Economics 61a1. The Corporation and its Regulation. Professor Mason. (C)

English A-11. English Composition. Messrs. Davis, Gordan, Bailey and McCreary. (B)

Government 7a1. The National Government of the United States: Politics. Professor Holcombe. (B)

Government 9a1. State Government in the United States. Professor Hanford. (B)

Government 181. New Factors in International Relations: Europe. Associate Professor Hopper. (B)

History 551. History of Russia. Asst. Professor Karpovich. (B)

Second Term Leave of absence (England)

Senior year (1939-40)

Economics 11b2. Economics of Socialism. Dr. P. M. Sweezy.

Economics 62b2. Industrial Organization and Control. Professor Mason.

Government 3a1. Principles of Politics. Professor Elliott. (B)

Government 4. Elements of International Law. Associate Professor P. S. Wild. (B)

Government 22. Theses for Honors. Members of the Department. (B)

Government 8a1. Comparative Politics: Bureaucracy, Constitutional Government and Dictatorship. Professor Friedrich. (B)

Government 10a2. Government of the British Commonwealth of Nations. Professor Elliott.

Government 281. Modern Imperialism. Associate Professor Emerson. (B)

Source: John F. Kennedy Academic Record at Harvard.  John F. Kennedy Personal Papers, 1917-1963, Harvard University Files, 1917-1963/Academic Records 1939-1940; John F. Kennedy Harvard Course Transcript. John F. Kennedy Personal Papers, 1917-1963, Harvard University Files, 1917-1963/Course listing.

____________________________

The Corporation and its Regulation
First Semester 1938-39

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 61a 1hf. Professor Mason and Dr. P. M. Sweezy. — The Corporation and its Regulation.

Total 209: 2 Graduates, 57 Seniors, 110 Juniors, 29 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 10 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1938-39, p. 98.

Reading Period Assignment
January 5-18, 1939

Economics 61a: Read one of the following

  1. Larcom, R. C., The Delaware Corporation.
  2. Flynn, Security Speculation.
  3. Lowenthal, The Investor Pays.
  4. Gordon, Lincoln, The Public Corporation in Great Britain, omit pp. 156-244.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 2. Folder “Economics,1938-1939”, Reading Period, p.3.

Final Examination (Mid-Year)

1938-39
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 61a1

PART I

Write a critical review of your reading period work (about one hour).

PART II
Answer two questions.

  1. Discuss the influence of depreciation policies in the determination of net income.
  2. In corporate reorganizations what considerations determine the priority of claims on the assets of the reorganized company?
  3. “The large corporation is a bureaucracy of much the same type as a government agency. As such it faces all the management problems faced by bureaucracy.” Discuss.

PART III
Answer two questions.

  1. “The only people who gain from the stock market are brokers and speculators. Corporations, investors and underwriters would be better off if there were no stock market.” Analyse this statement with respect to each class of person or institution named.
  2. Discuss the direction and significance of present trends in the ownership of securities in the United States.
  3. Write on either the Securities Act of 1933 or the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Describe the main problems with which the act in question is intended to deal, any previous efforts to solve these problems, and how the act proposes to solve them.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Mid-Year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 13. Bound volume “Mid-Year Examinations 1939”.

Image Source: Harvard Class Album 1940.

Categories
Dartmouth Undergraduate

Dartmouth. 19th century instruction in History, Law, Politics, & Political Economy. Colby, 1796-1896.

 

 

Throughout the nineteenth century political economy taught in American colleges was just one ingredient in a hearty moral philosophical stew served to students. Economics as its own course in a social scientific menu appears relatively late in the century.

I stumbled upon an article in the Boston Evening Transcript (January 13, 1897, p. 9) that reported on a pamphlet written by Dartmouth professor James Fairbanks Colby on the history of Dartmouth instruction on constitutional law, politics, and political economy. I found the pamphlet at the hathitrust.org archive and it was interesting enough for me to prepare this post with links to all the course text books that Colby mentioned. 

Fun fact (if true): “William and Mary appears to have led by prescribing the use of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations as early as 1807. Most of the other Colleges followed within a few years of each other: Harvard in 1820; Yale in 1824; Columbia in 1827; Dartmouth in 1828; Princeton in 1830; Williams in 1835.” Nonetheless, the text book of choice for much of the 19th century was the English translation of Say’s Political Economy.

