Categories
Federal Government Statistics Suggested Reading

Government Statistics. Centenary History of the U.S. Survey of Current Business. Reamer, 2020

While trawling the internet for a ca. 1920 photo of Edwin Francis Gay for another post (coming attraction), I found the following history of the Department of Commerce’s publication “Survey of Current Business” commissioned for the occasion of the centenary celebration of its founding. We encounter Herbert Hoover, Wesley Clair Mitchell, Edwin Francis Gay, and Simon Kuznets on page one of the history…

_______________________

The Origins of
the Survey of Current Business:
A Window on the Evolution of Economic Policy, Research, and Statistics

By Andrew D. Reamer

For decades, the Survey of Current Business, the flagship monthly publication of the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), has provided macro-, industry, international, and regional economists with data, analysis, and methodological research concerning the national economic accounts. This was not always so.

The Survey was founded in July 1921 as Department of Commerce (DOC) Secretary Herbert Hoover’s primary tool to promote macroeconomic stabilization. Specifically, the Survey published current, detailed industry-specific data from hundreds of public and private secondary sources so businesses might make better operational and investment decisions. One decade and a Great Depression later, the extensive statistical clearinghouse feeding the Survey became the foundation for Simon Kuznets’ famed study of national income and the subsequent development of national economic accounting.

The Survey’s creation and its later repurposing were the results of efforts by economists Edwin Gay and Wesley Mitchell, largely through a series of collaborations with Hoover between 1921 and 1933. As members of Hoover’s Joint Census Advisory Committee, Gay and Mitchell recommended the Survey’s development, modeled on the statistical clearinghouse they created to guide federal economic planning in the First World War. As founding leaders of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), they guided path-setting studies of national income and business cycles, several commissioned by Hoover; trained and hired Kuznets, who contributed to several NBER studies, including one for Hoover; and detailed Kuznets to the DOC to prepare the groundbreaking national income report.

This article begins by describing the Survey’s role in economic stabilization policy in the 1920s and the development of national economic accounting in the 1930s. The succeeding sections unpack this story by delving into how the Survey came to play these successive roles, particularly through Gay, Mitchell, and Hoover’s efforts. …

Source: From “Chronicling 100 Years of the U.S. Economy,” Survey of Current Business Vol. 100, No. 10 (October 2020)

Links to archived versions of the full article: htm; pdf.

Image Source: Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, ca.1921. From the blog of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum.

Categories
Columbia Economist Market Economists Harvard

Harvard and Columbia. President of Harvard headhunting conversation regarding economists. Mitchell and Mills, 1936

The following typed notes were based on a conversation that took place on February 21, 1936 regarding possible future hires for the Harvard economics department. President James B. Conant (or someone on his behalf) met with Columbia university professors Wesley C. Mitchell and his NBER sidekick, Frederick C. Mills. This artifact comes from President Conant’s administrative records in the Harvard Archives.

In the memo we find a few frank impressions of members of the Harvard economics departments together with head-hunting tips for established and up-and-coming economists of the day.

An observation that jumps from the paper is the identification pinned to the name Arthur F. Burns, namely, “(Jew)”. Interestingly enough this was not added to Arthur William Marget (see the earlier post Harvard Alumnus. A.W. Marget. Too Jewish for Chicago? 1927.) nor to Seymour Harris.  

________________________

[stamp] FEB 25, 1936

ECONOMICS

Confidential Memorandum of a Conversation on Friday, February 21, with Wesley [Clair] Mitchell and his colleague, Professor [Frederick Cecil] Mills (?) of Columbia

General impression is that the Department of Economics at Harvard is in a better state today than these gentlemen would have thought possible a few years ago. The group from 35-50 which now faces the future is about as good as any in the country. [Edward Hastings] Chamberlin, [John Henry] Williams,[Gottfried] Haberler and Schlichter [sic, [Sumner Slichter] are certainly quite outstanding. Very little known about [Edward Sagendorph] Mason;  he seems to have made a favorable impression but no writings. [Seymour EdwinHarris slightly known, favorable but not exciting.

[John Ulric] Neff admitted to be the best man in economic history if we could get him. Names of other people in this country mentioned included:

[Robert Alexander] Brady — University of California, now working on Carnegie grant on bureaucracy; under 40.

Arthur [F.] Burns at Rutgers (Jew) now working with the Bureau of Economic Research and not available for 3 or 4 years. Said by them to be excellent.

Henry Schultz of Chicago, about in Chamberlin’s class and age, or perhaps a little better.

[Arthur William] Marget of Minnesota, Harvard Ph.D., I believe; well known, perhaps better than Chamberlin. Flashy and perhaps unsound. (Mitchell and Mills disagree to some extent on their estimate of his permanent value but agree on his present high visibility).

Winfield Riffler [sic, Winfield William Riefler], recently called to the Institute of Advanced Study at Princeton, probably one of the most if not the most outstanding of the younger men.

Morris [Albert] Copeland of Washington; good man but not so good as Chamberlin.

Giddons [sic, Harry David Gideonse?] of Chicago, very highly thought of by Chicago people but has not written a great deal; supposed to be an excellent organizer.

C. E. [Clarence Edwin] Ayres, University of Texas, about 40; in N.R.A. at Washington. Mitchell thinks very highly of him.

England

[Theodore Emmanuel Gugenheim] Gregory, at London School of Economics, about 50, same field as Williams but not so good. Mills more favorable than Mitchell.

Other outstanding young Englishmen:

[Richard F.] Kahn, Kings College, Cambridge

F. Colin [sic, Colin Grant] Clark, of Cambridge

Lionel Robins [sic, Lionel Charles Robbins] of London, age 35, rated very highly by both Mills and Mitchell

F. A. Hayek, another Viennese now in London; spoken of very highly by both Mills and Mitchell.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Records of President James B. Conant, Box 54, Folder Economics, “1935-1936”.

Image Sources: Wesley Clair Mitchell (left) from the “Original Founders” page at the website of the Foundation for the Study of Business Cycles; Frederick C. Mills (right) from the Columbia Daily Spectator, Vol. CVIII, No. 68, 11 February 1964.

Categories
Berkeley Curriculum Economics Programs

Berkeley. Expansion of economics course offerings announcement. Course offerings 1904-1905.

 

In May 1903 the College of Commerce at the University of California announced a complete reorganization of the economics department’s course offerings for the coming academic year. This was reported in the Berkeley Gazette newspaper which appears to be a slight rearrangment of the University of California’s official Register for 1903-04. The newspaper article is provided in this post followed by the faculty and course announcements for the 1904-05 academic year.

So in the yin and yang of economic theory and application, practical economics received a boost at Berkeley early in the twentieth century with the introduction of  “…a large number of new courses in economics of the most direct practical application to the needs of modern industrial life.”

 

____________________________

Enlarges Economic Courses.
University Offers New Opportunities for Students of Practical Business.
[Announced for 1903-1904]

In response to the needs of the rapidly increasing number of students enrolled in the College of Commerce of the University of California, the work of the Department of Economics has been completely reorganized. Announcement has been made of a large number of new courses in economics of the most direct practical application to the needs of modern industrial life. These courses will be of the greatest interest, however, not only to students who are fitting themselves for banking, insurance, commerce, manufacturing, and exploitation of mineral resources, but also to the theoretical student.

Professor Carl C. Plehn, Dean of the College of Commerce, will offer during the coming year a course in “American Agriculture,” in which he will discuss the development of agriculture in the United States and its present condition from an economical point of view; a new course in “Accounting and Corporation Finance,” setting forth the principles of accounting and credit as illustrated by the methods of large corporations and of the Government, the character of negotiable securities, and the methods exemplified in bank statements and railroad and other corporation and trusts accounts: and courses in “Public Finance,” “Taxation,” and in “Statistics.”

Assistant Professor Wesley C. Mitchell will offer a new course in “Banking,” intended primarily to give men who expect to engage in business such general knowledge of banking as will best prepare them for their professions; a new course in “Hondy” [sic,  very likely a typographical error with “Money” the actual course name, see below] — a study of the economic problems centering around the monetary system; and courses in “Elementary Economic Ideas;” “The Problem of Labor” — a study of the position of wage earners in the economic organization of today; and in “Economic Origins.”

Mr. Lincoln Hutchinson, Instructor in Commercial Geography, will offer a new course in “The Materials of Commerce,” dealing with the principal commodities which enter into commercial affairs, production, sources and markets; a new course on the “Industrial and Commercial Development of the United States,” involving a discussion of the leading commercial problems of the day; a new course entitled the “Economic Position of the Great Powers,” a new course on “The Consular Service,” involving a brief history of the consular service, followed by a technical study of the training and duties of consuls and the practice of the leading commercial nations in consular affairs; and courses in “The History of Commerce,” “Commercial Geography,” and “The Commercial Resources of the Spanish-American Countries.”

Dr. Simon Litman, who recently came to the University as Instructor in Commercial Practice, will offer new courses in “Tariff Policies,” in “Modern Colonial Economics,” a study of the principal commercial and industrial problems which arise in connection with colonial conditions, as illustrated by the experience of the leading colonizing nations, and in “Communication and Transportation,” a study of the Post, the Telegraph, the Telephone, Trade Journals, and facilities for transportation other than railroads; and he will repeat courses already given in “Industrial Processes” and “The Technique of Trade.”

The instruction offered by the Department of Economics will be rounded out by special economic courses offered by professors in other departments. Professor Elwood Mead of the chair of Irrigation will offer a course on “The Organization of the Irrigation Industry,” Professor John C. Moore courses on “The Methods China and Japan,” Professor Ernest C. Moore courses on “The Methods of Modern Charities and Corrections,” and Albert W. Whitney of the Department of Mathematics -a new course in “Insurance,” an account of the history, principles and problems of life, fire, and other forms of insurance, with special study of the mathematical principles involved in actuarial science, and with practice in the computation and use of tables; and Mr. N. M. Hall of the Botany Department a course in “Economic Botany,” dealing with the plant families which furnish important commercial products and agricultural crops.

The work in economics will be completed by the highly important courses offered by the head of the department, Professor Adolph C. Miller of the chair of Political Economy and Commerce. Professor Miller announces a new course in “Railway Transportation,” an examination of the chief financial and economical questions which arise in railway organization and management, embracing such topics as capitalization, speculation, accounting, rate-making, competition, pooling, and consolidation; a new course in “Socialism,” a review of modern socialistic thought with some consideration of its bearing on the proper conception of the problem of social organization; a course in “Modern Industrialism,” dealing with the workings of competition and the tendency toward industrial monopolies; “The Financial History of the United States,” and a course in “Advanced Economics.”

As the culmination of the work of the department, Professor Miller announces a Seminary in Economics. Arrangements will be made for the guidance of individual students or groups of students competent, to engage in economical research. The results will be presented to the Seminary for discussion as occasion may suggest.

Source: The Berkeley Gazette (May 1, 1903), p. 2.

____________________________

Economics Course Offerings
[1904-1905]

Adolph Caspar Miller, M.A., Flood Professor of Political Economy and Commerce.

Carl Copping Plehn, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Finance and Statistics, on the Flood Foundation, and Dean of the Faculty of the College of Commerce.

Henry Rand Hatfield, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Accounting, on the Flood Foundation,

Wesley Clair Mitchell, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Commerce, on the Flood Foundation

Simon Litman, Dr.jur., Instructor in Commercial Practice.

Jessica Blanche Peixotto, Ph.D., Lecturer in Sociology.

Elwood Mead, M.S., C.E., D.Eng., Professor of the Institutions and Practice of Irrigation.

Thomas Walker Page, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Mediæval History.

Ernest Carroll Moore, LL.B., Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Education.

Albert Wurts Whitney, A.B., Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Insurance Methods.

1. The courses prerequisite to a group (15 units) of Upper Division work in the departments of History, Political Science, Economics, or Jurisprudence are any three of the following five; History 51, 54, 64, Political Science 1 (A and B), and Economics 1. No part of the work in the group of advanced courses is to be undertaken until all the three prerequisite courses shall have been completed.

2. But students who plan to take less than twelve units of Upper Division work in the four departments above mentioned may proceed immediately with the advanced courses for which they have the particular prerequisites.

The above regulations apply to students graduating in or after May, 1907. Other students are requested to observe the rules set forth in the Register for 1903-04, page 143.

A. Lectures on Commerce. Members of the Staff.

1 hr., throughout the year, ½ unit each half-year. M, 4. Prescribed each year for all students in the College of Commerce.

1. Introduction to Economics. Professor Miller.

A study of the elementary laws of economics as illustrated in the growth of industry and commerce in England and the United States.
3 hrs., throughout the year. M W F, 9.

2. Principles of Economics. Professor Miller and Assistant Professor Mitchell.

A critical exposition of the leading principles of economics on the basis of a selected text.
3 hrs., either half-year. First half-year, M W F, 10; second half-year, M W F, 9. Prerequisite: Course 1.
N. B. — This course should be taken by all students who intend to take any considerable amount of Economics.

5. Economics of Industry. Associate Professor Plehn.

An elementary course planned to meet the needs of the students in the Engineering Colleges.
3 hrs., first half-year. MWF, 1.

N.B. — This course will not be accepted as fulfilling any prescribed work in the College of Commerce, nor in the Colleges of General Culture.

3. Introduction to Commercial Geography. Associate Professor Hatfield.

The elements of scientific geography; relation between geographical phenomena and economical development; brief survey of the resources of the leading countries of the world.
2 hrs., first half-year. Tu Th, 11. Prerequisite: Course 1.

4. The Materials of Commerce. [Not given in 1904-05.]

The principal commodities which enter into commercial dealings; causes promoting their production; effects of climate, soil, and other conditions; detailed study of their sources, and of the markets in which they are sold.
3 hrs., second half-year. Tu Th S, 10. Prerequisite: Course 3.

4A. Geography of International Trade. Associate Professor Hatfield.

Demand and supply in the world markets; exports and imports of the leading countries; sea-ports; commercial and industrial centers; routes and methods of transportation; postal and telegraphic communication, etc.
2 hrs., second-half year. Tu Th, 11. Prerequisite: Course 3.

5a. American Agriculture. Associate Professor Plehn.

Leading factors in the development of agriculture in the United States and a study of its present condition from an economical point of view. This course will be based largely upon the materials furnished by the government reports and the census returns.
3 hrs., second half-year. M W F, 1. Prerequisite: Course 1, except that advanced students in the College of Agriculture may be admitted, with the consent of the instructor, without Course 1B, but a familiarity with the fundamental ideas and terminology of economics is essential.

6. History of Commerce. [Not given in 1904-05.]

Mediaeval commerce and the “Golden Age” of the Italian Republics; Turkish conquests and the “Age of Discovery”; new routes and the shifting of trade centers; the era of colonization and commercial rivalries; mercantilism and its results; nineteenth century commerce; its development and problems.
3 hrs., second half-year. Tu Th S, 10. Prerequisite: Course 3 and one course in English History.

7. Modern Industrialism. Professor Miller. [Not given in 1904-05.]

A descriptive and interpretative account of the rise of the modern industrial system, especially as affected by the Industrial Revolution. The workings of competition in the nineteenth century and the recent tendency toward the formation of industrial monopolies will receive particular attention.
3 hrs., second half-year. M W F, 2. Prerequisite: Courses 1 and 2.

8. Theory and History of Banking. Assistant Professor Mitchell.

A study of banking from the standpoint of its relations to the economic development of society. To show what rôle banks have played in this development and the functions they perform at present, attention will be directed to the origin of banking in Europe and America; the gradual changes in banking methods; governmental policies toward banks; the relations between banking, monetary, and fiscal systems; the effect of banking operations upon price fluctuations; the control of banks over the direction of investment; the special banking requirements of different communities; etc.
3 hrs., second half-year. M W F, 8. Prerequisite: Courses 1 and 2.

8A. Practical Banking. Associate Professor Hatfield.

The internal organization and administration of a modern bank, the nature of bank investments, the extension of credit, the valuation of an account, methods of keeping records.
3 hrs., first half-year. Tu Th S, 10. Prerequisite: Courses 1 and 2.

8B. Money. Assistant Professor Mitchell.

A study of the economic problems centering around the monetary system.
3 hrs., first half-year. M W F, 8. Prerequisite: Courses 1 and 2.

8C. International Exchanges. Assistant Professor Mitchell.

Foreign bills; a study of the various factors that affect their price; international trade in commodities; investments of capital in foreign countries; interest rates in important money-markets; shipments of gold; etc.
2 hrs., second half-year. Tu Th, 9. Prerequisite: Courses 1 and 2.

