From time to time in rummaging through folders in archival boxes, I come across a random artifact that is linked to a old professor of mine, a professional colleague or even a classmate from graduate school. The Department of Political Economy at Johns Hopkins University wrote Ph.D. examination questions targeted to the individual candidate, as we see in the nine hours worth of examinations taken over two days by then 27 year old Gertrude Guyton Schroeder at the end of September 1947.
Gertrude Elsa Guyton was born in New Mexico February 20, 1920, married twice (first husband: William Schroeder, second husband Rush Varley Greenslade). According to her Washington Post obituary (below), she worked as an economist for the CIA from 1954 to 1969. From 1969 to 1993 she was a professor of economics at the University of Virginia. She died March 30, 2007, leaving an endowment of nearly $10 million to the University of Virginia for international studies (see below).
These 1947 examination questions are interesting as artifacts associated with one of the relatively small number of woman of her generation who pursued Ph.D. studies in economics. My professional connection to Gertrude Schroeder (as I knew her) was as the lead author of a comparative study of US and Soviet consumption à la International Comparison Project (Kravis, Heston and Summers):
Schroeder, Gertrude E. and Edwards, Imogene. 1981: Consumption in the USSR: An international comparison. Joint Economic Committee, US Congress. US Government Printing Office: Washington, DC., 1981.
The purchasing-power-parities published there along with the Soviet personal consumption statistics were an essential ingredient for the calculations in my paper for the Abram Bergson memorial issue, The ‘Welfare Standard’ and Soviet Consumers, Comparative Economic Studies, Vol. 47, issue 2, June 2005, pp. 333-345. I spoke to her only once or twice about her data, and she was indeed delighted that these data proved of use for empirical analysis nearly a quarter of century later.
I was unable to find a picture of Gertrude Schroeder Greenslade for this posting so I figured the quote from Brecht’s Threepenny Opera was appropriate for this former CIA analyst:(with apologies to Bertolt Brecht) “While some stand in the darkness and others stand in light, you see the latter clearly, the former hide in night.”
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AER Membership Listing, 1970
SCHROEDER, GERTRUDE E., academic, government; b. Albuquerque, N.M., 1920; B.A., Colo. State Coll., 1940; M.A., Johns Hopkins, 1948, Ph.D., 1953. DOC. DIS. The Growth of Major Basic Steel Companies, 1900-1950, 1952. FIELDS 2b, 9, 7d. PUB. The Growth of Major Basic Steel Companies, 1900-1950, 1954; “Industrial Labor Productivity,” JEC, Dimensions of Soviet Economic Power, 1962; “”Soviet Economic Reforms: A Study in Contradictions,” Soviet Studies, July 1968. RES. Soviet Wage Statistics and Real Wages. Economist, various U.S. Govt. Agencies, 1943-48; sr. economist, Dept. of Labor and Dept. of Health, Edn. and Welfare since 1950 [sic, cf. obituary below]; part-time tchg., U. Md. and American U., 1966-68. ADDRESS 3051 Porter St. NW., Washington DC 20008.
Source: Biographical Listings of Members, The American Economic Review, Vol. 59, No. 6 (Jan., 1970) p. 389.
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AER Membership Listing, 1974
SCHROEDER, GERTRUDE E., academic; b. Albuquerque, N.M., 1920; Educ. B.S., Colo. State Coll., 1936 [sic]; M.A., Johns Hopkins, 1948, Ph.D., 1953. Doc. Dis. The Growth of Major Basic Steel Companies, 1900-1950, 1952. Fields 050, 110, 800. Pub. “Consumer Problems in the Soviet Union”, Problems of Communism, 1973; “Recent Developments in Planning and Incentives in the Soviet Union”, Soviet Econ. Prospects for the seventies, 1973; “The Reform of the Indsl. Supply System in the USSR”, Soviet Studies, 1972. Res. A study of the Soviet fin. system. Prev. Pos. Sr. Econs., various U.S. Govt. Agencies, 1943-69; Cur. Pos. Prof. of Econs., U. of Va. since 1969. Address Univ. of Va., Dept. of Econs., Charlottesville, VA 22901.