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Biography

James Fairbanks Colby was born November 18, 1850, in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, the son of James K. and Sarah (Pierce) Colby. After graduating from St. Johnsbury Academy. Colby attended Dartmouth College, graduating in 1872. He received his AM from Yale in 1877 and his LL. B. from George Washington University in 1875. Colby died in Hanover, New Hampshire, October 21, 1939.

Colby was an instructor of economics and history at the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale University from 1879 until 1881 and taught international law at Yale Law School from 1883 until 1885. At Dartmouth College he was an instructor of history from 1885 until 1893, a professor of political economics from 1885 until 1898, and Joel Parker professor of law and political science from 1885 until 1916. He also taught constitutional and international law at Amos Tuck School of Business Administration from 1900 until 1908, and lectured in jurisprudence and international law at Boston University Law School from 1905 until 1922.

In 1902, he was a delegate to the New Hampshire Constitutional Convention; he compiled and edited the Manual of the Constitution of the State of New Hampshire, 1902, as well as the revised 2nd edition in 1912. Never a candidate for public office himself, Colby exerted influence on political reform and the Progressive Movement in New Hampshire.

Source: Dartmouth Library, Archives & Manuscripts. Colby, James Fairbanks, 1850-1939

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LEGAL AND POLITICAL STUDIES IN DARTMOUTH COLLEGE, 1796-1896.

by James Fairbanks Colby,
Parker Professor of Law and Political Science

Hanover, N.H.: The Dartmouth Press, 1896.

         The studies of Law and Government have been pursued at Dartmouth for one hundred years. Meager records and their vague language leave it doubtful whether any American college except William and Mary, Philadelphia (University of Pennsylvania), and Princeton made earlier and continuous offer of instruction in both these branches. Since their first introduction into its curriculum, Dartmouth has given both these studies constant recognition in all its plans for a liberal education. This was made possible by the broad purpose of its Founder; it became practicable through the wise resolves of its Trustees and the liberal benefaction of one of its most distinguished graduates, Chief Justice Joel Parker.

         The royal charter of the College of 1769 created a corporation empowered to give instruction in “all liberal arts and sciences.” Despite this ample grant no positive evidence has been found that regular instruction was offered by the College in the particular sciences of Law and Government during the first twenty-five years after its foundation. The reasons for this delay are not hard to find. They were the original mission of Wheelock to Christianize the Indians, the scanty resources at his disposal, and the traditional limitation of the curriculum of his Alma Mater — Yale — to the Sacred and Classical Languages, Mathematics and Divinity. But the location of the College on the frontier and the stirring events which followed its founding, the Revolution, the framing of new constitutions, State and Federal, the long struggle over the New Hampshire Grants, and the rise of American political parties, aroused liveliest interest in Law and Government throughout all the region where dwelt the natural constituency of the new College, and made increasing demand upon it for legal and political training.

         Evidence of effort to satisfy this demand may be found in the first formal curriculum of the College, which was adopted by its trustees in 1796. This, under the head of “Public and Classical Exercises,” enumerates among the subjects of study for Juniors “Natural and Moral Philosophy,” and among those for Seniors “Natural and Politic Law.” Since Moral Philosophy, as then defined, treated of the State — the subject matter of Political Science — the first formal curriculum of the College appears to have included both the studies of Law and Government. Neither search in the official records of the College, nor wide gleaning among the biographies and letters of graduates of that period, yields much information about the conduct of these courses from 1796 to 1822. Instruction in Natural and Politic Law apparently fell with the general care of the Senior class to the President, and so was given by John Wheelock from 1796 to 1815, by Francis Brown from 1815 to 1820, and by Daniel Dana from 1820 to 1821. The instruction in Moral Philosophy (including Political Philosophy) apparently was assigned with the general care of the Junior class to Rev. John Smith, Professor of the Latin and Greek Languages from 1796 to 1804, and to Rev. Roswell Shurtleff, Phillips Professor of Divinity,1 from 1804 to 1823. Probably the earliest text books in each of these subjects were those known to have been in use in 18162. These were the two famous works, Burlamaqui’s Principles of Natural and Politic Law, first published in Geneva in 1747 and republished in Boston as early as 1793, and Paley’s Moral and Political Philosophy, first published in England in 1785 and republished in Boston as early as 1795. The sixth book of Paley is devoted to what is now called Political Science — the State, its origin, forms of government, civil liberty, and the administration of justice. Both these books were then coming into use in America and the former was prescribed as a text in the College as late as 1828, and the latter as late as 1838.

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1 In 1796 it was voted by the trustees “that it be the duty of the Professor of Divinity to teach Theology, to preach and instruct the students in Logic and Moral Philosophy.” This chair was not filled till 1804.