9. Public Finance-Taxation. Associate Professor Plehn.

The theory and methods of taxation, illustrated by the experience of various nations; the expenditure and administration of public funds; public debts. Especial attention will be paid to taxation in California.
3 hrs., first half-year. M W F, 2. Prerequisite: Course 1.

10. Statistics. Associate Professor Plehn.

The history, theory, and methods of statistics. The collection, analysis, and presentation of statistical data relating to eco nomics and kindred sciences. Practice in the use of mechanical, graphical, and other devices, and apparatus for tabulation, computation and analysis.
3 hrs., throughout the year, including one laboratory period. Tn Th, 11, and a laboratory period to be arranged.
Prerequisite: Course 1; Mathematics 20A must be taken in conjunction with this course. The special consent of the instructor is also necessary.

11. Insurance. Assistant Professor Whitney.

An account of the history, principles and problems of Insurance, particularly of Life-insurance and of Fire-insurance; a special study of the mathematical principles involved in actuarial science, with practice in the computation and use of tables.
3 hrs., second half-year. M W F, 9. Prerequisite: Mathematics 20a.

(77) The Economic Factors in American History. Associate Professor Page.

This course is intended to present, in their proper historical perspective, the facts and tendencies in the growth of American commerce, industry, and finance, and to indicate their influence on the constitutional and social development of the nation.
3 hrs., first half-year. M W F, 3. Prerequisite: Course 1 and two courses in American History.
[This course may be recorded as Economics 77 or History 77.]

12. Industrial and Commercial Development of the United States. [Not given in 1904-05.]

A study of the economic growth of the United States during the nineteenth century. The object is to give the student an understanding of causes which have brought the country to its present position among the nations of the world, and a basis for discussion of the leading commercial problems of to-day.
3 hrs., first half-year. Tu Th S, 9. Prerequisite: At least Sophomore standing, Course 3, and one course in American History.

12A. History of Economic Science. Professor Miller.

A critical review of the leading systems of economic thought since the sixteenth century.
2 hrs., first half-year. Tu Th, 2. Prerequisite: Courses 1 and 2, and at least Junior standing.

13A. Problems of Labor. Assistant Professor Mitchell.

The position of wage-earners in the economic organization of to-day.
3 hrs., first half-year. M W F, 9. Prerequisite: Courses 1 and 2, and at least Junior standing.

14. Principles of Accounting. Associate Professor Hatfield.

The interpretation of accounts with regard to the need of the business manager rather than those of the accountant. The formation and meaning of the balance sheet. The profit and loss statement. The various accounts appearing in the balance sheet and errors frequently found therein.
3 hrs., throughout the year. Tu Th S, 9. Prerequisite: Courses 1 and 2.

14A. The Investment Market. Associate Professor Hatfield.

Investment securities, corporation stocks and bonds, municipal and government bonds, market quotations, operations on the stock exchange, foreign and domestic exchange, the construction and use of exchange, bond and interest tables.
3 hrs., second half-year. Tu Th S, 9. Prerequisite: Course 14.

15. Financial History of the United States. Professor Miller.

A detailed study of the legislation and experience of the United States touching currency, banking, debt, taxation, expenditure, etc. The work will be based, as far as possible, on first-hand examination of sources.
3 hrs., second half-year. M W F, 10. Prerequisite: Courses 1 and 2, and at least Junior standing.

16A. Railway Transportation. Associate Professor Plehn.

An examination of the chief financial and economic questions which arise in railway organization and management, embracing such topics as capitalization, speculation, and accounting, rate making, competition, pooling, consolidation, etc.
3 hrs., second half-year. M W F, 2. Prerequisite: Courses 1 and 2, and at least Junior standing.

18. Methods of Modern Charities and Corrections; Theoretical. Assistant Professor Moore.

Studies in the administration of poor relief, the treatment of delinquents and defectives. Readings and lectures.
2 hrs., first half-year. Tu Th, 2. Prerequisite: Course 1 and Philosophy 2. Class to be limited at the discretion of the instructor.

19. Methods of Modern Charities and Corrections; Investigation. Assistant Professor Moore.

Investigation and field work to be done in part in connection with the Associated Charities of San Francisco and Oakland.
2 hrs., second half-year. Tu Th, 2. Prerequisite: Course 18.

23. Modern Industrial Processes. Dr. Litman.

The development and present condition of leading modern industries with particular reference to such industries as now exist or may be established on the Pacific Coast; emphasis will be laid on the technical processes.
3 hrs., first half-year. MWF, 10. Prerequisite: Course 1.

24. Mechanism and Technique of Trade. Dr. Litman.

Devices used by governments and individuals to promote commerce; exposition of the work performed by Boards of Trade, Commercial Museums, Mercantile Agencies, of transactions on Produce and Stock Exchanges, of modern wholesale and retail trade organizations. The course will include the reading by the student of mercantile publications, such as consular reports, trade and financial journals, etc.
3 hrs., first half-year. M W F, 9. Prerequisite: Course 1.

24A. Business Forms and Practice. Dr. Litman.

Detailed study of methods and forms used in connection with the purchase, sale and forwarding of goods; calculations necessitated by the various systems of weights, measures and moneys in different countries; the significance of price quotations in different markets; the meaning and determination of standards and grades as to quality; the forms and functions of invoices, bills of lading, warehouse receipts, consular certificates, and other business documents relating to trade.
3 hrs., second half-year. M W F, 9. Prerequisite: Course 1.

30. Economic Position of the Great Powers. [Not given in 1904-05.]

A comparative study of the commercial and industrial position of the leading nations, with particular reference to the countries of Europe.
2 hrs., first half-year. Tu Th, 11. Prerequisite: Course 3, at least Junior standing, and ability to use French and German statistical publications; consent of instructor must be obtained before enrollment.

31. The Consular Service. [Not given in 1904-05.]

A brief history of the consular service, followed by a technical study of the training and duties of consuls and the practice of the leading commercial nations in regard to appointments, etc.
2 hrs., second half-year. Tu Th, 11. Prerequisite: At least Junior standing; the consent of the instructor must be obtained before enrollment.

35. Customs Tariffs and Regulations. Dr. Litman.

Tariffs and existing reciprocity treaties and agreements of the leading commercial nations with special reference to the Tariff Law and Customs Regulations of the United States. A short tariff history and a general discussion of the aims and means of tariff policies will precede the practical part of the course, which latter will acquaint the student with the problems confronting the American importer and exporter in connection with duties, bounties, etc.
2 hrs., first-half-year. Tu Th, 2. Prerequisite: Course 1.

36. Modern Colonial Economics. Dr. Litman.

The principal commercial and industrial problems which arise in connection with colonial conditions, as illustrated by the experience of the leading colonizing nations. The object of this course is to acquaint the student with questions confronting a merchant and an investor in different colonies, and to show him how these have been and may be dealt with.
2 hrs., second half-year. Tu Th, 2. Prerequisite: Courses 1 and 2.

37. Communication and Transportation. Dr. Litman.

Means and methods of communication and transportation other than railroads, and their utilization in the service of commerce. An exhaustive study of internal, coast, and trans-oceanic shipping, of modern harbor facilities, of the post, the express, the telegraph, the telephone, etc.
3 hrs., second half-year. M W F, 10. Prerequisite: Course 1.

38. Commercial Resources of the Spanish-American Countries. [Not given in 1904-05.]

Detailed study of the geography, natural resources, and possibilities of development of these countries, devoting a year to each. In 1903–04 the Argentine Republic was studied. Particular attention is given to commercial relations with the United States. 1 hr., throughout the year. Hour to be arranged. Open only to graduate students who satisfy the instructor of their preparation for the work.

40. Economic Origins. Assistant Professor Mitchell.

An investigation of the origin and early development of fundamental economic customs and institutions.
2 hrs., first half-year. Tu Th, 10. Prerequisite: Courses 1 and 2.

42. Contemporary Socialism. Dr. Peixotto.

A study of the program and methods of the contemporary socialistic parties; a critical investigation of the theories on which these programs are based.
3 hrs., first half-year. M W F, 3. Prerequisite: Courses 1 and 2, and at least Junior standing.

43. History of Socialism. Dr. Peixotto.

An examination of the antecedents of contemporary socialism.
3 hrs., second half-year. M W F, 3. Prerequisite: Course 42.

45. Advanced Economics. Professor Miller.

This course is designed for students who wish to make a more thorough study of economic theory than can be undertaken in Courses 1 and 2. The aim is to work out a tenable system of economics on the basis of an examination of the theories of leading writers, past and present.
2 hrs., second half-year. Tu Th, 2. Prerequisite: Courses 1 and 2, and at least Senior standing.

20. History and Theory of Prices. Associate Professor Plehn.

The methods of scientific investigation applicable to a study of prices and the causes of their fluctuations.
The course runs throughout the year and credit will be given according to work done. For graduates only. A good training in economics and mathematics and a reading knowledge of French and German are prerequisite.

26. Seminary in Economics. Professor Miller.

Under this head are included arrangements for the guidance of the work of individual students, or groups of students, competent to engage in economic research. The results will be presented to the seminary for discussion as occasion may suggest. The course runs throughout the year, and credit will be given according to work done.

Oriental Languages 1A. Commerce of China and Japan. Professor Fryer.

A course of lectures on the historical and geographical features of the commerce of China and Japan, adapted for students in general, but particularly for those in the College of Commerce.
3 hrs., first half-year. M W F, 1.
[John Fryer, LL.D., Agassiz Professor of Oriental Languages and Literatures.]

Botany 14. Economic Botany. Mr. H. M. Hall.

Laboratory work on the morphology, relationships, properties, and geographical distribution of the plant families which furnish important commercial products and agricultural crops, accompanied by lectures on the uses, origin, cultivation, collection, and commerce of plant products.
6 hrs., first half-year; 3 units. M W F, 8–10.
[Harvey M Hall, M.S., Instructor in Botany, and Assistant Botanist to the Experiment Station]

Irrigation 1. Irrigation Institutions and Economics. Professor Mead and Mr. Stover.

Present conditions of irrigation in the United States; irrigation legislation; methods of establishing rights to water; interstate problems; conditions necessary to development of the agricultural resources of the arid west; comparisons of irrigation methods and laws of other lands with those of the United States; irrigation in humid sections of the United States; operation of irrigation works, individual, coöperative and corporate enterprises; national irrigation; water right contracts; duty of water. Lectures and recitations.
3 hrs., second half-year. Prescribed, Senior year, in the course in Irrigation Engineering, College of Civil Engineering, and in some courses in the College of Agriculture. Elective to students in Economics.
[Elwood Mead, M.S., C.E., Professor of the Institutions and Practice of Irrigation.
Arthur P. Stover, B.S., Instructor in Irrigation Engineering.]

Source: University of California. Register, 1904-1905, pp. 153-162, 171, 237-238, 264.

Image Source: University of California Buildings, Berkeley California, ca. 1907. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. Colorized by Economics in the Rear-View Mirror.

Categories
Harvard Seminar Speakers

Harvard. Economics Seminary and Public Lectures. Speakers and Topics, 1913-1914

The economics seminary at Harvard featured a dozen speakers over the course of the 1913-14 academic year.  The department invited 27 year-old Josef Schumpeter (Theory of Crises) from the University of Vienna.

I have included the dates for two sets of major public guest lectures that were given by Wesley C. Mitchell (Business Cycles) and E. Dana Durand (Anti-trust and regulation), respectively.

Earlier posts with information on the Seminary of Economics at Harvard:

Seminary of Economics 1897-1898.

Seminary of Economics 1891/92-1907/08.

Request by Radcliffe Women to attend the Seminary of Economics, 1926.

Seminary of Economics 1929-1932.

_______________________

Monday, Sept. 29, 1913

Seminary of Economics. Meeting for Organization. Upper Dane, 4.30 p.m. All Graduate Students in Economics are invited to attend.

Source: Harvard University Gazette, Vol. IX, No. 2. Sept. 26, 1913, p. 7.

Monday, Oct. 20, 1913

Seminary of Economics. “The Administration of the State-Owned Railways of Prussia.” Professor W. J. Cunningham. Upper Dane, 4.30 p.m.

Source: Harvard University Gazette, Vol. IX, No. 5. Oct. 18, 1913, p. 27.

Monday, Nov. 3, 1913

Seminary of Economics. “The Organization of the Grain Trade on the Pacific Coast.” Mr. Wilfred Eldred. Upper Dane, 4.30 p.m.

Source: Harvard University Gazette, Vol. IX, No. 7. Nov. 1, 1913, p. 39.

Monday, Nov. 17, 1913

Seminary of Economics. “The German Potash Syndicate.” Mr. H. R. Tosdal. Upper Dane, 4.30 p.m.

Source: Harvard University Gazette, Vol. IX, No. 9. Nov. 15, 1913, p. 57.

Monday, Dec. 1, 1913

Seminary of Economics. “Pisan Industry in the Early Fourteenth Century.” Mr. F. C. Dietz. Upper Dane, 4.30 p.m.

Source: Harvard University Gazette, Vol. IX, No. 11. Nov. 29, 1913, p. 65.

Thursday/Friday, Dec. 4/5, 1913

Lectures. “Business Cycles. I and II.” Dr. Wesley C. Mitchell, formerly Professor of Political Economy at the University of California. (I) Emerson A, 4.30 p.m.; (II) Emerson A, 4.30 p.m.
These lectures, though addressed primarily to graduate students of Economics and students in the Graduate School of Business Administration, will be open to the public.

Source: Harvard University Gazette, Vol. IX, No. 11. Nov. 29, 1913, p. 66.

Monday, Dec. 13, 1913

Seminary of Economics. “New Jersey Business Corporations and Corporation Policy, 1791-1820.” Dr. J. S. Davis. Upper Dane, 4.30 p.m.

Source: Harvard University Gazette, Vol. IX, No. 13. Dec. 13, 1913, p. 81.

Monday, Jan. 12, 1914

Seminary of Economics. “The Development of Capital and National Wealth in Germany.” Professor Karl Rathgen, of the University of Hamburg. Upper Dane, 4.30 p.m.

Source: Harvard University Gazette, Vol. IX, No. 17. Jan. 10, 1914, p. 109.

Monday, Feb. 9, 1914

Seminary of Economics. “Some Aspects of the Quantity Theory of Money.” Professor Anderson. Upper Dane, 4.30 p.m.

Source: Harvard University Gazette, Vol. IX, No. 21. Feb. 7, 1914, p. 131.

Monday, Mar. 2, 1914

Seminary of Economics. “Some Aspects of the Quantity Theory of Money.” Professor Taussig. Upper Dane, 4.30 p.m.

Source: Harvard University Gazette, Vol. IX, No. 24. Feb. 28, 1914, p. 153.

Monday, Mar. 16, 1914

Seminary of Economics. “The Theory of Crises.” Professor Josef Schumpeter, of the University of Vienna. Upper Dane, 4.30 p.m.

Source: Harvard University Gazette, Vol. IX, No. 26. Mar. 14, 1914, p. 167.

Monday, Mar. 23, 1914

Seminary of Economics. “Recent Experience in Railroad Construction Finance.” Professor Ripley. Upper Dane, 4.30 p.m.

Source: Harvard University Gazette, Vol. IX, No. 27. Mar. 21, 1914, p. 173.

Monday, Apr. 6, 1914

Seminary of Economics. “International Trade Balances.” Dr. G.W. Nasmyth. Upper Dane, 4.30 p.m.

Source: Harvard University Gazette, Vol. IX, No. 29. Apr. 4, 1914, p. 185.

Monday/Tuesday, Apr. 13/14, 1914

Lectures. “What Shall We do with the Trusts? I. The Necessity of Regulation of Prohibition.” (Emerson D, 8 p.m.)  and II. “Possibility of Preventing Combination and Difficulties of Regulation.” (Emerson D, 11 a.m.) Professor E. Dana Durand, of the University of Minnesota.

Source: Harvard University Gazette, Vol. IX, No. 30. Apr. 11, 1914, p. 195.

Monday, May 25, 1914

Seminary of Economics. “United States Forest Policy.” Mr. John Ise. Upper Dane, 4.30 p.m.

Source: Harvard University Gazette, Vol. IX, No. 36. May 25, 1914, p. 231.

Image Source: Karl Rathgen: Fotosammlung des Geographischen Institutes der Humboldt-Universität Berlin.    Schumpeter: Ulrich Hedtke, Joseph Alois Schumpeter. Archive.