Source: Directory of Members, The American Economic Review, Vol. 64, No. 5 (Oct., 1974) p. 359.
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Obituary. Washington Post
Gertrude Greenslade, Economist
Gertrude Schroeder Greenslade, 87, an economist at the CIA and the University of Virginia, died of renal failure March 30 at Powhatan Nursing Home in Fairfax County. She lived in McLean.
Mrs. Greenslade was an employee of the Central Intelligence Agency from 1954 until 1969 and worked as a consultant to the CIA from 1993 until her death. She was a member of the faculty at the University of Virginia from 1969 until 1993, when she retired.
She was born in Albuquerque and graduated from Colorado State University. She received two degrees in economics from Johns Hopkins University, a master’s in 1948 and a doctorate in 1953.
Her specialty was the study of Soviet and Eastern European economies. Mrs. Greenslade was fluent in Russian and was a former president of both the Southern Conference on Slavic Studies and the Association for Comparative Economics.
Her first husband, William Schroeder, died in 1966. Her second husband, Rush V. Greenslade, died in 1978….
Source: Washington Post, April 12, 2007.
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Gift to the University of Virginia
Professor emeritus Gertrude Schroeder Greenslade designated the University as the beneficiary of a revocable trust and two individual retirement accounts. Her gift of more than $7 million will support interdisciplinary international studies in the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences.
Source: The Cornerstone Society Report, 2007-2008.
Professor donates to international studies
University international studies centers benefit from $9.8 million endowment
By Virginia Terwilliger
The Center for South Asian Studies and the East Asia Center, along with several other international studies programs, recently received more than $386,000 to strengthen and elevate their programs for the 2009-10 school year, thanks to late Economics Prof. Gertrude Greenslade.
Prior to her death in March 2007, Greenslade arranged to leave $9.8 million in an endowment to the University’s international studies programs. Now, those funds are beginning to be distributed to various University beneficiaries, College Dean Meredith Woo said, adding that the terms of the endowment mandate that only 5 percent may be distributed immediately.
The money also will contribute to exchange programs between the University and the University of Rome, […end of webpage]
Source: The Cavalier Daily, October 12, 2009.
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COMPREHENSIVE EXAMINATION
POLITICAL ECONOMY
[Johns Hopkins University]
Gertrude Guyton Schroeder
Monday morning, Sept. 29 [1947]
Three hours
Answer 3
- Prepare an essay on the theory and measurement of productivity.
- Compare the development and behavior of American and European unionism.
- Analyze the theoretical and empirical relation between economic growth and fluctuation.
- Write a review of a book in economics that has appeared since World War II.
Monday afternoon, Sept. 29 [1947]
Three hours
Answer 3
- Develop the history of banking and of theory about banking; and indicate their relevance to present-day problems and policies.
- Explain the theory of interest; what it is, how it gets determined, and what is its significance for economic statics and dynamics. Do not neglect a review of its actual behavior.
- Compose a short article on the corporation—its history, legal status, its quantitative position, and its impact on the economy.
- What are the major tools of monetary and fiscal policy? Evaluate them.
Tuesday morning, Sept. 30 [1947]
Three hours
Answer 3
- Set forth the doctrine of comparative advantage using arithmetic models and explaining both the assumptions on which the doctrine rests and the limitations on the conclusion that may be drawn from it.
- Write for an hour on monopoly.
- Compare on all major points the theories of Alfred Marshall and J. M. Keynes. Show what both these synthesizers owe to earlier thinkers. What ideas of theirs, if any, have been rejected?
- In what sense may it be argued that the competitive allocation of resources is an optimum allocation?
Source: Johns Hopkins University, Ferdinand Hamburger, Jr. Archives. Department of Political Economy Series 5/6. Box 6/1, Folder “Comprehensive Exams for Ph.D. in Political Economy, 1947-65”.