2 “Documents relating to Dartmouth College, published by order of the Legislature of 1816,” page 32. The included report shows the amendments made to the curriculum from 1796 to 1816.

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       Before 1810 a marked tendency among Dartmouth graduates toward the profession of law was noticeable. The records showed that the proportion of graduates entering that profession was increasing from decade to decade. The proportion of lawyers to graduates, which from 1770 to 1780 had been only 4½% per cent., increased from 1780 to 1790 to 17½% per cent., from 1790 to 1800 to 36 1/3% per cent., and from 1800 to 1810 to 46¼% per cent. Before this time attempts had been made by the University of Pennsylvania, William and Mary, Columbia, Princetown [sic], and Yale, all founded before Dartmouth, to promote good citizenship by academic training in law, but such instruction apparently had not been continuous in all these Colleges. The need of other legal training for the bar than that which could be had in the office of active practitioners was coming to be more and more felt, but the only law school then existing in New England was the famous Litchfield (Conn.) Law School, which was founded in 1784 and enrolled 1024 students before it was closed in 1823.

         Under these circumstances the Trustees of Dartmouth College deemed it wise to plan for the establishment of a collegiate professorship of law, as is shown by the following extract from the records of their meeting3 held Jan. 7, 1808:

         “Whereas, An establishment of professorships in different branches of education at universities facilitates improvement; and as a more general acquaintance with the important science of law would be greatly conducive to the welfare and prosperity of the citizens of our country; and as in promoting that end the establishment of a professorship of Law at this university is highly desirable; Therefore,

            Resolved, Unanimously that this board will proceed to establish a professorship of Law and appoint a suitable person to the office so soon as adequate means shall be furnished. And as all, the present funds are necessarily applied to other objects of education the liberal and patriotic are earnestly solicited to favor and promote by their munificence the early accomplishment of this design.

            Voted, that the secretary be requested to cause a suitable number of subscription papers to be printed for the purpose of aiding the object contemplated in the foregoing resolution.” Trustees‘ Records, vol. 1, p. 321.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

3 Those present at this meeting were President Wheelock, Rev. Eden Burroughs, Rev. J. Smith, Hon. Peter Olcott, John A. Freeman, Nathaniel Niles, John S. Gilman, S. W. Thompson, Stephen Jacobs, Timothy Farrar Elijah Paine. Five of these trustees were eminent lawyers in their own generation in Northern New England.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

         It does not appear whether the Secretary prepared subscription papers nor whether the aid of the liberal and patriotic was solicited, but the serious dissensions which arose in the Board of Trustees the following year and which were to issue in 1819 in the cause célèbre, indefinitely postponed the establishment of the proposed professorship. The spread of these dissensions from 1809 to 1815 and the controversy between the College and the State which filled the years from 1815 to 1819 prevented any enlargement of the courses in Law and Government until 1822.

         The circumstances of that controversy and especially the forensic triumph of Webster as the filial champion of the “small College” before the Supreme Court of the United States in 1819 seem to have awakened fresh interest in the study of American Constitutional Law and to have been the immediate occasion of its addition to the curriculum. There is no authentic record at least of such a course before 1822. The catalogue of that year, the first published by the College, enumerates among the studies for Juniors Moral and Political Philosophy, (Paley), and for Seniors Natural and Politic Law (Burlamaqui), Moral and Political Philosophy (Paley), the Federalist. No change in these three courses was made till 1828, but the appointment in 1823 of Daniel Oliver (Harvard, 1809) as Professor of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy probably made him the instructor in Political Philosophy for the next five years.

         In 1828 Prof. Roswell Shurtleff (D. C., 1799) was transferred to the newly established chair of Moral Philosophy and Political Economy, and the Trustees having voted, “that the Senior class be instructed in Say’s Political Economy so far as can be by leaving out Burlamaqui,” his Natural and Politic Law disappeared from the curriculum.