 

 

 

 

Categories
Barnard Columbia Economist Market Economists

Columbia. Early Industrial Organization. Career of Arthur Robert Burns, husband of Eveline M. Burns

In the previous post we encountered social security pioneer Eveline Mabel Burns née Richardson at the point in her career when the Columbia University economics department signaled a definitive end to any hopes for promotion from the rank of lecturer to a tenure track assistant professorship in economics for her with them. In this post we follow the parallel case of her economist husband, Arthur Robert Burns (and no, not the Arthur F. Burns of Burns-Mitchell fame!), who cleared the promotion to assistant professor hurdle at Columbia relatively easily, but was stuck at that rank for nine years, in spite of repeated proposals by the department to promote him sooner.

The heart of this post can be found in the exchange between the  Arthur Robert Burns and then economics department head R. M. Haig in November 1941. Biographical and career backstories for Arthur R. Burns through 1945 can be found in excerpts posted below from budgetary proposals submitted by the economics department over the years. Burns was seen as a pillar of Columbia University’s Industrial Organization field at that time and remained at Columbia through his retirement (ca. 1965) while his wife took up a professorship in Social Work.

____________________________

From: Seligman’s 1929-30 budget recommendation to President Butler (December 1, 1928)

“During [Clara Eliot’s] absence [from Barnard College)  Mr. A. R. Burns has been acting as substitute. In our judgment he has been a valuable addition to the staff, and we recommend that he be reappointed as instructor. In Miss Eliot’s absence the course in statistics has been reduced from two semesters to one. There is a distinct demand for an additional course, though it would be on a different basis from formerly, and our proposal is that Miss Eliot be appointed solely to give two three-point courses in statistics, conducting a statistical laboratory as part of this work. This would relieve Mr. Burns from the course in statistics, and enable him to offer a new course of a somewhat more theoretical character than any now given at Barnard, on “the price-system and the organization of society”, a course which would distinctly help to round out the present offerings in Economics”.

Source: Columbia University Libraries, Manuscript Collections. Department of Economics Collection, Box 3 “Budget, 1915-1946/1947”, Folder “Department of Economics Budgets, 1915-1934 (a few minor gaps)”.

____________________________

Biographical and professional background through 1930-31
of Arthur R. Burns

…Arthur R. Burns was born in London, in 1895. He served in the army from September, 1914, to April, 1917, when he was discharged as no longer fit because of wounds. He entered the London School of Economics at once, took his B.Sc. degree with honors in 1920, taught economics in King’s College for women (University of London) for four years, and took his doctor’s degree in 1926. The award of Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Fellowships brought Dr. Burns and his wife to this country, where they traveled somewhat widely for two years, studied competitive conditions in industries characterized by large business units, and where they were induced to stay by Columbia.

Dr. Burns has now been a lecturer in economics at Barnard College for three years. Members of our department have thus had an opportunity to become well acquainted with his quality. We think that he is by native ability, temperament and training an investigator, and that, given such opportunities as the graduate department affords, he will make significant contributions to economic science. His publications include several technical papers and two books: Money and Monetary Policy in Early Times, 1926, (a learned treatise on the origin and early history of coinage and monetary practices), and The Economic World, 1927 (written in collaboration with Mrs. Burns).

Source: Letter outlining plans for the future development of the economics department by Wesley C. Mitchell to President Butler. January 16, 1931. In Columbia University Archives. Central Files 1890-, Box 667, Folder 34 “Mitchell, Wesley Clair, 10/1930 – 6/1931”. Carbon copy also in Department of Economics Collection, Box 3 “Budget, 1915-1946/1947”, Folder “Department of Economics Budgets, 1915-1934 (a few minor gaps)”.

____________________________

Department recommends promotion to Associate Professorship
already in 1937-38
[Note: actual promotion only occurred Apr. 3, 1944]

[…] I would make the following budgetary recommendations for the coming academic year [1937-1938]:

(1) That the salary of Assistant Professor Arthur R. Burns be advanced from $3,600 to $4,000. In the opinion of his colleagues Mr. Burns is an indispensable member of our group whose scholarly competence and accomplishments entitle him to recognition far beyond that yet accorded him by the University. At the earliest possible moment he should be advanced to an Associate Professorship.”

[…]

Source: Columbia University Libraries, Manuscript Collections. Department of Economics Collection, Box 3 “Budget, 1915-1946/1947”, Folder “Economics Budget, 1937-1938”.

____________________________

Department again recommends promotion to Associate Professorship
[Note: Burns was given the salary increase this time]

[…] I would respectfully make the following budgetary recommendations for the coming academic year [1938-1939]:

(1) That the salary of Assistant Professor Arthur R. Burns be advanced from $3,600 to $4,000. In the opinion of his colleagues Mr. Burns is an indispensable member of our group whose scholarly competence and accomplishments entitle him to recognition far beyond that yet accorded him by the University. At the earliest possible moment he should be advanced to an Associate Professorship.”

[…]

Source: Columbia University Libraries, Manuscript Collections. Department of Economics Collection, Box 3 “Budget, 1915-1946/1947”, Folder “Economics Budget, 1938-1939”.

____________________________

Department then begins unsuccessfully to push for an increase in salary with a promotion to Full Professorship
[Nov. 28, 1938]

[…] I respectfully recommend budgetary changes for the coming academic year 1939-1940, involving increase of compensation to the following members of the staff:

[…]

3. Arthur R. Burns from $4,000 to $4,500;

[…]

[Assistant] Professor Arthur R. Burns has established himself as an authority in his chosen field, and it is the desire of his colleagues that he be advanced to a full professorship as rapidly as university resources will allow. His tenure has already been long, and his advancement slow. It is our thought that he be given current recognition and enccouragement, with hope of promotion to rank commesurate with his repute among economists.”

[…]

Source: Columbia University Libraries, Manuscript Collections. Department of Economics Collection, Box 3 “Budget, 1915-1946/1947”, Folder “Economics Budget, “Economics Budget 1938-1939”. [note: incorrectly filed!]

____________________________

Requesting unpaid leave for a Twentieth Century Fund project

March 1, 1939

Nicholas Murray Butler, LL.D.
President of Columbia University

Dear President Butler:

Professor Arthur R. Burns has been invited to take the directorship of a study of the public utility industry, under the auspices of the Twentieth Century Fund. We of the Department think it wise that he do this and recommend that he be granted leave of absence without pay for the academic year 1939-40. I shall be prepared before long to make recommendation of some outstanding person to serve as a partial substitute for Professor Burns during the coming academic year with a stipend which will absorb approximately three-fifths of Professor Burns’ current compensation.

Very sincerely yours,

Executive Officer
Department of Economics

Source: Columbia University Libraries, Manuscript Collections. Department of Economics Collection, Box 3 “Budget, 1915-1946/1947”, Folder “Economics Budget, 1939-1940”.

____________________________

Department repeats its recommendation for an increase in salary with a promotion to Full Professorship
[Nov. 18, 1939]

[…] I respectfully make the following recommendations affecting the budget of 1940-41:

[…]

6. That Assistant Professor Arthur R. Burns be granted added compensation of $500 [i.e. from $4,000 to $4,500].

[…]

[Assistant] Professor Arthur R. Burns has served a long apprenticeship with subordinate rank in the Department. At the moment, either from the standpoint of scholarly attainment or from that of efficiency in graduate instruction he suffers not at all by comparison with the best endowed and most effective of his colleagues. Because of his merits and of the importance of the field he covers, he should be advanced rapidly to full professorial status.

[…]

Source: Columbia University Libraries, Manuscript Collections. Department of Economics Collection, Box 3 “Budget, 1915-1946/1947”, Folder “Economics Budget, 1939-1940” [note: incorrectly filed!]

____________________________

Department repeats its recommendation for an increase in salary reducing  promotion to Associate Professorship
[October 27, 1941]

MEMORANDUM
Department of Economics
October 27, 1941

[…]

Arthur R. Burns. Proposed: Advancement–assistant professor to associate professor.
Present salary $4,500
Proposed salary. $5,000

[…]

 

Source: Columbia University Libraries, Manuscript Collections. Department of Economics Collection, Box 3 “Budget, 1915-1946/1947”, Folder “Budget Material from July 1941-June 1942”.

____________________________

Arthur R. Burns demands promotion to the rank of professor

3206, Que Street, N.W.,
Washington, D.C.

November 1st 1941.

Dear Professor Haig,

As I shall not be in New York this year to talk about the departmental plans for next year I must write. It seems to me that the question of my status in the department now calls for definitive action. Doubtless the unsettled times will be advanced as a reason for postponing promotion. At the outset, therefore, I wish to emphasise that I should regard any such attitude as entirely unfair. If the University is to go through hard times (as well it may) its misfortunes should be shared equitably among all the members of the faculty. To be frank, I feel that I have already been asked to bear an altogether unreasonable share of such financial stringencies as the University may have suffered. There have been many occasions in the past thirteen years on which I have been told that my promotion has been recommended (and more in which I have been told that it would have been recommended) but that no action has been taken for general financial reasons. I fully expect to bear my share of the burden of contemporary events but I feel that the time has come for my position to be given special consideration irrespective of those events, no matter how serious.

Various reasons have been given to me during my thirteen years of service to the University for its failure to promote me. But I think I am justified in believing that there has been less than the usual amount of criticism of my scholarship or my teaching capacity. The number of my students who have progressed in the outside world (sometimes already beyond my own rank and salary) indicates that I have been reasonably effective. Furthermore, I think that you will find that in recent years there has been an increasing number of graduate students coming to Columbia to work with me.

I now ask you, therefore, to have my academic status reviewed, whether or not the University wishes on principle again to avoid promotions. And after this long delay promotion only to an associate professorship will not, in my opinion, be compatible with my professional reputation and status. For six or seven years now my recognition outside the University has been widely at variance with my academic rank. My salary as Director of Research for the Twentieth Century Fund was $10,000 per annum. I have recently been invited to join the Anti Trust Division of the Department of Justice at a salary of $8,000 per annum. I am now the Supervisor of Civilian Allocation in the Office of Production Management. I suggest that this evidence justifies promotion to a full professorship. If economies are necessary, I am ready, as I have said, to accept them on the same basis as my colleagues.

I have written to you with complete frankness because I have been keenly disappointed with the disposal of suggestions for my promotion and I am anxious that you shall be clearly informed as to my feelings. I gather that for a number of years now there has been no serious objection but also no vigorous effort in my behalf. I now feel that if after all these long delays Columbia is unwilling to take special action to recognize my professional status I had better know before I am much older. I am now forty six years of age and if I must seek academic recognition elsewhere I must obviously begin to take the necessary steps without delay. I would of course prefer to stay with Columbia. I think you will agree that these long years of patient waiting are evidence of my loyalty but I think you will also agree that I cannot continue much longer to accept the present wide discrepancy between my status inside and outside the University.

Very sincerely yours,

[signed]

Arthur R. Burns

Professor Robert Murray Haig,
Chairman,
Department of Economics,
Fayerweather Hall,
Columbia University,
NEW YORK CITY

Source: Columbia University Libraries, Manuscript Collections. Department of Economics Collection. Box 2: “Faculty”,  Folder: “Faculty Appointments”.

____________________________

Department responds to Burns’ demands:
Associate professorship when your rejoin the faculty

November 22, 1941

Professor Arthur R. Burns
3206 Que Street, N.W.,
Washington, D.C.

Dear Professor Burns:

Last night our group met at dinner to consider the budget. This afforded an opportunity to comply with your request that your academic status be reviewed. I wish you could have listened to the discussion that took place. It was highly friendly and appreciative in tone, but at the same time it was pervaded by a deep sense of responsibility for the ultimate objectives for which we are striving. I am sure that it would have impressed you, as it did me, with the essential soundness of the policy of placing heavy dependence upon the deliberate, critical judgment of one’s colleagues in considering questions of promotion.

Your letter of November 1st, which I read to the brethren in full, arrived at a time peculiarly unfavorable for the consideration of finalities and ultimatums. Moreover, I regret to have to report some of the statements and implications of that letter were not altogether fortunate in the reactions they inspired. Let me elaborate on this last statement first.

(1) You state that you gather that in the past there has been “no vigorous effort” in your behalf. I can speak with full knowledge only regarding last year. If the implication is that your failure to secure more adequate recognition is ascribable to lack of vigor on the part of your colleagues as a group, or of the chairman of the Department in particular, I wish to state that I know it to be untrue with respect to last year and have reason to believe it to be untrue of several previous years. As a matter of fact, last year as the program moved forward from the Faculty Committee on Instruction, the recommendation for your promotion was placed at the very top above all others in the Faculty of Political Science. Until the very end, when the Trustees at their March meeting ruthlessly scuttled the program, I had high hopes that the effort would be successful. The only budgetary changes last year in this entire Department of 32 members were a) a $300 increase for which the College authorities had obligated themselves to secure for Barger and b) the temporary allocation of $600 to Wald for one year only from a sabbatical “windfall”.

(2) The citation of the salaries and fees you have been able to command in the government service and in the service of private research organizations as evidence that “justifies promotion to a full professorship” does not greatly impress your colleagues. We rejoice in the recognition and rewards that have come to you in return for your efforts while on leave of absence from your post at Columbia. Certainly the work of the Department has been carried on under a distinct handicap when your courses haven manned by part-time substitutes and we should like to believe that the sacrifices involved had borne rich fruits in professional and material rewards to you personally as well as to the general cause of science. However, you will readily agree, I take it, that our promotion and salary policy cannot be based on the principle you seem to suggest, viz., that the University must be prepared to match, dollar for dollar, the potential earning power of the staff on outside jobs. The rate of compensation for such outside work is, to my certain knowledge, likely to run over four or five times the rate of University compensation. Indeed, I can think of many of our colleagues who, on the basis of such a principle, could cite evidence even more convincing than your own.

(3) In the next place your letter seems to imply an understanding of the nature of the University connection that is not in complete harmony with our own. While it may be the policy elsewhere that mere length of service by a person who joins the staff at an early age, even though that service be reasonably effective and untouched by unfavorable criticism, carries assurance of promotion to the highest rank, this is definitely not the policy at Columbia University. Theoretically, at least, the University retains complete freedom of action to withhold advancement subject to a continuing critical appraisal of the individual’s value to the institution, against the background of changing circumstances, among which the University’s ability to supply funds must be listed near the top. Everyone is continually on trial to the very end of his career. This is evidenced in the practice regarding early retirement, the working of which I have recently had an opportunity to observe. Assurance regarding stability of tenure at a given level is a different point and mere humanitarian considerations are given generous weight. However, fundamentally the University connection is to be regarded as an opportunity (an opportunity, incidentally, of which you, in the opinion of your colleagues have, on the whole, made very good use) and promotion and early retirement are certainly affected and, in many cases at least, determined by the manner in which a member of the staff rises to that opportunity. Moreover, when such heavy dependence is placed upon the continuing critical appraisal by one’s colleagues, each man must have regard for his responsibility for the long-run interests of the department and of science. If, as the years roll along, the department is to contain a reasonably large percentage of intellects of the highest order, the critical appraisal must be a continuing process and sufficient freedom of action must be retained in promotion and salary policy to enable the group to make reasonably effective its collective judgment as to what is best for the department in the light of the individual’s developing record and the fluctuations of the resources available for supplying opportunities. I hope that you will forgive me for laboring this point but it is important that you understand what I am certain is the sentiment of the group of which you are a valued member, viz., that no matter on what basis of rank you may return to us, say, for example, as an associate professor, further recognition in rank or salary will be dependent upon decisions reached in harmony with the general policies outlined above.

I now revert to my earlier statement that your letter arrived at a peculiarly unfavorable time.

(1) On November 13th a letter was received from the President of the University indicating that Draconian economies were indicated for this year’s budget. Our own enrolment in the graduate department of economics has shrunk this year about 25 per cent and this shrinkage is on top of last year’s substantial shrinkage. Even in advance of the preparation of the formal budget letters, the department chairmen were summoned before a special committee at the behest of the trustees and urged by the elimination of courses and other means to contract the normal budget to smaller proportions. Consequently only in emergency cases where the interests of the University are considered to be vitally affected, will serious consideration be given to recommendations involving an increased expenditure.

(2) With the retirement of McCrea, the question of the future of the School of Business has been thrown open for discussion. Under the new Dean a radical revision of policy is being formulated, including as one item the transfer of the School to a strictly graduate level. The intimate interrelationships of staff and curriculum between our department and the school are being reexamined. Plans are still in a state of flux but your particular field of interest is involved. So highly dynamic is the situation that the budget letters of both the Department and the School are to be considered tentative documents, subject to modification as decisions of policy are taken during the weeks that lie ahead.

