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Harvard. Undergraduate microeconomics reading list. Marglin, 1969-70

 

 

In the year after being granted tenure at Harvard, Stephen A. Marglin taught an undergraduate microeconomics course to which he invited Professors Galbraith, Arrow, Gintis and Dorfman for a discussion with his students. He included a copy of his reading list in his invitation to Galbraith which are both transcribed below. 

Marglin’s biography was featured in a few Harvard Crimson articles over the years (the common theme to these articles is “What’s a nice radical economist like you doing in a place like this?”): May 12, 1975; March 12, 1980 ; May 21, 1982 ; June 1, 2009.

 

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Invitation from Marglin to Galbraith to participate in a discussion with his microeconomics students in January 1970

HARVARD UNIVERSITY

Stephen A. Marglin
Professor of Economics

1737 Cambridge Street, Room 410
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
(617) 868-7600 Ext. 3759

December 19, 1969

Professor J. Kenneth Galbraith
Littauer Center 207
Harvard University
Cambridge, Mass. 02138

Dear Ken:

The “confrontation” you kindly agreed to participate in for the benefit of Ec 20 and Ec 21 students has been fixed for Friday January 9, 1970 2-4 PM, in Emerson 105. In addition to yourself Ken Arrow and Herb Gintis have agreed to participate. Bob Dorfman, who teaches Ec 21, has agreed to help guide the discussion.

The meeting will rely heavily on students’ questions, but not completely. To get the ball rolling, I am working with my section-men to prepare questions that they will ask in the beginning. These will hopefully elicit from each of your short statements on the issues we believe to be most important. I expect these questions and your answers will occupy the first 45 minutes or so of the meeting, with the rest of the time for the students.

I am enclosing a copy of the reading list to give you an idea of the scope and depth of the course. I appreciate very much your willingness to participate in this meeting. I expect it will be extremely worthwhile for my students, the teaching fellows, and for me personally.

Yours sincerely,
[Signed: “Steve”]
Stephen A. Marglin

cc: Robert Dorfman
SM:lw
(enclosure)

____________________________________

Harvard University
Economics 20a
Microeconomic Theory

Fall 1969-70
Professor Marglin

Reading List I

  1. Consumption
    1. Scitovsky, Welfare and Competition, pp. 29-50
    2. Baumol, Economic Theory and Operations Analysis, (2nd edition), pp. 169-202
  2. Production
    1. Dorfman, The Price System, pp. 14-42
    2. Scitovsky, Welfare and Competition, pp. 109-147
    3. Dorfman, “Mathematical or ‘Linear’ Programing: A Nonmathematical Exposition,” reprinted in Kamerschen, Readings in Microeconomics, (abbreviated DRK henceforth), pp. 547-576
    4. Coase, “The Nature of the Firm,” reprinted in Boulding and Spivey, AEA Readings in Price Theory, (henceforth abbreviated AEA), pp. 331-351
  3. Competitive Markets
    1. Dorfman, The Price System, pp. 76-88
    2. Viner, “Cost Curves and Supply Curves,” reprinted in DRK, pp. 197-228, and in AEA, pp. 198-232
  4. Restricted Competition
    1. Sraffa, “The Laws of Returns Under Competitive Conditions,” reprinted in AEA, pp. 180-197
    2. Scitovsky, Welfare and Competition, pp. 319-337, 373-396
    3. Dorfman, The Price System, pp. 89-104
    4. Modigliani, “New Developments on the Oligopoly Front,” DRK, pp. 355-378
  5. Capital and Interest
    1. Fisher, The Theory of Interest, pp. 61-287
    2. Scitovsky, Welfare and Competition, pp. 189-216
    3. Duesenberry, Business Cycles and Economic Growth, pp. 49-133
  6. General Equilibrium
    1. Dorfman, The Price System, pp. 105-125
    2. Lange and Taylor, On the Economic Theory of Socialism, pp. 59-129
  7. Welfare
    1. Dorfman, The Price System, pp. 126-146
    2. Scitovsky, Welfare and Competition, pp. 338-370
    3. Bator, “The Simple Analytics of Welfare Economics,” reprinted in DRK, pp. 503-544
  8. Income Distribution
    1. Budd (editor), Inequality and Poverty, Introduction
    2. Locke, Second Treatise of Government, ch. 5 (“Of Property”)
    3. Clark, J.B., The Distribution of Wealth, ch. 1
    4. Budd (editor), Inequality and Poverty, Part 1, pp. 1-49
  9. Criticisms of Conventional Theory
    1. Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class, ch. 2, 4, and 5
    2. Galbraith, The Affluent Society, ch. 10 and 11.
    3. Berle and Means, The Modern Corporation and Private Property, Skim Book 1; read Book IV more carefully.
    4. Nordquist, “The Break up of the Maximization Principle,” reprinted in DRK pp. 278-295
    5. Veblen, “The Limitations of Marginal Utility,” reprinted in Mitchell (editor), What Veblen Taught, pp. 151-175
    6. Cohen and Cyert, Theory of the Firm, pp. 329-351
    7. Simon,” A Behavioral Model of Economic Choice,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1955 (omit appendix). Reprinted in Simon, Models of Man, pp. 241-256
    8. Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom, pp. 1-36, 108-160
    9. Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, Part II, pp. 61-163
    10. Galbraith, The New Industrial State
    11. Baran and Sweezy, Monopoly Capital
    12. Rawls, “Distributive Justice”, pp. 58-72, 79-82

 

Source: John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. John Kenneth Galbraith Personal Papers. Series 5. Harvard University File, 1949-1990. Box 526, Folder “Harvard University Department of Economics: General Correspondence, 1967-1974 (2 of 3)”.

Image Source: Stephen A. Marglin from Harvard Crimson June 1, 2009.