         The establishment of this chair and the almost simultaneous introduction of the study of Political Economy by other American Colleges is noteworthy.4 Probably this was due to the industrial revolution which the inventions of Arkwright, Hargreaves and Fulton had wrought, the expansion of commerce which followed the close of the Napoleonic wars, and the rise of new political issues in the United States — the tariff, the bank, slavery, and internal improvements. The addition of Political Economy to the curriculum of Dartmouth as well as other Colleges undoubtedly was facilitated by the appearance as early as 1821 of an American edition of Say’s Political Economy which presented the subject in clear, orderly and attractive form.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

4 William and Mary appears to have led by prescribing the use of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations as early as 1807. Most of the other Colleges followed within a few years of each other: Harvard in 1820; Yale in 1824; Columbia in 1827; Dartmouth in 1828; Princeton in 1830; Williams in 1835.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

         The three courses prescribed in 1828 in Political Economy, Moral and Political Philosophy (transferred from Senior to Junior year in 1833), and the Federalist, underwent no modification until the resignation of Professor Shurtleff in 1838. Throughout his long service Prof. Shurtleff was a popular and respected instructor. The marginal notes in his own handwriting in his copies of Paley and the Federalist reveal his acuteness, skill in argument and abounding humor.

         His successor, though the name of the chair was changed to that of Intellectual Philosophy and Political Economy, was Professor Charles B. Haddock (D. C., 1816). He continued the three courses previously described during his term of office and extended the instruction. In 1838 he substituted Wayland’s Moral Philosophy [Elements of Moral Science, 1835] for Paley’s, and in 1842 added a course in Kent’s Commentaries, Vol. 1, for Seniors in the second term. In 1845-6 this course, probably to enable students to work by themselves to advantage during the long winter vacation, was opened to Juniors as well as Seniors. In the catalogue of 1851-2 Story on the Constitution [1833: Volume 1; Volume 2; Volume 3], open to Juniors and Seniors, took the place of Kent’s Commentaries, Vol. 1, which probably had been used continuously since 1842, though it is not named in the catalogues of 1846-7, 1848-9. In 1852-3 the study of Guizot’s Lectures on Civilization was added to the courses previously prescribed for Seniors. In 1854 Prof. Haddock, who three years earlier had accepted the position of Charge d’ Affaires of the United States at the court of Lisbon, resigned his chair. A nephew of Daniel Webster, Prof. Haddock resembled his distinguished relative in graceful diction, luminous statement and, capacity for logical argument. These qualities, though best displayed in his brief service in the New Hampshire Legislature and his public addresses, made his class room instruction memorable and the tradition of its large value is uniform.

         His successor was Rev. Clement Long (D. C., 1828), who had served as Lecturer on Intellectual and Moral Philosophy since 1851. The courses in Law, Government and Economics when he assumed his chair were the four previously named: Political Economy, (Say), History (Guizot), Constitutional Law (Story [1833: Volume 1; Volume 2; Volume 3],), open to both Seniors and Juniors — and the Federalist. No change was made by him in these courses during his term of office, except that in 1860-61 Story on the Constitution was withdrawn and Woolsey’s International Law was offered to Juniors though it does not appear during the years immediately following. Prof. Long, like all the other incumbents of this chair, occasionally supplemented the prescribed textbooks by formal lectures. Two of his are the only ones that an extended search has discovered. One is entitled “The Justice and Expendiency of Laws Regulating Trade.” The other treats of “The Importance of the Study of Human Nature in Relation to Politics,” and discusses first, the actual interest of Americans in politics; second, urgent reasons why their political opinions should be correct; third, the certainty that there must be somewhere a basis of fact for some political theories; fourth, some principles in human nature which a political theorist should recognize, and fifth, certain errors which have sprung from a disregard of these principles. Prof. Long was a trained logician who had a scrupulous regard for facts and unusual power to stimulate thought. His professional training led him to give large place to the ethical aspect of whatever subject he taught, and his success as a teacher of Political Science and Economics and his moulding power upon his students was marked.

         Upon the death of Prof. Long in 1861 he was succeeded by Prof. Samuel Gilman Brown (D. C., 1831). During his occupancy of this chair the three courses in Political Economy (Say), History (Guizot), and the Federalist were offered in each year, and in addition the following: in 1862 Lieber’s Civil Liberty and Self Government; in 1864 May’s Constitutional History of England [1878: Volume 1; Volume 2 ; Volume 3]; in 1865 Pomeroy’s Municipal Law. Prof. Brown resigned in 1867. Widely known to American lawyers as the graceful biographer of Rufus Choate, Prof. Brown in the class room emphasized the historical phase of his work and impressed all who came under his instruction by his varied culture, exact thought, and judicial temper.

         His successor was Prof. Daniel J. Noyes (D. C., 1838), during whose term the instruction in Law and Government was greatly strengthened. He substituted Pomeroy’s Constitutional Law for the Federalist which had been used continuously in the class room at least since 1822, and Bowen’s National Economy and later Perry’s Political Economy for Say’s which had been used by successive classes since 1828. In 1867-8 International Law was offered to Juniors for whom it continued to be prescribed till 1876 when it became a Senior study.