(3) The situation is further complicated by the fact that within our Department itself we have reached the stage, which arises every decade or so, when long-time plans require consideration. Not only are we faced with an important retirement problem, but we are also asked to have regard for the situation that will result if the present trend toward lower enrolments continues. To deal with this situation, a special committee has been set up in the department, headed by Professor Mitchell, to formulate plans for the future. A series of meetings is being held at which the present and probable future importance of the various subjects falling within the scope of the departments are being discussed and questions of staff and curriculum are being intensively studied. Here also important decisions are in the making but definite conclusions have not yet been reached.

I am writing at such length in order that you may understand clearly and fully the background against which we were called upon to consider your letter and the reasons underlying the action that was taken in your case.

The recommendation that I am instructed by our colleagues to include in the budget letter is that I renew the recommendation made last year that you be promoted to the rank of associate professor at a salary of $5,000. I realize that this will be a disappointment to you. You have stated that you consider this degree of recognition, if we are successful in securing it for you, would not be compatible with your professional reputation and status. I infer from your letter that you consider it so inadequate that you are not prepared to accept it. However, you do not make yourself unequivocally clear on this point. If your mind is definitely made up, it will simplify the procedure if you will inform me of the fact at once. On the other hand, there is no disposition to press you for an early answer in case you are not as far along toward a decision as your letter would seem to imply.

In considering the problem of your probable future with us, as compared with the various flattering alternatives open to you, I feel that I should make the following statements:

(1) I have no assurance that the recommendation will be adopted. It will carry the vigorous support of the department and of the Chairman. I have already raised the question informally before the Committee on Instruction of the Faculty and am happy to be able to report that this committee is warmly friendly to your cause. Frankly, however, I am not as optimistic as I was last year at this time regarding the outlook for a favorable outcome when the trustees finally take action.

(2) I should report that, in view of all the circumstances, including the state of ferment that exists at the moment regarding future plans for the department, your colleagues would not be willing to urge your appointment to a full professorship immediately, even if they were convinced that such a recommendation would stand a chance of acceptance by the trustees. You are highly regarded and much appreciated. Your colleagues regret the harsh circumstances that have made it impossible to give you more recognition than you have already received. They consider you an excellent gamble for the long future. They consider the fields of your special interest important. However, it is hoped and believed that you have not yet reached a full development of your potentialities. When faced with the question as to whether they are convinced that, on the record to date, you are reasonably certain to be generally regarded, during the next twenty years, as one of the dozen or so most distinguished economists in active service, there is a general disposition to reply “not yet proven beyond a reasonable doubt”. Although they have no illusions about the difficulty of carrying out this policy with success, they have decided to take the position that they will henceforth recommend for a full professorship no one who does not meet such a test. They prefer to have you return with the clear understanding all around that the final issue, the question of the full professorship, shall not be decided in your case until more evidence is in. They take this position with the best of will and with a considerable degree of confidence that the final decision will be favorable. In connection with this, they feel that the important work upon which you are now engaged should contribute substantially to your “capital account” and should have a highly favorable effect upon your future record as a scholar and teacher.

You paid me the compliment of writing me a candid and forthright letter. In return I have attempted to lay before you with complete frankness all the considerations I know of that bear upon the question you have to consider.

Finally, I should like to say, speaking both in a personal capacity and as the chairman of the department, that I hope you will find it possible to send me word that you desire to continue as a member of our group under these conditions. We have an interesting and important task before us. I believe that you have a rôle to play in its accomplishment. If, unhappily for us, your decision takes you away from us, we shall sincerely regret the termination of our close association with you. To a remarkable degree you have earned for yourself not only the respect but the affection of your colleagues at Columbia.

Faithfully yours,

R.M. HAIG

P.S. At your early convenience will you be good enough to send me a note of any items that should be added to your academic record for use in my budget letter.

Source: Columbia University Libraries, Manuscript Collections. Department of Economics Collection. Box 2: “Faculty”,  Folder: “Faculty Appointments”.

____________________________

From: Economics Department’s Proposed Budget for 1946-1947
November 30, 1945
[Burns recommended for professorship]

[…]

We recommend that Arthur Robert Burns, now an associate professor at a salary of $5,000, be promoted to a professorship at $7,500. Professor Burns, who has been connected with the University since 1928, was appointed an assistant professor in 1935, an associate professor in 1944. He has returned this year to his academic work, after a six-year leave of absence devoted to research and to important governmental service. His war-time activities have included service as Chief Economic Adviser and deputy Director of the Office of Civilian Supply, Deputy Administrator of the Foreign Economic Administration, and a mission to Europe in 1945 as a member of the American Group of the Allied Control Commission, advising on economic and industrial disarmament of Germany.
Professor Burns is carrying one of the fundamental graduate courses on Industrial Organization. He has agreed to offer one of the courses that will be central in the curriculum of the School of International Affairs–a course on “Types of Economic Organization”. His close acquaintance with the organization of the economies of the United States, Britain, and Germany, and his scholarly background in the field are of great value in this development of systematic academic work on comparative economic systems. Burn’s scholarly reputation is high. His study of The Decline of Competition, which is accepted as a standard in the field, is one of the major products of the Columbia Council on Research in the Social Sciences. He has served the country in recent years in administrative and advisory posts of high responsibility. We believe that he should have the rank of full professor.

[…]

Annex C

ARTHUR ROBERT BURNS

Academic Record

1918. Gladstone Memorial Prize, London School of Economics, London.
1920. B.Sc. (Economics) degree with First Class Honors, University of London.
1926. Ph.D. degree, University of London.
1926-28. Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Fellowship.

Teaching

1922-26. University of London.
1928-31. Lecturer in Economics, Barnard College, Columbia University.
1931-35. Lecturer in Economics, Faculty of Political Science, Columbia University.
1935-44. Assistant Professor of Economics, Faculty of Political Science, Columbia University.
1939. Special Lecturer, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
Leaves of absence without salary for 1940-41 through 1944-45.
1944-45. Promoted to Associate Professor of Economics
Returned to Columbia University for 1945-46.

Published Work

“Indian Currency Reform.” Economica, about 1925.
“The Effect of Funding the Floating Debt,” Economica, about 1933.
Money and Monetary Policy in Early Times.” London: Kegan Paul & Co., 1927. About 650 pp.
The Economic World.” London, University of London Press, 1928. [sic: co-authorship of wife Eveline M. Burns was not included in the citation].
“The Quantitative Study of Recent Economic Changes in the United States.” Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv, 31: 491-546, April, 1930.
“Population Pressure in Great Britain.” Eugenics, 3: 211-20, June, 1930.
“The First Phase of the National Industrial Recovery Act 1933”. Political Science Quarterly,  49:161, June, 1934.
“The Consumer under the National Industrial Recovery Act.” Management Review, 23:195, July 1934.
The Decline of Competition. New York, McGraw Hill, 1936. 619 pp.
[not listed: “The Process of Industrial Concentration” 47 Q.J.E. 277 (1933)]
“The Anti-Trust Laws and the Regulation of Price Competition.” Law and Contemporary Problems, June, 1937.
“The Organization of Industry and the Theory of Prices.” Journal of Political Economy, XLV: 662-80, October, 1937.
“Concentration of Production,” Harvard Business Review, Spring Issue, 1943.
“Surplus Government Property and Foreign Policy”, Foreign Affairs, April, 1945.

Unpublished Studies

1935-38. Investigation of the pricing of cement with special reference to the basing point system (in collaboration with Professor J. M. Clark).
1939. Report on the pricing of sulphur.
1938-39. Study of distribution costs and retail prices.
1939-41. Director of Research, Twentieth Century Fund study of “Relations between Government and Electric Light and Power Industry.” Has been completed and is now in hands of the Twentieth Century Fund.

Other Work

1935. Alternate member. President’s Committee to report on the experience of the National Recovery Administration.
1938-39. Chairman, Sub-Committee of Price Conference on Distribution Costs and REtail Prices.
1939-41. Member of Board of Editors, American Economic Review.
1941. Supervisor of Civilian Supply and Requirements, Office of Production Management.
1942. Chief Economic Adviser, Office of Civilian Supply, War Production Board.
1942 (July-August). Member of mission to London to study British methods of concentration of industry.
1943. Deputy Director, Office of Civilian Supply.
1943. Director of Planning and Research, Office of Civilian Requirement
1943, December to March, 1945. Special assistant to Administrator, Deputy Administrator to the Foreign Economic Administration.
1945-continuing. Consultant to Enemy Branch of the Foreign Economic Administration.
1945, Summer. In Europe with the American Group of the Allied Control Commission to advise on the economic and industrial disarmament of Germany.

Source: Columbia University Libraries, Manuscript Collections. Department of Economics Collection, Box 3 “Budget, 1915-1946/1947”, Folder “Department of Economics Budget ’46-47 and related matters”.

___________________________

Obituary: “Arthur Robert Burns dies at 85; economics teacher at Columbia“, New York Times, January 22, 1981.

Image: Arthur Robert Burns.  Detail from a departmental photo dated “early 1930’s” in Columbia University Libraries, Manuscript Collections, Columbiana. Department of Economics Collection, Box 9, Folder “Photos”.

Categories
Economics Programs Exam Questions Johns Hopkins Undergraduate

Johns Hopkins. Exams for Undergraduate Political Economy Courses, 1923-1924

 

Several undergraduate course exams for the 1922-23 academic year at Johns Hopkins University in Political Economy have been posted earlier. The exams for 1919-20 have also been transcribed. A more complete (though still incomplete) sample is available the the university archives for the following year and which have been transcribed for this post.

_______________________________

Johns Hopkins Faculty
for the Undergraduate Courses in Political Economy
1923-1924

Barnett, George Ernest, Ph.D., Professor of Statistics.

A.B., Randolph-Macon College, 1891; Fellow, John Hopkins University, 1899-1900, and Ph.D., 1901.

Weyforth, William Oswald, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Political Economy.

A.B., Johns Hopkins University, 1912, and Ph.D., 1915; Instructor, Western Reserve University, 1915-17.

Mitchell, Broadus, Ph.D., Associate in Political Economy.

A.B., University of South Carolina, 1913; Fellow, Johns Hopkins University, 1916-17, and Ph.D., 1918.

Jacobs, Theo, A.B., Associate in Social Economics.

A.B., Goucher College, 1901; Federated Charities of Baltimore (District Assistant, 1905-07, District Secretary, 1907-10, Assistant General Secretary, 1910-17, Acting General Secretary, 1917-19).

Newlove, George Hills, Ph.D., Associate in Accounting, School of Business Economics.

Ph.B., Hamline University, 1914; A.M., University of Minnesota, 1915; Ph.D., University of Illinois, 1918; C.P.A. (Ill.), 1918; C.P.A. (S.C.), 1919.

Gillies, Robert Carlyle, A.B., Instructor in Political Economy.

A.B., Princeton University, 1920.

Source: The Johns Hopkins University Circular, University Register 1922-1923, No. 342, January 1923. Announcements for 1923-1924.

Biographical information for George Hills Newlove found in John J. Kahle American Accountants and their Contributions to Accounting Thought, 1900-1930. Routledge Library Editions: Accounting, 2014.

_______________________________

UNDERGRADUATE COURSES
1923-24

  1. Elements of Economics.
    Particular attention is given to the theory of distribution and its application to leading economic problems

Three hours weekly through the year. Associate Professor WEYFORTH, Dr. MITCHELL and Mr. GILLIES.

  1. Statistical Methods.

After a preliminary study of the value and place of statistics as an instrument of investigation, attention is directed to the chief methods used in statistical inquiry.

Three hours weekly, first half-year. Mr. GILLIES.

  1. Money and Banking.

The principles of monetary science are taught with reference to practical conditions in modern systems of currency, banking, and credit.

Three hours weekly, second half-year. Associate Professor WEYFORTH.

  1. American Trade Unionism.

The history, structure and functions of American trade unionism are studied.

Three hours weekly, first half-year. Professor BARNETT.

  1. Labor Problems.

The problems growing out of modern industrial employment will be studied.

Three hours weekly, first half-year. Professor BARNETT.

(Course 5 will not be given in 1923-24.)

  1. Corporation Finance.

The theory and practice of corporation finance are considered , with particular reference to the problems presented in the United States.

Three hours weekly, second half-year. Professor BARNETT.

  1. Investments.

Includes historical and analytical description of the more important forms of investments and theories of valuation and amortization.

Three hours weekly, second half-year. Professor BARNETT.

(Course 7 will not be given in 1923-24.)

  1. Applied Statistics.

The applications of statistics to business and economic problems, such as price levels, cost of living, wage adjustments, business cycles, and business forecasting, are considered.

Three hours weekly, first half-year. Associate Professor WEYFORTH.

  1. Foreign Trade and Exchange.

The economic principles of international commerce, the methods of conducting foreign trade, and the theory and practice of foreign exchange will be studied.

Three hours weekly, first half-year. Associate Professor WEYFORTH.

(Course 9 will not be given in 1923-24.)

  1. Business Organization.

This course is designed not only to show the structure of typical business entities, but their methods of formation and expansion. The common forms of securities are examined. Operation and administration of business units and the processes of marketing are studied in detail.

Three hours weekly, second half-year. Mr. GILLIES.

  1. Accounting.

This course deals with the fundamental principles underlying the recording of business transactions in the accounting books and records, and the preparation of balance sheets and statement of profit and loss for single entrepreneurs, partnerships, and corporations.

Four hours weekly, through the year. Dr. NEWLOVE.

  1. Economic History.

This course is designed to furnish a background for the study of economic principles and special phases of economic activity. It is a particular purpose of the course to show the relationship between economic fact and economic and political theory and practice.

Three hours weekly, through the year. Dr. MITCHELL.

  1. Social Economics.

The history and development of charitable and social agencies are traced. Causes and treatment of cases of dependency and delinquency are discussed.

Two hours weekly, through the year. Miss JACOBS.

Source: The Johns Hopkins University Circular, University Register 1922-1923, No. 342, January 1923. Announcements for 1923-1924, pp. 255-256.

_______________________________

Examinations for
Undergraduate Political Economy Courses
Johns Hopkins University
1923-1924

POLITICAL ECONOMY I “A”

February 5th, 1924—9-12 A.M.

  1. Compare the manorial system with farming at the present time. Compare the system of industry in towns during the middle ages with the modern industrial system.
  2. What is meant by the “industrial revolution”? What theories in regard to the proper relationship of the state to industry, developed at this time? Explain. Compare these new ideas with the theory and practice preceding. What is the tendency of present theory and practice as regards state interference with industry?
  3. (a) “Labor alone is the producer of wealth; take away labor and not all the capital in the world could produce anything.” Allowing the second clause to be true as a statement of fact, does it prove the proposition contained in the first? Explain.
    (b) “Discovery and invention have doubtless played a very large part in securing our present high industrial efficiency. But they are not the whole thing. The increase of capital has been equally necessary; for, without capital, invention could have accomplished little or nothing.” Defend and illustrate the last sentence.
  4. Explain how market price is the result of the forces of supply and demand. Illustrate by tables and diagrams showing supply and demand. At what point does price tend to be fixed? Why?
  5. Define the following: (a) utility; (b) diminishing utility, (c) marginal utility. Why can we say that the market price of a good corresponds to the marginal utility of that good to the marginal consumer?
  6. In general, what is the relationship between cost of production and market price? What is the relationship between the cost of production of two goods produced under conditions of joint cost and the selling prices of those goods? If the price of cotton seed oil should rise, what would tend to be the effect upon the price of cotton fibre? Why?
  7. What are the functions of money? What is meant when it is said that we have a “gold standard” in the United States? What are the actual kinds of money in use in the United States?
  8. What is credit? What service does it perform in the modern economic system? What is the difference between a promissory note and a bill of exchange? What use does the business man make of a commercial bank?

 

POLITICAL ECONOMY I “A”
[Dr. Weyforth]

Thursday; May 29, 1924—9 a.m.

  1. Explain the economic factors that must be taken into consideration in determining Germany’s capacity to pay reparations. How will Germany obtain funds abroad with which to make such payments?
  2. What policy should be pursued by the business man during a period of cumulating prosperity? What would be the policy of banks during such a period?
  3. Explain the principles determining the rent of land. If the price of wheat is $1.50 per bushel, what rent could be paid for the use of an acre of land that yielded 30 bushels at an average cost in labor and capital of $1.25 per bushel? Would the tendency be for any of these bushels to cost the producer $1.50? Explain.
  4. How do you account for the great differences in the wages of railroad presidents and of unskilled laborers? Suggest a general program for our society that would tend to bring about a much greater degree of equality in the returns for labor service than now prevails.
  5. Explain why interest can be paid and why it must be paid. What is the effect upon the rate of interest of (a) increased saving, (b) inventions making possible the use of more elaborate machinery, (c) war? Explain.
  6. What is the nature of the railroad problem in the United States? Describe briefly the history of our governmental policy toward railroads. What possible methods of handling the problem are open to us at the present time?
  7. Distinguish socialism from anarchism and syndicalism. What would you say is the fundamental idea in socialism? What criticisms do the socialists make of our present economic system? Give a critical estimate of socialism.
  8. What would you expect to be the relation between the goods exports and the goods imports of a country during the following periods:
    1. When it is first open to settlement or to industrial enterprise;
    2. When it has become quite well supplied with imported capital goods;
    3. When its citizens begin to make investments in other countries;
    4. When a relatively large amount of such foreign investments have been made.

