This is the second batch of material I post from Guy Henderson Orcutt’s undergraduate course Economics 110 at Harvard. His bibliography on the scientific method was included in the previous posting.
A four item reading list for Economics 110 in 1949-50 and a selective reading list (Part I, no part II in the folder) for the 1950-51 course have been transcribed for this posting.
One more bibliographic list is filed under 1949-50, Economics 110: “A Bibliography of Statistical or Inductive Studies of the Determinants of Imports or Exports”. That bibliography is identical to Appendix 4B of Orcutt’s famous paper, Measurement of Price Elasticites in International Trade (Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 32, No. 2. May, 1950), 117-132. This material was explicitly discussed in the academic year 1950-51 in the course in Economics 210b (see Orcutt’s course offerings below).
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If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled. You can subscribe to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror below. There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….
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1949-50
Economics 110
Reading List
(Additions will be made to this list)
Henry Schultz—The Theory and Measurement of Demand, University of Chicago Press, 1938.
William H. Nicholls—Labor Productivity Functions in Meat Packing, University of Chicago Press, 1948.
Dale Yoder, D. G. Paterson, et al—Local Labor Market Research, University of Minnesota Press, 1948.
Jacob Marschak—Introduction to Econometrics, Mimeographed lectures (Buffalo and Chicago). Only about two dozen copies are still available. They can be mailed for $2.25 a copy plus postage. To obtain them write the Cowles Commission, University of Chicago, Chicago 37, Illinois. I expect to use this book for Economics 110 and Economics 125b this semester and for mathematical economics next fall.
Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 4, Folder “Economics, 1949-50, (1 of 3)”
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[Course offerings 1950-51: Orcutt’s Empirical Economics]
Economics 110a. Empirical Economics: National Income and Business Fluctuations
Half-course (fall term). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 12. Assistant Professor Orcutt.
This course will deal with the empirical foundations of economic theory in the fields of national income and business fluctuations, The methods by which various types of prediction are attempted will be given considerable attention.
[Economics 110b. Empirical Economics: The Price Mechanism]
Half-course (fall term). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 12. Assistant Professor Orcutt.
Omitted in 1950-51; to be given in 1951-52.
This course will deal with the empirical foundations of economic theory concerning the functioning of the price mechanism. The agricultural and foreign trade sectors will receive particular attention.
Properly qualified undergraduates will be admitted Economics 210b.
Economics 210a. Empirical Economics: National Income and Business Fluctuations
Half-course (fall term). Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 11. Assistant Professor Orcutt.
This course will deal with the problems and techniques of testing economic theory and of prediction in the fields of national income and business fluctuations.
Economics 210b. Empirical Economics: The Price Mechanism
Half-course (spring term). Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 11. Assistant Professor Orcutt.
This course will deal with the problems and techniques of testing economic theories and predictions concerning the functioning of the price mechanism. The agricultural and foreign trade sectors will receive particular attention. Properly qualified undergraduates will be admitted to this course.
Source. Final Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences During 1950-51. Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XLVII, No. 23 (September, 1950) , pp. 80, 84.
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A Selected List of Readings Relevant to
Economics 110a and 210a
Part I
Asher Achinstein, Introduction to Business Cycles, Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1950
John Maurice Clark, Strategic Factors in Business Cycles, National Bureau of Economic Research (1935), reprinted Augustus M. Kelley, Inc., 1949
http://papers.nber.org/books/clar34-1
James Duesenberry, Income, Saving and the Theory of Consumer Behavior, Harvard University Press, 1949
William J. Fellner, Monetary Policies and Full Employment, University of California Press, 1946
Edwin Frickey, Economic Fluctuations in the United States, Harvard University Press, 1942
Gottfried Haberler, Prosperity and Depression, 3rd ed., 1943, reprinted by United Nations, 1946
P. M. Hauser and W. R. Leonard, Government Statistics for Business Use, John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1946
J. R. Hicks, A Contribution to the Theory of the Trade Cycle, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1950
Lawrence R. Klein, Economic Fluctuations in the United States, 1921-1941, John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1950
Tjalling C. Koopmans and others, Statistical Inference in Dynamic Economic Models, John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1950
Wassily Leontief, Structure of the American Economy, 1919-1929, Harvard University Press, 1941
Jacob Marschak, Introduction to Econometrics, Cowles Commission, University of Chicago, 1949
A. F. Burns and Wesley C. Mitchell, Measuring Business Cycles, National Bureau of Economic Research, 1946
Oskar Morgenstern, On the Accuracy of Economic Observations, Princeton University Press, 1950
Philip Neff and Annette Weifenbach, Business Cycles in selected Industrial Areas, University of California Press, 1949
W. Nelson Peach and Walter Krause, Basic Data of the American Economy, 3rd ed., Richard D. Irwin, Inc., Chicago
D. H. Robertson, A Study of Industrial Fluctuation, 1915, reprinted by London School of Economics and Political Science, 1948
Richard Ruggles, An Introduction to National Income and Income Analysis, McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1949
J. Tinbergen, Statistical Testing of Business-Cycle Theories, Vol. I, “A Method and Its Application to Investment Activity,” Vol. II, “Business Cycles in the United States of America, 1919-1932,” League of Nations Economic Intelligence Service, Geneva, 1939
J. Tinbergen and J. J. Polak, The Dynamics of Business Cycles, University of Chicago Press, 1950
U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States, 1789-1945
Thomas Wilson, Fluctuations in Income and Employment (3rd ed.), Pitman Publishing Company, New York, 1949
Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 4, Folder “Economics, 1949-50, (1 of 3)”
Image Source: Cropped from portrait in Harold W. Watts (1991). Distinguished Fellow: An Appreciation of Guy Orcutt. Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 5, No. 1, Winter, pp. 171-179.