From 1869 to 1875 Joel Parker (D.C. 1811), Chief Justice of New Hampshire from 1838 to 1848, and Royall Professor of Law in the Harvard Law School from 1847 to 1868, Trustee of the College from 1843 to 1860, annually delivered a course of lectures on law before its officers and students. Unfortunately only three of these lectures, those delivered in 1869, were published. These may be found in the volume entitled Addresses of Joel Parker, under the titles of: 1, “The Three Powers of Government;” 2, “The Origin of the United States and the Status of the Southern States on the Suppression of the Rebellion;” 3, “The Three Dangers of the Republic.” These were clear, logical and masterly discussions of some of the questions in American Constitutional Law which were then agitating the public mind. The events of the recent Rebellion which suggested these subjects, the clear and interesting exposition of the National Theory of the Constitution by Pomeroy in the class room by Professor Noyes, and the legal acumen and powerful logic with which that theory as applied by the party then dominant in the government was criticised in the lecture room by Judge Parker, gave special interest during this period to the course in Constitutional Law.

         In 1871 Benjamin Labaree (D. C., 1828), ex-President of Middlebury College, was added to the faculty as special Lecturer on International Law, and continued to instruct Juniors in this subject until his retirement in 1876, when it was transferred to the Senior year. His lectures, with illustrations drawn from our recent diplomatic history, worthily supplemented those just described on Constitutional Law.

         In 1883 Professor Noyes resigned. Of him no discriminating pupil could say less than that he had “the beauty of accuracy in his understanding and the beauty of righteousness in his character.” In the class-room he always showed thorough command of the material of his text books and constantly “aimed to secure the thorough mastery of these, as being for most students the best preparation for broad and thorough supplementary study of other authors, and other aspects of each subject.”

         During the two following years the regular courses in Political Economy, in Constitutional Law, and in International Law were conducted by Samuel G. Brown, Professor of Intellectual Philosophy and Political Economy, 1863–7 and ex-President of Hamilton College, and Henry A. Folsom, Esq., (D.C., 1871), a member of the Suffolk Bar of Massachusetts.

         In 1882 the study of American Political History was added to the curriculum for Seniors, and during the collegiate years 1882-5, there being no chair of history, instruction in this subject was generously given by Charles F. Richardson, Winkley Professor of the English Language and Literature. The manual used as a basis in this course was Johnston’s American Politics.

         In 1885 a legacy to the College from Chief Justice Parker, whose death occurred ten years earlier, became available for the establishment of such a collegiate professorship of law as had been planned by the Trustees in 1808. This distinguished jurist, whose many and unrequited services to his Alma Mater were not limited to or measured by his faithful discharge of the duties of Trustee and Lecturer on Law during a whole generation, intended to found a Law Department in Dartmouth College. The inadequacy of the realized endowment for that purpose and the difficulties that were anticipated in the attempt to conduct an additional law school in New England, apart from any populous center and remote from courts, led the Trustees, when duly authorized thereto, in 1885, to apply this legacy to the establishment of the Joel Parker Professorship of Law and Political Science. In the same year the present incumbent of this chair was elected and also was made Instructor in History. The courses offered under his tuition during the next ten years, 1885-95 (except when transferred to his colleagues as below specified), included the following:

  1. Constitutional Law (Required for Seniors). Text, Cooley’s Principles of Constitutional Law.
  2. Elementary Law (Elective for Seniors). Text, Hadley’s Roman Law and Markby’s Elements of Law, or Holland’s Jurisprudence.
  3. International Law (Elective for Seniors). Text, Woolsey’s or Davis’ International Law.
  4. Elementary Political Economy (Required for Seniors). Text, Walker’s Political Economy. This course was transfered to the Professor of Social Science in 1893.
  5. Advanced Political Economy (Elective for Seniors). An historical and critical study of some present economic problems, such as Taxation, Tariff History of the United States Banking, Bimetallism. Among the texts used in different years were Cossa’s Principles and Methods of Taxation, Taussig’s Tariff History of the United States, Dunbar’s Theory and History of Banking, Hadley’s Railroad Transportation, and the Annual Reports of the Secretary of the Treasury and the Comptroller of the Currency. This course was introduced in 1888 and a part of its work was transferred to the Professor of Social Science in 1893.
  6. Advanced Political Economy (Elective for Seniors). Economic History. Lectures with use of Rand’s Economic History since 1763 and Wells’ (D. A.) Recent Economic Changes. This course was introduced in 1888 and was transferred to the Professor of Social Science in 1893.
  7. Mediaeval and Modern History (Required for Sophomores). Text, Freeman’s General Sketch of European History or Myers’ Mediaeval and Modern History. In 1888 this course was transferred to Librarian Marvin D. Bisbee to give place to course 9 below described.
  8. American Political History (Elective for Seniors), Lectures on the Physical Geography of the United States, the Planting of the English Colonies, the Formation of the Union, and a study of the period 1783-1860. Manuals used were Fiske’s Critical Period of American History, Johnston’s American Politics. This course was transferred to the Professor of History in 1893, though taught during that year by Prof. D. Collin Wells.
  9. English Constitutional History (Elective for Seniors), Texts, Taswell-Langmead’s or May’s Constitutional History of England [1878: Volume 1; Volume 2 ; Volume 3].