Explain the reasons for your answer. In which of the above stages is the United States? England? Mexico?

POLITICAL ECONOMY I “B” [Mitchell.]

Tuesday, February 5th, 1924—9-12 A.M.

  1. What are the distinctions between the physical sciences and the social sciences?
  2. Why is our interest turning at this time to production?
  3. Define briefly: consumer’s surplus, capital, wealth, “unearned increment”, diminishing returns.
  4. What is the chief criticism to be made of cost theories of value?
  5. (a) Why is it sometimes to the advantage of an individual landowner to withhold his land from use?
    (b) How does the withholding of land from use affect the incomes of landlords as a class?
    (c) Can a tax on land be shifted from owner to occupier?
  6. What do you understand by Ricardo’s “iron law of wages”?
  7. (a) Why is interest paid? (b) Why did the schoolmen of the Middle Ages object to interest?
  8. What is the justification of a progressive income tax?
  9. State all you know about the personnel of the new labor government in Great Britain.

 

POLITICAL ECONOMY I “B”
Elements of Economics

Thursday, May 29, 1924

  1. Discuss the several sorts of monopoly.
  2. What are the advantages of the corporate form of business enterprise?
  3. (a) What is the justification for a progressive income tax?
    (b) Compare the advantages of financing a war by taxation and by borrowing.
  4. Describe briefly the Federal Reserve System.
  5. What are the economic and social effects of inflation?
  6. Discuss the main doctrines of Karl Marx.
  7. What are the chief benefits and drawbacks of a cooperative system as opposed to a competitive system?
  8. (a) Discuss the origin of trade unionism.
    (b) Distinguish between the purposes and methods of the I.W.W. and the unions affiliated with the A.F. of L.

 

POLITICAL ECONOMY I “C”

February 5th, 1924—9-12 A.M.

  1. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the present economic system? What are its present tendencies? Under what conditions should the state interfere in our economic processes, and how?
  2. Summarize the case for competition as opposed to (a) private monopoly; (b) state ownership. In what type of cases would private monopoly under state regulation offer the best solution?
  3. How is the price of labor affected by changes in the volume of immigration? By shifting of the negro population? What classes of labor would be affected? Relate your answer to the fact that wages rose constantly in the United States from 1897-1921.
  4. (a) Given the following data:
Price (Dollars)
3.00 4.00 5.00
Demand (units) 52 46 30
Supply (units) 24 35 56

Calculate the elasticity of demand at $4.00.
(b) What are the conditions that make for a slow rate of diminishing utility?

  1. Is there any necessary connection between monopoly and “big business”? What is the difference between a partnership and a corporation in (a) legal requirements and liability, (b) structural organization, (c) comparative advantages?
  2. Define non-cumulative-participating-preferred stock; holding company; general-mortgage bond. Give the principal features of the Sherman Act. Name some methods of unfair competition.
  3. Would wheat be a satisfactory money commodity? Would diamonds? Give reasons for your answers. What is meant by the “gold standard”? What has been our experience with bimetallism? Can it work?
  4. What is meant by “fiat” money? Were the greenbacks fiat money? Were the Federal Reserve notes issued during the World War fiat money? Why did prices go up during both wars? Is this necessary? Why?
  5. Describe the Federal Reserve System, its chief functions, changes it produced in our money and banking system, etc. How are checks cleared under the system?
  6. What is the quantity theory of money? What would be the effect upon prices of (a) adopting bimetallism, (b) increased bank reserve requirements, (c) a national fad for gold ornaments, (d) a higher rediscount rate, (e) enforcing seigniorage?
    If the quantity of metallic money has not changed, nor the level of prices, how do you reconcile this fact with a change in the volume of business over the same period?

 

POLITICAL ECONOMY I “C”
[Mr. Gillies]

May 29, 1924—9  A.M.

  1. Whom do you consider the most important factor in modern business, the landlord, the laborer, the capitalist, or the entrepreneur? Give reasons for answer.
    What other elements must be separated from price movements before the business cycle can be recorded? How can you tell when business is near a crisis?
  2. What is the purpose of the finance bill, and how does it operate? Discuss the merits and limitations of the doctrine of purchasing power parity, and tell what effect the maintenance of a high tariff by the United States against England has in the working of the doctrine as between these two countries.
  3. Validate the statement that the only way Germany can pay her indemnity is by an excess of exports over imports.
    Show how the mechanism of foreign exchange and international trade tends to produce like price movements all over the world.
  4. Outline the argument for the utility theory of value as opposed to the cost of production theory of value and show the application of these arguments to the determination of the share of industrial earnings going per unit to land and to capital.
  5. How is rent determined when the same land may be used for a number of different purposes? What has the varying intensivity [sic] of cultivation to do with rent?
    What is the economic justification of labor unions?
  6. Distinguish the attitude of British law and the Clayton Act in regard to labor disputes. What place does the concept of conspiracy play in the treatment by the courts of labor troubles in this country? Do you consider it just for the employer to bear the whole cost of industrial accidents? Is this the effect of our compensation laws?
  7. How large a return must be imputed to capital goods in order that they may truly pay for themselves? Does the fact that the price of consumption goods, when traced back, ultimately resolves into rent, wages and interest mean that there is no such thing in the long run as profits? (Reasons)
    Show roughly how income is distributed among our population. What can be done to improve this distribution.
  8. Is an increasing percentage of the national income spent for governmental activity a sign of increasing extravagance? (Reasons) To what extent should a government borrow and to what extent should it support itself by taxation? What constitutes justice in taxation?
  9. Distinguish direct and indirect taxes. Name some taxes of each kind. What taxes can be shifted? What determines the amount of shifting? What are the objections to a general property tax?

 

Examination in Statistics
(Pol. Econ. II)

January 31, 1924

  1. What are some of the common sources of secondary data? Given the relative advantages and disadvantages of collecting data by (a) personal investigation, (b) questionnaires, (c) enumerators. Give examples where possible in all cases.
    20 minutes.
  2. Give the number and total capacity of box cars, coal cars, and other cars in the Eastern, Southern, and Western Districts of the United States, tabulate so as to show average capacity of these three types and of all cars in each district and in all districts; use letters with subscripts to represent data, e.g. capacity coal cars in the Southern District = Ccs.
    30 minutes.
  3. Sow the various ways in which the above data could be presented diagrammatically, pictorially, or graphically.
    20 minutes.
  4. Given the following data:
Article of Food Consumption, 1901, per family Average Retail Price per Unit
1913 1917 1920
Sirloin steak 70 lbs. $0.25 $0.32 $0.35
Eggs 80 doz. 0.35 0.48 0.70
Milk 350 qts. 0.09 0.11 0.17
Potatoes 15 bu. 1.00 2.60 3.80

Show (do not compute) how an index number for these four commodities would be made up on

      1. Bradstreet’s method,
      2. Dun’s method.
      3. Compute the index number for 1917 and 1920 according to the method of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (base = 1913).
      4. What is the chief objection to an “average of relatives” index number?
        25 minutes.

5.  (A or B).

    1. How is an ogive constructed? Illustrate by sketch and show how the mode and the eighth decile may be determined from it. How is a percentage histogram constructed? What is its purpose?
    2. Prove the general validity of the short-cut method of computing the standard deviation.
      15 minutes.

 

  1. Given the following data:
Operating Revenues of Class I Carries
Eastern District—1920
In Millions of Dollars
1 2 3 4 7 15 24 74 492
1 2 3 4 8 15 26 75
1 2 3 5 10 15 30 76
1 2 3 5 10 16 35 81
1 2 4 5 11 17 39 94
1 2 4 5 11 19 45 94
2 2 4 6 12 19 51 107
2 2 4 6 12 22 65 [?] 200
2 3 4 7 14 23 70 314
Arithmetic Average $32,268.

Calculate, showing operations, the quartile coefficient of dispersion and skewness (series is theoretically continuous).
Compute, in tabular form, the coefficient of dispersion based on the median (to nearest whole number of millions).
How many places are justified in the above arithmetic average, on basis of data shown? Calculate the coefficient of skewness based on the mode.
30 minutes.

  1. Inflation of money is accompanied, or followed, by higher prices. Price fluctuations are measured roughly by index numbers. To the extent that inflation in one country exceeds that in another, its exchange in terms of the currency of the other country will depreciate. The following exercise is designed to test the tenth [sic, “truth”] of this doctrine.
    Given the following data:
1920 Index Numbers Sterling Cables
New York
Value £ in Dollars
B.L.S.*
(United States)
Statist+
(England)
January 248 288 $3.68
February 249 306 3.39
March 253 307 3.72
April 265 313 3.93
May 272 305 3.85
June 269 300 3.95
July 262 299 3.86
August 250 298 3.63
September 242 292 3.52
October 225 282 3.47
November 207 263 3.43
December 189 243 3.63
* Bureau of Labor Statistics, Wholesale Prices.
+ The Statist, English journal of finance, Wholesale Prices.

Reduce the B.L.S. indices to relatives of the corresponding statist indices, and correlate these relatives with the price of sterling by Pearson’s method. Does result confirm the above theory? How would you modify the method to correlate the short time changes in the two variables? Compute the standard deviation for one variable in your table.
Explain log. How would you plot a logarithmic historigram of the B.L.S. index numbers?
40 minutes.

 

POLITICAL ECONOMY III

Monday, May 26, 1924—9 a.m.

  1. What is standard money? State the requisites of (a) a gold standard; (b) a bimetallic standard; (c) a paper standard. State the advantages and disadvantages of each.
  2. Explain the functions of a commercial bank, showing what economic services it performs. Distinguish the functions of a commercial bank from those of (a) a savings bank; (b) an investment banker.
  3. Define, illustrate and explain the use of the following types of credit instruments: (a) promissory note; (b) bill of exchange; (c) trade acceptance; (d) bank acceptance.
  4. Explain the connection between the loans and deposits of commercial banks. To what extent ordinarily can an individual bank increase its loans as the result of a cash deposit of $100,000? To what extent can the loans of the banking system as a whole be increased as the result of such an addition to the cash deposits of the system? Explain.
  5. How does the Federal Reserve System provide for elasticity in currency and in credit? What is the need for such elasticity?
  6. What is the need for the control of bank credit? How may this control be effected under the Federal Reserve System?
  7. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York receives $8,000,000 of gold deposits.
    1. If member banks take all their rediscounts in federal reserve notes, how much additional paper can the reserve bank rediscount for its members, assuming that it does not borrow at other reserve banks? Make no allowance for discount charges.
    2. Answer the same question, assuming that member banks leave all their rediscounts on deposit.
    3. Answer the same question, assuming that member banks take 1/5 of their rediscounts in federal reserve notes and leave the remainder on deposit.
    4. Explain the quantity theory of money, showing the effect upon prices, of changes in the quantity of money, and of bank credit.

 

POLITICAL ECONOMY IV

January 31, 1924—9-12 A.M.

  1. Define a trade union and indicate the distinctions between trade unions and other analogous associations such as cooperative societies, societies of physicians, etc.
  2. Classify trade unions according to the character of the employer.
  3. Sketch the historical development, by periods, of American trade unionism.
  4. Describe the present structure of American trade unionism, indicating the relation of the national union to the other forms of organization.
  5. Classify American national trade unions from the point of view of function.
  6. Classify and discuss the methods of enforcement used by trade unions.
  7. What is meant by collective bargaining? What is the economic justification for collective individual bargaining?
  8. Describe the system known as scientific management and indicate why it has been opposed by trade unions.

 

POLITICAL ECONOMY VI
Corporation Finance

Monday, May 26, 1924

  1. Define a “bond”. Describe the following classes of bonds: divisional bonds, guaranteed bonds, income bonds, convertible bonds.
  2. Distinguish the capitalization, the capital, and the capital stock of a corporation.
  3. Distinguish equipment bonds and equipment trust certificates.
  4. Distinguish repairs, depreciation, and obsolescence.
  5. Discuss the relative advantages of serial bonds and sinking fund bonds.
  6. State and illustrate the law of balanced returns.
  7. Describe the various financial devices which have been used in the expansion of American railways.
  8. What is usually the nature of the agreement among the members under which an underwriting syndicate is formed?
  9. A corporation with common stock of $1,000,000 wishes to secure additional capital. The stock has a par value of $100 and is selling at $150. The corporation offers additional stock at par to the amount of $200,000, or one share of the new for each five shares held. What will be the value of the rights? What will be the value of the stock after the issue is consummated? Explain your answer.
  10. Define a “reorganization”, a “receivership”.

 

POLITICAL ECONOMY X
Business Organization

Monday, May 26, 1924—9 A.M.

Lectures

  1. Discuss the relation between the problem of distribution and the density of population, proportion of inhabitants living in cities, etc. What part does credit play in this problem? Is it a cause or an effect?
  2. What gains could be made in efficiency of our distribution system by the general state ownership and control of industry? Do you consider these possible gains sufficient grounds for the adoption of such a plan? (Reasons)
  3. What is meant by scientific management? Why is the present a logical time for its introduction into business? What is the purpose of motion study, and what does it consist of?
  4. Discuss the elements to be considered in locating an establishment. What is the proper balance between fixed and circulating capital (including investment in labor)? Why is (or is not) the cost-plus method of letting building contracts to be preferred to the lump sum method?
  5. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of profit-sharing as a method of stimulating employee efficiency.

Text: Stockder

  1. What are securities? When is an industry said to be in the securities-capital stage? What are factors’ agreements? Why is it proper for railways to issue long term mortgage bonds, without sinking fund or serial retirement provisions, even to an amount exceeding the par value of stocks, and not for an ordinary industry to do so?
  2. Describe the joint-stock company operating structure. Why is the business trust said to be superior to all other forms of business organizations? Are these two forms of organization common law or statute law?
  3. Tell what you would do to organize a holding company which also to operate as an industrial company; including principal terms of agreements, regulations, etc.
  4. Describe the formation of the Standard Oil trust of 1882, using sketch. Is Federal Incorporation an effective or desirable remedy for commercial abuses? (Reasons)
  5. Have you completed the auxiliary reading, including supplementary forms in Stockder and pamphlets from U.S. Chamber of Commerce? If not, to what extent have you completed this reading?

 

POLITICAL ECONOMY XI
Accounting 1

January 30, 1924—9-12 A.M.

  1. [Given the following items:]
Cash $2,320
Inventory $12,000
Accounts Receivable $21,000
Reserve for Bad Debts $1,500
Store $20,000
Reserve for Depreciation $7,000
Accounts Payable $2,500
Capital Stock $20,000
Surplus $23,940
Insurance $120
Wages $500
$55,440 $55,400

Purchased on credit $20,000; paid creditors $21,500. Credit sales were $30,000; collected from customers $45,000. Estimated amount of uncollectable accounts receivable on books $1,750. Depreciation for period was $2,000. Other cash disbursements: Wates $6,000, Dividends $10,000. At the end of the year the unexpired insurance was $60, inventory $11,000, accrued wages $400.
From the above starting point—closing trial balance and the interim adjustments given, prepare a closed ledger, a final balance sheet, and a profit and loss statement.

  1. Describe two different ways of recording cash discounts on sales in the cash books. Do not mention any accounting books except the cash books.
  2. Define the different kinds of indorsements used with negotiable instruments.
  3. A note for $1,000, dated June 10, for 4 months, with interest at 7 per cent, was discounted July 30, at 8 per cent. Find the net proceeds under the rules of bank discount.

 

 

POLITICAL ECONOMY XI
Accounting 1
[Dr. Newlove]

May 28, 1924—9-12 a.m.

  1. A and B start in partnership investing $10,000 and $8,000, respectively, on January 1. A withdrew $2,000 on May 1 and invested $2,000 on November 1. B invested $3,000 on March 1 and withdrew $3,000 on July 1. Give the entries for the above transactions together with the allocation of a net profit of $5,000 on the average investment basis.
  2. X and Y, partners, sell their business to a new corporation, whose authorized stock of $50,000 is all paid to the partners. The balance sheet of X and Y is:
Cash $5,000 Accounts Payable $15,000
Merchandise 30,000 X, Capital 15,000
Accounts Receivable 25,000 Y, Capital 30,000
$60,000 $60,000

Give the detailed closing entries of the partnership.