         During these years, 1885–95, while many new electives were being added to the curriculum the number of students pursuing the studies above described is shown in the following table:

Class

Constitutional Law
(Required)
Elementary Law (Elective) International Law (Elective) American Political History (Elective) English Constitutional History (Elective) Elementary Economics (Required) Advanced Economics (Required) Economic History (Elective)

1886

55 17 47 45 55
1887 63 9 26 38 63

1888

48 23 24 30 48 10
1889 52 8 21 27 8 52 4

7

1890

53 12 25 38 8 53 23 4
1891 46 21 29 43 4 46 25

20

1892

55 13 20 43 11 55 31 24
1893 56 18 20 42 18 56 26

9

1894 65 18 7 15 13 65 33

15

         In 1893 a notable enlargement and marked improvement in the work of the College was made possible by the establishment of chairs of Social Science and of History. The resulting division of the labor of the Parker Professor of Law and Political Science, the addition of numerous courses5 in Social Science and History, and the mutual helpfulness of each of these departments whose subject matters are interdependent, have united to give Dartmouth exceptional means among smaller colleges for the pursuit of those studies which directly promote good citizenship.

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5 See “Study of Sociology at Dartmouth,” by Prof. D. C. Wells, in The Dartmouth, June 14, 1895, and “Teaching of History at Dartmouth,” by Prof. H. D. Foster in The Dartmouth, May 22, 1896.

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         In Law and Political Science the courses offered during the current year, 1895–96, the object proposed and the method used are as follows:

  1. American Constitutional Law (Prescribed for Seniors, First Term). This course is designed to give students a knowledge of the general principles of the Constitutional Law of the United States, both federal and statal. Such knowledge is exacted of all students because it is deemed essential to intelligent citizenship. The historical aspect of the subject is emphasized and particular attention is given to the origin and development of American political institutions, to the merits of written and unwritten constitutions, and to the immediate causes of the adoption of the federal constitution and to the most important parts of its text. The system of State and Federal courts is also described, frequent reference is made to reports, and students are urged to read leading cases and those of present practical interest. Recitations, supplemented by lectures and examination. Forty-two exercises, three hours weekly. (Cooley’s Principles of Constitutional Law).
  2. English Constitutional History and Law (Elective for Seniors, Second Term). This course is planned with special reference to the needs of students who expect to enter the profession of law. It traces the growth of English political and legal institutions from the earliest times to the present. Forty-eight exercises, four hours weekly. (Taswell-Langmead’s English Constitutional History, or Anson’s Law and Custom of the Constitution [1886: Part 1 Parliament ; 1896 Part 2 The Crown], with use of the Statutes of the Realm, and Select Charters).
  3. The State (Elements of Politics). (Elective for Seniors, Second Term). This course is historical as well as comparative and critical. It treats of the origin and development of the state, its forms, functions, and ends. It includes a brief study of the governments of Greece and Rome, the Teutonic (Mediaeval) Polity, and comparison of the present constitutions of England, France, Germany and the United States. Recitations and lectures. Twenty-four exercises, two hours weekly. Manual, Wilson’s The State.
  4. Elementary Law. (Elective for Seniors, Third Term), This course is intended for students who expect to enter the profession of law, and is planned to give a general view of the whole field of the law and an introduction to its terminology and its fundamental ideas. It consists of (a) an historical survey of the Roman Law and of the English Common Law and (b) a critical examination of the fundamental ideas in both these systems of law. Recitations and lectures with reports on assigned topics in the history of law. Forty exercises, four hours weekly. Texts, Hadley’s Introduction to Roman Law, Markby’s Elements of Law.
  5. International Law. (Elective for Seniors, Third Term). This course is historical and explanatory of present international relations. It treats of the origin and development of the rules that generally govern the intercourse of modern civilized states, the most important European treaties since 1648, and some subjects of recent interest in American Diplomacy such as the Northeast Fisheries, Asylum on American Merchant Vessels in Foreign Waters, Jurisdiction over Behring Sea, Recognition of Cuban Belligerency. Lectures and readings. Twenty exercises, two hours weekly. Manual, Lawrence’s Principles of International Law.
  6. Graduate Course. This is an extension of courses 1, 2, 3 and 4. The work includes American Constitutional History, 1789-1865, English Constitutional History, 1760-1870, the History of the Common Law, and Comparative Constitutional Law.