  1. Give the detailed opening entries for the corporation in Problem 2.
  2. (a)
Accounts Receivable Reserve for Bad Debts
$75,000 $5,000

Make entry for a customer owing $500 who becomes bankrupt and pays 10 cents on the dollar.
(b)

Machinery Reserve for Depreciation
$50,000 $4,000

A machine, which cost $1,000 five years ago, is sold for $400. The recorded depreciation on the machine is $500. Give the entry for sale.

  1. C and D entered on January 1 a joint venture each contributing merchandise costing $5,000. C paid expenses of $1,000 on the same date. On July 1 C received a draft from the consignee for $15,000. Interest was allowed at the rate of 6 per cent per annum. Show the accounts on C’s books affected by the venture, if C settled with D on July 1.

 

POLITICAL ECONOMY XII
ECONOMIC HISTORY

January 29, 1924—9-12 A.M.

  1. How does economic history differ from political history?
  2. What did the Romans accomplish economically for Britain?
  3. (a) What were the rights and obligations of the various classes under the manorial system
    (b) Did William the Norman change the manorial plan fundamentally?
  4. How were goods exchanged in England of the Middle Ages?
  5. What were the facts which rendered the guilds suitable to the economic needs of the country at the time they flourished?
  6. (a) What were the consequences of the “Black Death”?
    (b) Of the “Peasants’ Revolt”?
  7. What were the main facts of the Industrial Revolution, and what was the economic theory upon which it rested?
  8. Tell something of (a) chartism; (b) the Factory Acts; (c) the rise of trade unions.
  9. What is the present status of child labor legislation in the United States?
  10. What have been the forces that have brought the Labor Party into power in England?

 

POLITICAL ECONOMY XII
ECONOMIC HISTORY

Saturday, May 24, 1924

  1. What were the colonial policies of Great Britain?
  2. (a) Give the chief economic doctrines of Alexander Hamilton.
    (b) What was the connection between economic interests and the formation of the Constitution?
  3. What were the chief economic causes and effects of the Civil War?
  4. Discuss the economic and political consequences of the opening of the West.
  5. What were the main routes covered by canals and railroads, and why were these selected?
  6. Discuss the growth of trusts.
  7. Why is the Federal Government gaining in power while the individual State Governments are losing power?
  8. A factory needing 500 operatives is located in a farming community. What will be the likely economic results?
  9. Discuss the tariff vs. free trade.

 

POLITICAL ECONOMY XIII
SOCIAL ECONOMICS

February 4th, 1924—9-12 A.M.

  1. Why are delinquency and dependency community problems?
  2. Give the laws regulating school attendance in Maryland. Are they adequate?
  3. Give the Child Labor Laws of Maryland.
  4. Give the significance of the White House Conference of 1909. State the recommendations made. Give what you think the most important outcome of this conference.
  5. Give the names of the social agencies in the Alliance of Charitable and Social Agencies. Describe the work of the Family Welfare Association and one other social organization in the federation.

 

POLITICAL ECONOMY XIII
SOCIAL ECONOMICS

Friday, May 30, 1924—9 a.m.

  1. What are the functions of a Charities Endorsement Committee?

  2. On what principles is social case work based? What is the difference in the meaning of social case work and social work?
  3. Of what value is knowledge of social economics to the professional and business man?
  4. Give the social functions of recreation.

 

Source:  Johns Hopkins University. Milton S. Eisenhower Library, Ferdinand Hamburger, Jr. Archives. Department of Political Economy, Series 5/6, Box 6/1, Folder “Exams, 1907-1924”.

Image Source: Gilman Hall, Johns Hopkins University. Hullabaloo 1924.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Exams in money, banking and commercial crises. Guest professor, W. C. Mitchell, 1908-09

 

For the academic year 1908-09 Wesley Clair Mitchell took leave from the University of California to cover three courses previously taught by A. Piatt Andrew at Harvard on money, banking and foreign exchange, and commercial crises. This post provides enrollment figures and the examination questions for the three courses.

While I have been unable to find course outlines in the Harvard archives, here is the (almost complete) 1906 Syllabus for Mitchell’s money course taught at the University of California.

 ___________________

Money. A General Survey…in recent times

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 8a 1hf. Asst. Professor Mitchell (University of California). — Money. A general survey of currency legislation, experience, and theory in recent times.

Total 103: 4 Graduates, 24 Seniors, 48 Juniors, 20 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 6 Special.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1908-1909, p. 68.

 

ECONOMICS 8a1
Final Examination

1. and 2. Describe the monetary system of the United States, making such reference as is necessary for a clear understanding to monetary history and to the banking system.

  1. Sketch the monetary history of British India since 1873.
  2. Give a brief account of the production of gold and silver, and of the changes in the market ratio between them, for the years 1848 to 1908.
  3. State the case for bimetallism.
  4. What are the chief differences between monetary conditions in the Middle Ages and at present?
  5. Sketch some one of the paper-money episodes of the nineteenth century.
  6. What are index numbers? How are they constructed? Of what use are they?
  7. and 10. Discuss the way in which an increasing production of gold affects the price-level in gold-standard countries.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers, 1873-1915 (HUC 7000.25), Box 8. Bond volume: Examination Papers, 1908-09. Papers set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…, in Harvard College (June 1909), p. 39.

 ___________________

Banking and Foreign Exchange

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 8b 2hf. Asst. Professor Mitchell (University of California). — Banking and Foreign Exchange.

Total 117: 3 Graduates, 24 Seniors, 61 Juniors, 22 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 6 Special.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1908-1909, p. 68.

ECONOMICS 8b
Final Examination

  1. Exercise in Banking Accounts
    Do not spend more than sixty minutes upon this exercise.

    1. Arrange the following items in the form of a bank statement: Bonds and stocks, $90,000; Undivided profits, $10,000; Due from other banks, $50,000; Notes, $50,000; Exchanges for the clearing house, $50,000; Expenses, $1,500; Notes of other national banks, $1,000; Due to banks, $60,000; Real estate, $40,000; Surplus, $50,000; United States deposits, $30,000; 5% redemption fund, $2,500; Due from reserve agents, $50,000; Lawful money, $66,000; Capital, $200,000; Individual deposits, $600,000; Loans, $630,000; Other assets, $19,000.
    2. If the statement is that of a National Bank, not in a reserve city, how much lawful money is it required by law to hold as reserve?
    3. Assume that the statement shows the condition of the bank at the close of business Thursday. During business hours Friday the following transactions take place:—
      1. The bank pays a coal bill of $1,000 in cash;
      2. The bank remits $5,000 of United States notes to its reserve agent;
      3. The following deposits are received from individual customers:—
        $2,000 in gold certificates;
        $1,000 in the bank’s own notes;
        $5,000 in checks against the bank itself;
        $42,000 in checks against other banks belonging to the same clearing house.
      4. The bank discounts a 30-day note for $50,000 at 6%, taking United States bonds as collateral security. The borrower takes the proceeds in such form that he can pay in checks.
      5. A note of $20,000, discounted six months before at 4%, is paid by means of a check against the borrower’s account.
      6. At the clearing house, the bank finds $55,000 presented against it. Balances are paid in gold.
        How does the bank stand at the close of business Friday?
  1. Sketch the development of banking in England to 1700.
  2. Describe briefly the condition of banking in the United States in 1860.
  3. What factors affect the profit upon the issue of national bank notes?
  4. Compare the methods of treating a commercial panic followed by the banks of New York and the Bank of England.
  5. State the case for and against the incorporation into national banking law of provisions for any one of the following purposes:—
    1. To guarantee deposits;
    2. To permit branch banking;
    3. To change the bond-secured circulation for asset currency;
    4. To establish a central bank on the German model.
  6. State the leading differences between the business of commercial banking and savings banking.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers, 1873-1915 (HUC 7000.25), Box 8. Bond volume: Examination Papers, 1908-09. Papers set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…, in Harvard College (June 1909), pp. 40-41.

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Commercial Crises and Cycles of Trade

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 12 1hf. Asst. Professor Mitchell (University of California). — Commercial Crises and Cycles of Trade.

Total 68: 2 Graduates, 31 Seniors, 25 Juniors, 10 Sophomores.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1908-1909, p. 68.

 

ECONOMICS 121
Final Examination

Describe business conditions in the United States from 1890 to 1908, inclusive, with such reference to business conditions abroad as is necessary for an understanding of American conditions. State the most important causes of the changes which have occurred.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers, 1873-1915 (HUC 7000.25), Box 8. Bond volume: Examination Papers, 1908-09. Papers set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…, in Harvard College (June 1909), p.  44.

Image Source: Thumbnail image from a 1900 picture of Wesley Clair Mitchell at the University of Chicago in Lucy Sprague Mitchell’s Two Lives: The Story of Wesley Clair Mitchell and Myself.

 

Categories
Columbia Economists Methodology New School

Columbia. Wesley Clair Mitchell’s remarks at Conference on Methods in Philosophy and the Sciences, 1937

 

In brief remarks intended to give non-economists a sense of the major methodological schools of economics at a 1937 conference at the New School for Social Research, Columbia professor Wesley Clair Mitchell distinguishes (i) orthodox economics dedicated to the understanding of the “pecuniary logic” of an agent within a capitalist market environment, (ii) institutional economics dedicated to the understanding of the evolution of economic organization, and (iii) a new, yet unnamed, type of economic theory that is clearly recognizable as being “behavioral economics”.

____________________

Conference Program

CONFERENCE ON METHODS IN PHILOSOPHY AND THE SCIENCES

New School for Social Research
66 West 12th Street
New York City, N.Y.

Saturday, May 22 and Sunday, May 23, 1937

PROGRAM

Saturday, May 22

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

9:30 A.M. – 11:00 A.M – Registration, Room 24, Fee – $1.00

11:00 A.M. – 1:00 P.M. – First Session – Room 25

Chairman:  H. M. Kallen
Sidney Hook: The Current Philosophical Scene
John Dewey: A Possible Program for Libertarians and Experimentalists

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

2:30 – 4:00 P:M: – Second Session – Room 25

Brief statements on various departments of philosophy and the sciences: Their assumptions, methods, histories of the different schools, etc.

Ernest Nagel: The Position in LOGIC and METHODOLOGY
W.M. Malisoff: The Position in the PHYSICAL SCIENCES

DISCUSSION

4:00 – 5:30 P.M. – Second Session Continued – Room 25

S. E. Asch: The Position in PSYCHOLOGY
Wesley C. Mitchell: The Position in ECONOMICS

DISCUSSION

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

7:00 P.M. – DINNER, Gene’s 71 West 11th Street

Speakers: Bacchus, Dionysus, the Holy and other Spirits.
Appointment of Committees

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

Sunday, May 23

10:00 A.M. – 12 M. – Third Session, Room 25

Julius Lips: The Position in ANTHROPOLOGY
Meyer Schapiro: The Position in AESTHETICS
R. M. MacIver: The Position in SOCIOLOGY

DISCUSSION

12M. – 1:00 P.M. – Business Meeting

Election of Officers
Appointment of Permanent Committees
Unfinished Business
Adjournment

 

____________________

Handwritten Remark by Wesley Clair Mitchell
Economics

 

Conference on Methods in Philosophy and the Social Sciences

New School
May 22, 1937

Economics like Philosophy and the other Social Sciences is still in the stage of development marked by the existence of fairly distinct schools of thought, or as I like better to say Types of Theory.

These schools differ in method. But these differences in method arise from differences in the problems which are taken as the central concern of economics.

 

Orthodox economics concerns itself primarily with what I like to call pecuniary logic — what it is to the economic advantage of men to do under a capitalistic organization — and the ‘purer’ this theory becomes the more exclusive concentration on that problem becomes.

In dealing with pecuniary logic, the investigator employs the method of imaginary experimentation. That is, he sets up certain assumptions and seeks to think out what it is to the interest of men to do under the conditions supposed.

The theory is developed by varying these assumptions with reference to such matters as the factors in theory set which are allowed to change the length of the period considered in the problem, the degree of competition supposed, elasticities of demand, relations between unit costs and volume of output.

How far the conclusions apply to the actual world depends upon the character of the assumptions made. The correspondence between these assumptions and actual conditions is seldom investigated.

Hence the doubts about this type of theory are usually doubts, not about the correctness of the reasoning, but about how far they apply to the facts we wish to understand. May have uncertain ‘operational significance’.  Defence.—tool makers. Question about applicability not relevant.

This description applies less strictly to Marshall than to many of his pupils, to the later Austrians, and to mathematical economists.

 

Institutional economics concerns itself primarily with the evolution of economic organization.

To Veblen this meant study of the widely prevalent habits of thought.

To Commons it means study of social controls over induced action—primarily through the courts.

Methods employed combine ethnology or historical research with reasoning about how men with a certain set of habits ingrained in them by the social environment in which they have grown up and by the work they do will behave or how the social controls over induced behavior may be expected to work out.

Again there may be doubts about how far the reasoning concerning economic behavior applies to actual conditions.

 

A third type of economics seems to be developing though not represented as yet by systematic theoretical treatises.

It endeavors to learn by analytic studies of actual behavior how men conduct themselves. Its methods are closer kin to those of animal psychologists than to those of introspective psychologists.

Though these men show no reluctance to account for their observations by supposing that their subjects know the rules of the money-making and money-spending games. Here they go beyond outlook[?] of physical science— Supposes men have purposes: that they plan for future .

Large use of the mass observations afforded by statistics

Considerable emphasis upon method[?] analysis of these records.

Not confined to statistics.

Doubts here concern representative value [or volume?] of the data

Trustworthiness of the mathematical analysis.

Extent to which factors that are not recorded statistically may modify conclusions drawn. Work of this sort is primarily monographic. Since social phenomena are interdependent, the question concerning what is left out is highly important

Can’t be applied well except when mass observations are available.

Promises to develop in future because statistical observation is covering a wider range.

Danger of ‘mere fact finding’ Dewey. Yes, but the facts may have deep ‘operational’ significance. Relation to questions of policy.

 

Source: Columbia University Archives. W. C. Mitchell Collection. Box 3, Folder “5/22/37 A”.

Image Source: Wesley Clair Mitchell from Albert Arnold Sprague’s and Claudia C. Milstead’s Genealogical Website.

 

Categories
Columbia Suggested Reading Syllabus

Columbia. New Seminar. Outline with readings, Economic Theory and Change. Mitchell and Ginzberg, 1937

 

Wesley Clair Mitchell left voluminous course lecture notes found with his other papers at the Columbia University Archives. On the whole his notes are very neatly written by hand so that any typed pages among his lecture notes immediately catch the attention of the tired eyes of this archival junkie working the boxes. My presumption was that this typed material was probably someone else’s work and the pencilled “Eli Ginzberg” on one of the course outlines provided an obvious lead. Ginzberg received his Ph.D. from Columbia in 1934 and held the rank of Lecturer in economics at Columbia at the time of this course. Chapter 2 (“The Education of an Economist”) in his book The Skeptical Economist (1987) provides the necessary back-story for the course materials transcribed for this post.

From Mitchell’s notes to the first session from the Winter session of the course in 1937-38, we learn that a dress rehearsal was held as a seminar during the Spring 1937 course for which we have the following list of participants. Definitely worth noting is that William Vickrey and Anna Jacobson Schwartz participated in that preliminary seminar.

____________________

Handwritten: Economics Seminar. March-May 1937
(Signatures of student participants. Note: “not complete”)

William Vickrey, Ruth Cleve [?], Pauline Arkus, Anna Jacobson [Note: this is Milton Friedman’s collaborator Anna Schwartz], [First name illegible] Louise Boggen, Konrad Bekker, Mark S. Massel, Eileen M. Conly, John I. Griffin, Alan Pope, Bela Gold, Burnham P. Beckwith, Herman Zap, Moore

Source:  Columbia University Archives. Papers of Wesley Clair Mitchell. Box 3, Folder “3-5/37 A”.

____________________

Origin of the seminar

“In 1932-1933, a group of us brought about the first change in the curriculum: We persuaded Mitchell, Clark, and Angell to offer a seminar on economic theory. In the mid-1930s, when I had begun to teach as an assistant in the School of Business, I was instrumental in establishing several further reforms, largely through persuading its dean, Roswell C. McCrea, who also served as chairman of the Economics Department, to do the following: to reduce the number of subjects on which doctoral candidates were examined from seven to six, to invite Milton Friedman to give a course on ‘Neoclassical Economics,’ to have Wesley Mitchell substitute for his lectures on ‘Current Types of Economic Theory’ a new seminar on ‘Economic Theory and Economic Change,’ in which I would serve as his assistant. Furthermore, McCrea obtained the consent of the Committee on Instruction in the School of Business for me to offer a new course on ‘Economics and Group Behavior,’ which was cross-listed in the Department of Economics’ offerings. This was probably the first course in what later became known as ‘human resources.’”

 

Source: Eli Ginzberg, The Skeptical Economist (Westview Press, 1987), p. 16.

____________________

Secular and Structural Changes in a Modern Economy
From Mitchell’s handwritten notes for the first meeting
Sept. 28, 1937

An experimental course. 1st time given, aside from a brief trial run in seminar last spring.
Title not felicitous: perhaps it will prove not very accurate. Explanation of view[?] called for.

Past 2 generations have seen vigorous development of three or four different approaches to study of economic behavior.

Economic theory of several types ranging from mathematical economics on one flank to institutional economics on other flank.

Economic history of recent and more remote past

Economic statistics have multiplied in the leading commercial nations and technique of using them has been improved.

Relation of these approaches to one another

Difficult to find investigation in which one approach only is used.

Economic theorist seldom disregards wholly the historical setting of his problem, or quantitative importance of its components. Whether they recognize it or not, these factors count in their thinking.

Economic historians and statisticians cannot dispense wholly with qualitative analysis.

Their selection and arrangement of materials imply classification: they take materials that are pertinent and pass on others that are not. What is pertinent in their judgment is decided whether they realize it or not, by the organization of their ideas.

Can find many investigations in which an attempt is made to use all three approaches

Schmoller’s Allgemeine Vokswirtschaftslehre, Webbs’ History of British T. U.‘s and Industrial Democracy.Marshall’s Industry and Trade. Cassel’s Social Economics. Keynes‘ Theory of Money, Pigou’s Industrial Fluctuations, Sombart’s Moderne Kapitalismus. A brilliant older example Marx’s Capital; indeed Wealth of Nations except that Adam Smith had a poor opinion of ‘political arithmetic’.

 

But, to a large extent, the theoretical, historical, and statistical approaches have been developed by three groups of workers

Each of whom is especially adept in one approach and makes incidental rather than systematic and thorough use of the other approaches

And there are

Economic theorists
Economic historians
Economic statisticians

who seem not to realize the extent to which their thinking is influenced by elements derived from the other approaches.

In general we cannot claim that the three approaches have been perfectly blended

Schmoller a particularly good example because he tried as hard to use all three. He knew certain phases of economic history well: but not all the phases on which he touched. He was a slovenly theorist and a gullible statistician.

Hence one of the great tasks before the generation of economists to whom members of this class belong is to utilize the knowledge of economic processes provided by the 3 approaches more effectively than their predecessors have done.

Primary aim of the course is to aid in that effort.

Method is to take up certain economic processes that have been studied for both the theoretical angles and for the historical or statistical angles or for both and to inquire whether the realistic approaches call for modification of the theoretical analyses: quite as much

Whether the theoretical approach calls for modification of the realistic investigations.

How much we can get out of this experiment for the improvement of our own investigations remains to be seen.

Will depend not only upon the industry with which we are ready to devote to study of the materials assigned but also upon the ability to think we are able to develop.

 

Mode of conducting course

Dr. G. and I will select problems, at least at beginning, and assign readings. Members of class will present reports to the class Written or oral. Discussion in class.

As work goes on we may well turn up problems of which Dr. Ginzberg and I have not thought in advance.

Interest of the meetings and value of the work are necessarily conditioned by the clarity of the reports made by the members of the group.

Please try hard to get your notes[?] well organized and lucidly presented. So well presented that other members who listen once only can understand and expect questions of others as you present reports.

So much for the general aims of the course and how it will be conducted. Begin work with an attempt to characterize broadly the conceptions of economic change that are held by investigators.

Or rather, what types of movements occur in economic life.

 

1st assignment

Let each member of class consult one or more of the statistical treatises that deal with time-series analysis to find out what types of movements are recognized.

What is basis of classification used? In what are these movements all alike? In what do the types differ? Are all of these types recognized by economic theory? For what types do economic theorists offer explanations? What relation if any do the movements of the statisticians bear to the ‘disturbing circumstances’ of economic theory and to the movements by which economic equilibrium is restored after a disturbance, and maintained in the absence of further disturbances (equilibrating movements)? Are the criteria used by economic statisticians in classifying movement like those used by time-series analysts? Can we expect inductive testing of economic laws?

Source:  Columbia University Archives. Papers of Wesley Clair Mitchell. Box 3, Folder “9/28/37 A”.

____________________

Handwritten draft of course announcement

December 19, 1936
Announced for 1936-37

Cumulative Changes in Economic Processes

A critical survey of realistic studies of population growth, natural resources, occupations, capacity to produce, standards of living, national income and its distribution, ownership of property, business organization and methods, labor conditions, capital accumulation, the role played by government in economic affairs, and national planning, accompanied by study of the relations of the findings to economic theory.

Readings, reports and class discussions. Limited to twenty students. Admission by permission of the instructor.

2 hours a week, both semesters.
4-6 Thursdays.

Source:  Columbia University Archives. Papers of Wesley Clair Mitchell. Box 3, Folder “12/19/36 A”.

____________________

Course Announcement
1937-38

Economics 201-202—Secular and structural changes in a modern economy.  3 points each session. Professor Mitchell with the assistance of Dr. Ginzberg.

Tu., 4:10-6. 102 Low.

The theoretical, institutional, historical, and statistical approaches to the study of economic changes. Critical survey of investigations into recent changes in important factors. Relations of the findings to current economic theory.
Readings, reports, and class discussions.
Admission only with permission of the instructor.

Source: Columbia University. Bulletin of Information (July 23, 1938). Courses offered by the Faculty of Political Science for the Winter and Spring Sessions, 1937-1938, p. 30.

____________________

Course Announcement
1938-39

Economics 201-202—Economic changes and economic theory.  3 points each session. Professor Mitchell assisted by Dr. Ginzberg.

Tu., 4:10-6. 502 Business.

The theoretical, institutional, historical, and statistical approaches to the study of economic changes. Critical survey of investigations into recent changes in important factors. Relations of the findings to current economic theory. Readings, reports, and class discussions.

Admission only with permission of the instructor.

Source: Columbia University. Bulletin of Information (July 23, 1938). Courses offered by the Faculty of Political Science for the Winter and Spring Sessions, 1938-1939, p. 31.

____________________

Jan. 14, 1937

TENTATIVE OUTLINE FOR COURSE ON CUMULATIVE CHANGES IN ECONOMIC PROCESSES

Introduction: The theoretical, the historical, and the statistical approaches to the study of Economic Changes.

  1. The concepts of economic ‘statics’ and economic ‘dynamics’ in the work of J. S. Mill, Marx, J. B. Clark, Alfred Marshall, Gustav Cassel.
    What ‘dynamic’ problems are treated by these writers? How far does the treatment build upon ‘static’ theory?
    Theoretical treatment of cumulative changes in institutions by Marx, Veblen and Commons.
  2. Historical accounts of economic changes.
    What ‘explanations’ are given of significant changes by such writers as Ashley, Schmoller, the Webbs, Sombart, Clapham?
  3. Time-series analysis
    Types of changes commonly recognized: seasonal variations, random perturbations, cyclical fluctuations, secular trends.
    The problem of ‘long cycles’. Kondratieff, Simiand, Kuznets, Burns.
    The problem of structural changes.
    What types of these changes have been explained theoretically?
    What relations have these explanations to economic theory at large?
    What relations exist between secular, cyclical, random, seasonal and structural changes?
  4. Relations among the three approaches
    The injunction to combine causal analysis with statistical description.
    Dangers of statistical work not guided by theoretical concepts.
    Dangers of theoretical speculation not checked by statistical observation
    Difficulties in fusing the two approaches
    Causal analysis of problems in which many variables are interrelated, and in which effects become causes in a process of cumulative change
    The theoretical uses of history.
    The historical applications of theory.
    Statistics and history.

Classification of investigations available for the study of economic changes

  1. Studies of recognized types of economic changes
    The abundant literature upon business cycles
    A few studies of seasonal variations
    A few studies of secular trends and of long cycles
    No systematic literature upon random perturbations; but many casual references in books on business cycles.
    Many studies of structural changes, particularly those produced by legislations—for example, the Independent Treasury system, tariff acts, etc. Also numberless discussions under next heading.
  2. Studies of changes in single economic factors
    A vast literature is available upon such subjects as
    Growth of population and its geographical distribution
    Developments of the arts of production: histories of industries
    Natural resources of different districts; their exploitation; problems of conservation
    Changes in business organization: rise of corporations, different forms of corporate organization, banking systems; histories of particular business enterprises, and so on.
    Organization of labor
    Shifting importance of agriculture, transportation, manufactures, trade, finance in the national economy.
    Changes in economic relations among nations:: commercial policies, international investments, shifts from debtor to creditor position.
    Changes in the system of prices: their relations to monetary laws and practices; the relative importance of competitive versus regulated prices, private versus public regulation; the degree of flexibility in prices
    Changes in standards of living
  3. Economic changes during certain periods
    Most of the books on economic history might be listed here, in so far as they do not belong under previous heading.
    Also a few studies primarily statistical in character, such as
    Recent Economic changes
    Recent Social Trends
    Social England—Booth’s survey and the recent many-volume study.
    Mills’ Economic Tendencies in the U.S.
  4. Work to be undertaken by the members of the course
    To read critically and report upon significant studies of recent economic changes.
    Avoid so far as feasible the subjects that are treated elaborately in other courses, for example money and banking, labor problems, business cycles, public utilities.
    Stress the effort to grasp the inter-relations among the changes studied.
    In each case consider in how far the changes are or can be ‘explained’, and what relation these explanations have or should have to economic ‘theory’.

Among the books to be consider for assignment the following are possibilities:

W. S. Thompson and P. K. Whelfton, Population Trends in the U.S. N.Y. 1933
R. D. McKenzie, The Metropolitan Community, N.Y., 1933
Carter Goodrich and others, Migration and Economic Opportunity, Philadelphia, 1936
Wyand, Economics of Consumption, N.Y., 1937
C. C. Chapman, Development of American Business and Banking Thought, 1913-1936. New York, 1937
Twentieth Century Fund, Big Business: Its Growth and its Place. N.Y., 1937
A. A. Berle and G. C. Means, The Modern Corporation and Private Property, N.Y., 1932
A. R. Burns, The Decline of Competition, N.Y., 1936
R. C. Epstein, Industrial Profits in the U.S., N.Y., 1934
Harry Jerome, Mechanization in Industry, N.Y., 1934
F. C. Mills, Prices in Recession and Recovery, N.Y., 1936
‘The Brookings Study’, Washington, 1934 and 1935

America’s Capacity to Produce
America’s Capacity to Consume
The Formation of Capital
Income and Economic Progress

H. G. Moulton and Associates, The American Transportation Problem, Washington, 1933
National Resources Board, Report December 1, 1934, Washington 1934.
W. I. King, The National Income and Its Purchasing Power, N.Y., 1930
(S. Kuznets), National Income, 1929-32, Washington, 1934
Our Natural Resources and their Conservation, A symposium edited by A. E. Parkins and J.R. Whitaker. N.Y., John Wiley & Sons, 1936
A. F. Burns, Production Trends in the U.S. Since 1870. N.Y. 1934. See review by F. A. Fetter JPE Feb. 1937
W. Sombart, Hochkapitalismus
W. H. Lough, High-Level Consumption, N.Y., 1935
W. V. Bingham. Aptitudes and Aptitude Testing, N.Y., 1937.

Source:  Columbia University Archives. Papers of Wesley Clair Mitchell. Box 3, Folder “1/14/37 A”.

____________________

[Handwritten note at top of page: “Eli Ginzberg Jan 18 1937”]

CUMULATIVE CHANGES IN A MODERN ECONOMY

Introduction

  1. The Method of the Classicists

Ricardo—Chapter I ff.
Marshall—Book V

Supplementary:

Knight—Introduction to Risk, Uncertainty, and Profit—2d ed.
Ibid—The Ethics of Competition and Other Essays
Robbins—Nature and Significance of Economic Science
Clark, J. M. Preface to Social Economics (the essay on “Statics and Dynamics”)
Moore, H.L.—
Hotelling, H.—

  1. Historical-Statistical Approach

(a) Case study of: Industrial Revolution

Toynbee
Hammonds
Webbs
Lipson
Clapham

Supplementary: see

Mantoux—
Nef—in Economic History Review.
Reconstructions, in Economic History Review

(b) Case study of: Profits and Wages in the United States

    1. Profits

Epstein
Patten
Mills

Supplementary:

Knight—Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences—article on Profits
Knight—Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences—article on Risk, Uncertainty, and Profit
Reports of the S.E.C.
Senate Committee on Foreign Bonds

    1. Wages

Douglas—Recent Economic Changes
Wolman, L.—R.E.C. and 3 Bulletins Bureau of Labor Statistics

Supplementary:

Douglas—Theory of Wages
Beveridge—Unemployment
Clay, H.—Essays in Industrial Relations

  1. Institutional-Theoretical

Marx—Communist Manifesto
Ibid.—Capital—vol. I
Veblen—Theory of Business Enterprise
Mitchell—Business Cycles
Clark, J.M.—Economics of Overhead Costs

Supplementary:

Souter-Prolegomena to Relativity Economics
Hamilton—Encyclopedia of the Social sciences Article on “Competition”
Knight—Ethics of Competition, etc.
Clark, J. M.—Preface to Social Economics
American Economic Association—Round Tables

  1. Conclusion: Methodology

Cohen—Reason and Nature
Weber, Max—Wissenschaftslehre
Whitehead—Adventure in Ideas
Simkhovitch—Approaches
Sombart—Drei Nationalökomien
Carnap—Unity of Science
MacIver—Harvard Lecture

 

PART I—Cumulative Changes in Economic Institutions

(General aim to study changes in degree and kind in the institutional setting explicit and implicit in neo-classicists; to gauge interrelations in these changes).

  1. The Large Corporation

Berle and Means—The Modern Corporation
Twentieth Century Fund: Big Business
A. R. Burns—Decline of Competition

Supplementary:

Commons—Legal Foundations of Capitalism
Holmes, O. W.—Representative Opinion
Brandeis, L.—Social and Economic Views
Hamilton, W.—Industries affected with the Public Interest
Clark, J. M.—Social Control of Business
Handler—Trade Regulation

  1. The Credit System

Annual Reports of Federal Reserve Board
Moulton—The Formation of Capital
Brookings—The Recovery of Business
Hardy—Credit Policies of the F. R. S.
Keynes—The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money.
Angell—The Behavior of Money
Reports of Senate Sub-committee on Banking
Reports of Senate Committee on S. E. C.
Reports of Senate Committee on Foreign Bonds
Clark, J. M.—Economic of Planning Public Works
Chapman, C. C.—American Business and Banking Thought
Currie, L.—The Supply of Money

Supplementary:

Articles in Economic Journal, Q.J.E., S.[sic, J.?] of P. E.

  1. The Problem of Consumption

(a) Numbers

Thompson and Whelfton—Population Trend
McKenzie—Metropolitan Community
Goodrich—Migration and Economic Opportunity
Recent Social Trends

(b) Psychology

Veblen—The Theory of the Leisure Class
Hearings on Pure Foods Drug Act
Reports of Federal Trade Commission
Bulletins of Consumers Research
Schlink—
Chase, Stuart—

(c) Economics

Brookings—America’s Capacity to Consumer
Brookings—Income and Economic Progress
Wyand—Economics of Consumption
Recent Social Trends
Seligman—Installment Selling
Keynes—Appendix to General Theory

 

PART II—Cumulative Changes in the Short-Run

(Contrast with equilibrium approach of neo-classicists).

Case Study: Post-War Expansion

  1. The automobile: building and new industries

(a) Source of capital
(b) Entrepreneurs’ expectations
(c) Exploitation of demand

  1. Secondary Results: Structural Changes

(a) Relocation of Industry
(b) Urbanization—suburbs
(c) Standard of living—mores—instalment credit
(d) Incidence of Transportation
(e) Complex of Industry—of steel, glass, gasoline

Literature

Recent Economic Changes
Recent Social Trends
Goodrich et al—
Epstein, R.—Automobile Industry
Facts and Figures—Automobile Industry-1919 ff.
Clark, J. M.—Strategic Factors in Business Cycles
Warburton, C.—In Mitchell volume
Moulton et al—The American Transportation Problem
National Resources Board—Report 12/1/34
Burns, A. F.—Production Trends
Trade Journals—Steel, distribution, etc.
Annalist

PART III: The Interrelations of Economic Institutions and Market Phenomena

How do the existing legal, banking, and distributive institutions help to condition—and how are they conditioned by the following?