         In all these six courses the method of instruction is a combination of recitation upon text book and of lectures. The proportionate use of each varies both with the subject matter and with the class or division and its adjudged requirements; but in all cases a text-book with set lessons, followed by examination, both oral and written, is prescribed as a basis for the class or division work.

         In 1894, through the liberality of Gardiner G. Hubbard, Esq., (D. C. 1841), a Lectureship on United States History during and since the Civil War was established which has been filled for the past three years by ex-Senator Henry L. Dawes. His large ability, long experience in both branches of Congress and ripe judgment have made these lectures authoritative expositions of constitutional law, economic policy and recent political history, and greatly strengthened the regular work of the College. The subjects of these lectures were as follows:

In 1894: The Dual Character of Our Government; The Respective Powers of the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Branches of the Government; The Executive Department; The Battle Before the War; The Reconstruction and Rehabilitation of the Seceding States; The History of Tariff Legislation.

In 1895: The Amendments of the Constitution, Their History and Character; The Origin and Basis of Nullification and Secession; The History and Character of Our Territorial Acquisitions; The Presidency in Court (Impeachment and Counting the Electoral Vote); Thaddeus Stevens and His Leadership in the War and Reconstruction; The United States and the Indian.

In 1896: Politics in Appointments; The Constitution and Interstate Commerce; Inter-Oceanic Commerce; The History and Scope of the Monroe Doctrine; England During and After Our Civil War; Fifty Years of Development and Expansion in a Written Constitution.

         No account of instruction in Law and Economics in Dartmouth College would be complete which failed to mention the work which has been done in its Associated Institutions. In the Chandler Scientific School at different times between 1853 and its closer union with the College in 1893, brief elective courses were offered in Municipal, Constitutional and International Law, and Political Economy. Instruction in these subjects commonly was given by the same person who taught them in the College, but in Municipal Law, from 1883–6, by Henry A. Folsom, Esq., and in Political Economy from 1884–92 by Charles P. Chase (D. C. 1869), the present Treasurer of the College.

         In the Medical School lectures on Medical Jurisprudence were given as early as 1838 and a professorship of Medical Jurisprudence was established as early as 1847. This chair has been held in succession by three eminent graduates of the College whose contributions to legal literature and whose services as teachers of law have added to their high reputation, Chief Justice Joel Parker, Chief Justice Isaac F. Redfield and Prof. John Ordronaux.

         The Law Library of the College numbers by recent count 2700 volumes, made up of statutes, histories of law, treatises, English and American reports, and numerous works on Roman Civil Law. A large part of the treatises and reports were received from Chief Justice Parker. The more recent additions are due to the liberality of some of the Alumni of New York. There is need of constant though small additions to this library for which there is no permanent fund.

         Such have been the civic studies offered by Dartmouth for one hundred years. With what measure of success they have been taught by the different instructors named must be judged by the Historian of the College. But it is permissible, so plain is the record, for any one to affirm that all of them, Shurtleff, Haddock, Long, Brown, and Noyes, and the special Lecturers have been faithful to their high trust of training American youth for good citizenship. This implies, since Dartmouth has constantly insisted that all candidates for its degrees should have some knowledge of Political Science and the fundamental laws of their country, that none of its graduates have gone forth wholly unprepared for the intelligent discharge of their duties as citizens. The circumstance that a large proportion of these graduates have entered the profession of law and the subordinate place commonly given to the topics of Political Science, Public and International Law in Law Offices and Law Schools also have contributed to make these collegiate instructors important though silent forces in the Commonwealth. The extent of the influence of a college upon public affairs is not susceptible of exact statement, but an unmistakable sign that that of Dartmouth has been large is found not only in the number of its distinguished graduates whose names are part of our legal and political history, among whom are Webster, Choate, Chase, Parker, and Redfield, but also in the marked tendency of its graduates toward the profession of law. This tendency, challenging attention in the early years of the century and continuing to its close, is shown in the following table compiled from the General Catalogue:

Years

Total Graduates Lawyers Per cent
1771-1780 89 4

4 ½

1780-1790

165 29 17 ½+
1790-1800 363 132

36 1/3 +

1800-1810

337 156 46 ¼ +
1810-1820 400 109

27 ½ +

1820-1830

335 101 30 +
1830-1840 388 104

26 ¾

1840-1850

588 163 27 ¾ +
1850-1860 565 178

31 ½ +

1860-1870

495 143 29 –
1870-1880 616 184

30 –

1880-1890

538 130 24 +
4879 1433

29 +

         Whatever Dartmouth College has been able to accomplish during the long period under review by the offer of political, legal, and economic studies in promoting good citizenship and in contributing to the broad training of lawyers has been due in no small degree to two causes. One is the strong character of the youth who have formed its constituency and who have come to its portals mainly from New England where township government already had awakened their political instincts and made them unusually receptive of the ideas of political philosophers and eager for a practical knowledge of law. The other is the wise refusal of its Founder to prescribe any such test of political orthodoxy for its teachers as was set up by Jefferson in the University of Virginia or Wharton in the School of Finance and Economy in the University of Pennsylvania, and its trustful commission to them to teach untrammelled and without regard to sect or party what they believed to be the truth.

Source: James Fairbanks Colby, Legal and Political Studies in Dartmouth College, 1796-1896.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Undergraduate

Harvard. Economics Honors Exams, 2002-2016

 

Departmental websites are valuable to visitors for providing up-to-date information but the future needs of historians of economics are of no consequence for the informational calculus of working webmeisters. We all hate it when we encounter dead links in our internet searches. Fortunately, the internet archive WaybackMachine often provides us a time tunnel needed to take on our mission to resuscitate expired web pages for the “old” content we seek. 

Today’s post is a simple listing of archived links to Harvard’s undergraduate honors examinations in economics from the period 2002-2016. The only gap is for the year 2015. Maybe a copy of the 2015 exams has survived as hard-copy in someone’s literal files? Peeps, don’t fail me now!

To see how the honors examinations fit into the economics concentration requirements at Harvard in the early 21st century, I have provided a copy of the 2003/2004 requirements, followed by a link to the requirements 2015/2016.

_____________________________

Concentration requirements rev. Sept. 2003

COURSES REQUIRED OF ALL ECONOMICS CONCENTRATORS

• Math 1a or equivalent knowledge
• Social Analysis 10
• Econ 970 (Sophomore Tutorial)
• Stat 100 or Stat 104; or both Stat 110 and 111; or both Stat 110 and econometrics
• Econ 1010a or 1011a
• Econ 1010b or 1011b
(except for Math, none of the above may be taken pass/fail)
• 3 related field courses
• (1 econometrics course – Econ 1123 or 1126 – for students entering Harvard in fall 2003 or thereafter)

NON-HONORS REQUIREMENTS

• 4 additional half courses (3, for students entering Harvard in fall 2003 or thereafter) that include:

1 course with a writing requirement
1 course with intermediate theory as prerequisite

HONORS REQUIREMENTS

A. With Thesis: The following are required for Summa or Magna degrees:

• 1 econometrics course (Econ 1123 or 1126)
• 3 additional half courses that include:

1 course with a writing requirement
1 course with intermediate theory as prerequisite

• Econ 985 (Senior Thesis Seminar)
• Successful completion of senior thesis
Honors general examination

B. Advanced Course Track: Department honors without thesis – cum degree only

• 1 econometrics course (Econ 1123 or 1126)
• 5 additional half courses that include:

2 courses with a writing requirement
2 courses with intermediate theory as prerequisite

Honors general examination

C. Joint Concentration

• Same as Honors requirements with thesis with one exception:

4 courses in joint field instead of the 3 related field courses

ECONOMICS AS THE ALLIED FIELD

• Social Analysis 10
• 4 additional half courses in economics, including at least one intermediate theory course (1010a, 1011a, 1010b, 1011b – these may not be taken pass/fail)
• Thesis required combining both areas of study
Honors general examination – answer either the micro, macro, or econometrics question

Note: Courses may count for more than one requirement – one course could satisfy a writing and prerequisite requirement. However, you still must take the required overall number of economics courses.

Source: Oct 9, 2003 capture by the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.

Cf. the economics concentration requirements at Harvard as of October 2015.

_____________________________

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

-unavailable-

2016