1. Capital accumulation
2. Profitability of industry
3. National income—wages—agriculture
4. Behavior of prices and costs

Literature

Mills—Economic Tendencies
Mills—Prices in Recession and Recovery
King—National Income and its Purchasing Power
Kuznets, S.—National Income. 1929-32
Mitchell—Business Cycles
Clark, J. M.—Strategic Factors in Business Cycles
Keynes, J. M.—General Theory of Employment
Brookings—Recovery of Business
Brookings—N. R. A.

 

Source:  Columbia University Archives. Papers of Wesley Clair Mitchell. Box 3, Folder “1/18/37 A”.

____________________

OUTLINE
Secular and Structural Changes in a Modern Economy

[Handwritten: Eli Ginzberg]

February 23, 1937

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

OUTLINE
Secular and Structural Changes in a Modern Economy.

INTRODUCTION: The theoretical, the historical, the institutional, and the statistical approaches to the study of economic changes.

  1. “Statics and Dynamics” in the works of:
    J. S. Mill, J. B. Clark, Alfred Marshall, Gustav Cassel.
  2. “Explanation” of economic changes by:
    Ashley, Schmoller, Webbs, Sombart, Clapham
  3. Cumulative changes in institutions:
    Marx, Veblen, Commons.
  4. Time-Series Analysis: seasonal variations, cyclical fluctuations, secular trends and random perturbations. “Long cycles”:
    Kondratieff, Simiand, Kuznets, Burns.

Summary: The limitations of isolated techniques and the difficulties of fusion

  1. Theory and statistics; history and theory; statistics and theory
  2. Multiple variables in a process of cumulative change.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Secular changes in the industrial unit, the financial system, the organization of labor, and the ideology of the public during the periods:

1870-1890
1890-1914
1914-1937

 

  1. The Industrial Unit: The changing pattern of competition
    1. Economic aspects
      1. Adjustment to technology and to a national market
      2. Location of plant and transportation
      3. Integration: to raw materials; to distribution; to finance
    2. Law and Social Control
      1. Trademarks and Patents
      2. Governmental Regulation: License, taxes, etc.
      3. Trade Associations
      4. Management vs. Ownership

*Emphasis to be placed upon changing relative positions of the industrial unit to the total economy; upon the influence of size to competitive behavior; upon economic implications of individual vs. corporate forms.

  1. Financial System—The rôle of money in a modern economy.
    1. The Changing Structure of Banking
      1. Loans and investments
      2. Active money
    2. The Problems of Debt and Liquidity
      1. Private vs. Public Debt
      2. Collateral for private debt
      3. Insurance—private and public
    3. Implications: Economic and Social
      1. Economic: The interrelations of interest rates, savings, and the formation of capital.
      2. Social: The political control over the creation of money and the use of this control for the eradication of the business cycle.
  1. Labor: not solely a commodity
    1. Unionization
      1. Members
      2. Objectives
      3. Potential threats and consequences
    2. Supply
      1. Changes in requirements of skill
      2. The relative shrinkage in agriculture
      3. The additions from women of the middle class
      4. Mobility
    3. Rôle of the Government
      1. Free Services
      2. Enforcement of minimum standards
      3. Relief payments and work creation
      4. Re Bargaining between Labor and Capital

*Emphasis: Implication of these changes for

    1. Rate of wages
    2. Total wages—cf. monopoly analysis
    3. Class-struggle analysis
  1. The Changing Ideology: The influence of money making upon the attitudes of people—
    Upon their behavior in

    1. Spending: price vs. quality; advertising; women as buyers
    2. Accumulating: liquid vs. fixed assets; speculation; insurance; goods vs. family
    3. Playing: The esoteric vs. the stable; Wanderlust; the shift from church and home to club and movie.
    4. Occupational adjustment: sensitivity to monetary stimuli; civil service; money and the arts.

Conclusions: An approach to isolating and treating the strategi9c factors in a dynamic economy—

    1. The emergence of profitability
    2. The cumulative process and the breakdown
    3. The absorption of technological developments and the tendency towards retardation of growth.
    4. The closely allied patterns of change; their interaction with the economic. 1. Political/2. Legal/3. Ideological

 

Source:  Columbia University Archives. Papers of Wesley Clair Mitchell. Box 3, Folder “2/23/37 A”.

____________________

[Pencil: “April 1937”]

SECULAR AND STRUCTURAL CHANGES
IN A
MODERN ECONOMY

OUTLINE

    1. The Study of Economic Change
    2. Population
    3. Migration and Location
    4. The Business Unit
    5. Psychology and Social Classes
    6. Technology
    7. The Legal Framework
    8. Government
    9. Dynamics of the Market
    10. Cumulative Factors

 

I

THE STUDY OF ECONOMIC CHANGE

  1. Introduction
  2. The Classicists and the Institutionalists

*Preface to First and 8th editions of Marshall’s Principles and Bk. V—Chapter XV
*Marx—Communist Manifesto—Part I

    1. The Classicists

J. S. Mill—Principles of Political Economy—Bk IV
J. B. Clark—Essentials of Economic Theory—Preface, Chapters XII, XIII, XIV, XV, and XXX
Marshall—Principles—Bk I—Chap. III; Bk V—Chaps. I, II, III, V, and XV
Cassel—Social Economy—Bk I, Chaps. I #5,6; Bk. IV

    1. The Institutionalists

Marx—Communist Manifesto—Part I
Veblen—Business Enterprise—Chpas. II, VII, IX, X
Commons—Legal Foundations of Capitalism—Chapters I, II, III, VII, IX, vi

  1. The Historians and the Statisticians

*Heckscher, Eli—“Aspects of Economic History” in Essays in Honor of Gustav Cassel
*Mitchell—“Business Cycles”—Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences

    1. The Historians

Webbs—History of Trade Unionism—Chapters II, III
Clapham—Economic History of Modern Britain—Vol I, Chapter XIV
Sombart—Der Moderne Kapitalismus—Vol. III, Part I—Chapters 22-25

    1. The Statisticians

Simiand—La Crise Mondiale—pages 1-14; pages 114-35
Burns, A. F.—Production Trends—Foreword; Chapters III;ii, iii; IV: iv; V:v, vi.
Mitchell—“Business Cycles”—Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences
Kuznets—Seasonal Variations in Industry and Trade—Chapter I, Concluding Notes—pp. 355 ff.

  1. Theory, History, and Statistics
    *J. M. Clark—“Statics and Dynamics” in Preface to Social Economy
    *F. H. Knight—New Introduction to Risk, Uncertainty, and Profit
    *W. C. Mitchell—“Quantitative Measurement” in Backward Art of Spending Money and Other Essays
    1. Cohen and Nagel—Introduction to Logic and Scientific Method Bk II: Chaps. X, XI, XVI, XVII, XIX sec. 3
    2. Robbins—Nature and Significance of Economic Science. Chapters II 4,5; III 4,5; IV; VI 5,6
    3. J. M. Clark—“Socializing Theoretical Economics” in Preface to Social Economics

 

II

POPULATION

  1. The Data, Method, and Deductions about population in economic theory
    *Malthus—Population—Chapters I, II
    *Marshall—Bk IV, Chapters IV, V

    1. Ricardo—Principles II, V, XXXII
    2. J. S. Mill—Principles—Chapter X, 2, 3
    3. Pigou—Economics of Welfare—Part I, chapters IX, X
  2. The Contemporary Data, Methods, Deductions as to Trends
    *“Population”—Encyclopedia of Social Sciences

    1. Thompson and Whelpton—Population Trends in U. S.—Chapters I: pp. 2267;257-61;288-91; IX, X, and XI
    2. Carr-Saunders—World Population (1936)—Chapters I, II, XVI, XVII, XXII, Note on Overpopulation
    3. Kucyznski—Births and Death, Vol I. Chaps. I, II, III, IV; II. Chaps. I, VI
  3. The Economic Implications of the Population Problem
    *Myrdal—“Industrialization and Population” in Essays in Honor of Gustav Cassel

    1. On Unemployment
      Beveridge—Unemployment—Chapter XVII
    2. On Imperialism
      W. S. Thompson—Danger Spots in World Politics—Chapters X, XII, XIII, XIV
    3. On Consumption
      Lynd—Middletown—Chapters V, XI
      J. M. Keynes. Economic Consequences of a Declining Population. Eugenics Review, April 1937, vol. XXIX, 13-17.

 

III

MIGRATION AND LOCATION OF PEOPLE AND INDUSTRY

*Marshall—Principles—pp. 199-203, Book IV—Chapter X, Appendix A-#13
*Weber, A.—Theory of Location of Industries

Editor’s Introduction
Author’s Introduction
Chapters I, VII

*Semple—American History, its Geographic Conditions—Chapters XV, XVI, XVII

    1. Goodrich—Migration and Economic Opportunity—Introduction: Chapters I, VI, VII, IX, XII
    2. Mackenzie—The Metropolitan Community—Chapters I, III, V, VI, XII, XVII, XXIII

 

IV

THE BUSINESS UNIT

*Marshall—Principles—Bk IV—Chapter XII
*Twentieth Century Fund—Big Business—Summary

    1. Distribution of the Working Population

The National Income in the United States (1929-35). Department of Commerce

    1. The Problem of Control: Private

Berle and Means—Modern Corporation and Private Property, Bks I, VI
Twentieth Century Fund—Big Business Summary, Chaps. I, VIII
Laidler—Concentration of Control in American Industry, Parts I, VI.

    1. The Problem of Control: Public

Jones and Bingham—Principles of Public Utilities—Chapters I, II, and XII
Moulton Associates—American Transportation Problem—Report of Committee—Chapters I, II, XII, XXI, XXIV, XXV, XXX, XXXI

    1. Planning

Parkins and Whitaker—Our Natural Resources and their Concentration—Chapters I, II, IX, X, XI, XVI, XVIII
National Resources Board—1934—Part I—Sec. I, Sec. V.

 

V

PSYCHOLOGY AND SOCIAL CLASSES

*Marshall—Principles—Bk I—Chapter II
*Weber—General Economic History—Chapter XXX

    1. The Spirit of the Capitalist

M. Weber—The Protestant Ethic—Foreword, Introduction, Chapters II, III, V

    1. Modern Psychology and Aggression

Abrahams, K.—Selected Essays on Psycho-Analysis—Chapters XXIII, XXIV, XXV
Horney, K.—The Neurotic Personality of Our Times—Chapters [blank]
Mead, M.—Competition and Cooperation in Primitive Societies. Interpretive Statement.

    1. The American Scene

Veblen—Absentee Ownership—chapters VI, VII I, ii, iii
Parker—The Casual Laborer and Other Essays—Recent Social Trends—Chapter VIII
Taussig and Joslyn—American Business Leaders—Chapters X, XI, XVI, XVII, XIX, XX

 

VI

TECHNOLOGY

*Marshall—Principles—Bk IV—Chapter IX
*Veblen—Theory of Business Enterprise—Chapter IX

    1. America’s Capacity to Produce—Introduction, Chapters VI, XIV, XV, XVI, XIX, XX

Jerome—Mechanization in Industry—Introduction, Summary, Chapters III, IV

    1. –Recent Social Trends—Volume I—Chapter III

Weintraub and Posner—Technological Tendencies and their Social Implications
Jerome—Mechanization—Chapters IX, X

 

VII

THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK

*J. S. Mill—Principles of Political Economy—Bk II—Chapter II
*Veblen—Theory of Business Enterprise—Chapter VIII

    1. Commons—Legal Foundations of Capitalism. Chaps. I, II, III, VII, IX
    2. Handler—Trade Regulation, Chapters I, II
    3. Bonbright—The Valuation of Property—Chapters I, II, III, IV, V, XXX, XXXII

 

VIII

THE GOVERNMENT

*J. S. Mill—Principles of Political Economy—Bk V—Chapter XI
*H. Laski—The State—Chapter IV

    1. Re Taxes

Shoup—Facing the Tax Burden—Chaps 2, 3, 6, 7, 8
Recent Social Trends—Volume II—Chapters XXV, XXVI

    1. Re Banking

Willis—Central Banking—Part I, Chapters XVI, XVII, XVIII, XXVI
Hardy—Credit Policies of the Federal Reserve System—Part I

    1. Re Labor

Commons and Associates—History of Labor in the U.S.

Volume III, Section I, Chapters XI, XII, Labor legislation
Volume IV, Chapters I, II, XVI, XXXII, XXXVIII, XLIV, XLV

Epstein—Insecurity—Parts I, X, XI

 

IX

DYNAMICS OF THE MARKET

*Marshall—Principles—Book V
*J. M. Clark—Economics of Overhead Costs—Chapters XXIII, XXIV

    1. Production: 1922-36

Mills—Economic Tendencies—Chapters VI, X

    1. Prices: 1922-36

Mills—Economic Tendencies—Chapter VII
Prices in Recession and Recovery—Chapters I, III, V, VI, IX

    1. Wages: 1922-36

Douglas—Real Wages in the United States—Chapters XXII, XXVI, XXX, XXXI
Recent Economic Changes—Volume II—Chapter VI
Wolman—N.B.E.R. Bulletins #46, 54, 63

    1. Profits: 1922-36

Epstein—Industrial Profits in the United States—Introduction, Book I, Book IV

    1. Money: 1922-36

Currie—The Supply and Control of Money in the United States—Chapter III
Fed. Res. Board—Annual Reports. 1934, 1935, 1936

 

X

CUMULATIVE FACTORS

*Marshall—Principles—Book VI—Chapters XI, XII, XIII
*J. M. Clark—Strategic Factors in Business Cycles—Parts I and VI

    1. The War, Changing Attitudes, and the Economy
    2. The Automobile and the Economy
    3. The Creation and Destruction of Bank Deposits and the Economy

Source:  Columbia University Archives. Papers of Wesley Clair Mitchell. Box 3, Folder “4/?/37 A”.

Image Source: From the cover of Eli Ginzberg’s book The Eye of Illusion (Transactions Publishers, 1993).

 

 

Categories
Berkeley Exam Questions

Berkeley. Topics and exam questions for advanced economics. Mitchell, 1906

 

One might consider the following course taught at the University of California in 1906 by assistant professor Wesley Clair Mitchell to be a very early draft of what was to become his legendary course on Types of Economic Theory at Columbia University. Below we have transcriptions of his handwritten outline of topics and final examination questions.

___________________

Course Announcement

45. Advanced Economics. Assistant Professor Mitchell.

This course is designed for students who wish to make a more thorough study of economic theory than can be undertaken in Courses 1 [Introduction to Economics] and 2 [Principles of Economics]. The aim is to work out a tenable system of economics on the basis of an examination of the theories of leading writers, past and present.

2 hrs., first half-year. Tu Th, 9. Prerequisite: Course 2, and at least Senior standing.

Source:  University of California. Announcement of Courses 1906-1907. Berkeley (July, 1906), p. 44.

___________________

Course Topics

Advanced Economics

2 hour course August to December 1906.
continued as reading of Schmoller evening meetings Jan-Apr. 1907.

Different types of economic theory

Concept of the economic man

Preconceptions of economic theorists

Carver’s [or possibly “Cairnes’s”] treatment [?] of wealth.

Schmoller’s Grundriss.

Conclusion: Meaning of and need for evolutionary theory of economics.

 

Source: Columbia University Library Manuscript Collections. Mitchell, W.C. Collection. Box A, 1898-1917, Folder “8/21/06 A519”.

___________________

Handwritten examination questions

Advance Econ (45) Exam. Dec 17, 1906

  1. State and discuss Cairnes’ attitude on economic method.
  2. What influence did hedonism have on development of classical political economy?
  3. What do you regard as the most effective method of treating economics?
  4. How do you explain the shifting of preconceptions in economics from say the Physiocrats to Schmoller or Veblen?

Source:  Columbia University Library Manuscript Collections. Mitchell, W.C. Collection. Box A, 1898-1917, Folder “17/17/06 A”.

Image Source: Thumbnail image from a 1900 picture of Wesley Clair Mitchell at the University of Chicago in Lucy Sprague Mitchell’s Two Lives: The Story of Wesley Clair Mitchell and Myself.