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Distribution Exam Questions Harvard Theory

Harvard. Distribution of Wealth. Course Description and Final Exam. Carver, 1908-1909

Thomas Nixon Carver’s teaching portfolio included economic theory, agricultural economics, social reform schemes (critically examined), and sociology. Like Irving Fisher, Carver was anti-alcohol. His autobiography Reflections of an Unplanned Life (1949) makes dry reading but as a dusty chest of anecdotes, it is a link worth archiving. 

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From earlier semesters

1904-05
1905-06
1907-08

The course content is undoubtedly captured in Carver’s 1904 book The Distribution of Wealth which was reprinted several times during his lifetime.

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Course Enrollment
1908-09

Economics 14a 1hf. Professor Carver. — The Distribution of Wealth.

Total 56: 5 Graduates, 19 Seniors, 18 Juniors, 11 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1908-1909, p. 67.

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Course Announcement
1908-09

Economics 14a 1hf. The Distribution of Wealth. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., at 1.30. Professor Carver. —

This course begins with a survey of the most noteworthy attempts to formulate a general theory of value. The economic systems of Ricardo, Mill, Böhm-Bawerk, and Clark are specially reviewed. The attempt is then made, in the light of these criticisms, and of industrial conditions, to formulate a positive theory of distribution helpful in explaining the actual incomes of the various classes of producers. Finally the question of justice in distribution is considered.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. V, No. 19
(1 June 1908). History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government, and Economics, 1908-09, p. 49.

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ECONOMICS 14a1
Mid-year Examination, 1908-09

  1. Assuming that the value of an exchangeable thing depends upon how much it is wanted in comparison with other exchangeable things, what determines how much an article of consumption is wanted? What determines how much an agent of production is wanted? Explain and give reasons.
  2. What, in last analysis, is cost of production, and how is it related to value?
  3. Exactly what do you understand by the standard of living?
  4. How and for what reason does interest arise? Illustrate by means of a diagram or by means of arithmetical figures.
  5. If risk-taking were pleasurable, would there be any pecuniary gains for risk-takers as a class? How would it be if risk-taking were disagreeable? Is risk-taking actually pleasurable or is it disagreeable, and do risk-takers actually make pecuniary gains as a class?
  6. Assuming that the labor of a man and team, with the appropriate tools, costs a farmer the equivalent of 7 bushels a day, how many days could he most profitably devote to the cultivation of each of the four fields described in the following table:—
Number of days’ labor of a man and team with the appropriate tools. Total product, in bushels, of each of four fields under
varying applications of labor.

Field A

 Field B Field C

Field D

5

 50 45 40 35
10 150 140 130

125

15

 270 255 240 220
20 380 360 300

270

25

 450 420 350 310
30 510 470 390

340

35

 560 510 420 360
40 600 540 440

375

45

 630 560 450 385
50 650 575 455

390
  1. Assuming that the relation of the labor supply to the land supply is such that for four fields like those assumed in the table there are 150 days labor of the kind assumed, what, in bushels, would be the normal rate of wages — e., what is the highest rate of wages at which the farmers could find it more to their advantage to employ all the labor than to leave some of it unemployed?
  2. Comment upon the following:—
    “The final utility theory of value rests on the same principle as does the theory of diminishing returns from agriculture; and this principle has a far wider range of new applications. One law, therefore, governs economic life, and theories old and new contain partial expressions of it. The theory of value rests upon one application of the general law, and the theory of rent on another.” — CLARK: Distribution of Wealth, p. 208.
  3. Explain the following:—
    “The Division of labor may be classified, for the present purpose, as of two sorts, contemporaneous and successive.” — TAUSSIG: Wages and Capital, p. 6.
  4. What does Böhm-Bawerk mean by the technical superiority of roundabout processes of production?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1908-09; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1909), pp. 44-45.

Image Source: Portrait of Thomas Nixon Carver from the Harvard Class Album 1913. Colorized and enhanced by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

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Exam Questions Harvard Statistics

Harvard. Exams for Statistics. Ripley, 1908-1909

William Zebina Ripley taught at Harvard from 1901/02 through 1932/33. He was a statistician in the time of pre-mathematical statistics but he truly made his mark as an expert on the institutions of organized labor, industrial organization, and transportation. 

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Statistics (Econ 4), previous years

1901-02.
1902-03.
1903-04.
1904-05.
1905-06 [omitted]
1906-07. [offered but no printed exam found]
1907-08. [only mid-year exam found]

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Course Description
1908-09

[Economics] 4. Statistics. — Theory, method, and practice. Tu., Th., at 11. Professor Ripley.

This course is intended rather as an analysis of methods of research and sources of information than as embodying mere results. A brief history of statistics will be followed by an account of census and other statistical methods in the United States and abroad, with the scientific use and interpretation of results. The main divisions of vital statistics, relating to birth, marriage, morbidity, and mortality, life tables, etc.; the statistics of trade and commerce, such as price indexes, etc.; industrial statistics relating to labor, wages, and employment; statistics of agriculture, manufactures, and transportation, will be then considered in order. Laboratory work, amounting to not less than two hours per week, in the preparation of charts, maps, and diagrams from original material, will be required.

Course 4 is open to students who have taken Economics 1; and it is also open to Juniors and Seniors who are taking Economics 1.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. V, No. 19
(1 June 1908). History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government, and Economics, 1908-09, p. 49.

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Course Enrollment
1908-09

Economics 4. Professor Ripley. — Statistics. Theory, method, and practice.

Total 24: 5 Graduates, 9 Seniors, 5 Juniors, 4 Freshmen, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1908-1909, p. 67.

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HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 4

Mid-year Examination, 1908-09

  1. What is the nature of Hoffman’s statistical data on negro mortality? Does the census of 1900 throw any light upon it? Criticise the evidence.
  2. Criticise the statement, “the average age at death is discussed at greater length than it would seem proper to give to a practically discarded subject per vital statistics.”
  3. —
 

Conjugal condition.

Color.
White.

Colored.

Males

 Females. Males.

Females.
Registration area:
Single

16.6

 13.7 32.7

29.6
Married

16.4

 13.1 23.8

20.3
Widowed

62.6

 43.6 49.1

34.4

The above figures give death rates per thousand. What do they show and what do they not show?

  1. Discuss the inter-relation between birth, marriage, and death rates. Show how they affect one another.
  2. Comment upon the following figures showing the average number of children born in certain places: —

Native born mothers

Foreign born mothers
Persons included

19,478

26,544
Average age of mothers

42.23

42.98
Child bearing period (years)

5.41

8.39
Years married

17.64

19.08
Average children born

2.77

4.83
Average children born by mothers of preceding generation

6.47

7.75
  1. State the main statistical laws relating to the phenomena of marriage and divorce.
  2. Compare conditions in the United States respecting registration of births and deaths.
  3. What are the principal difficulties and defects in statistics of pauperism?
  4. Compare the arithmetical and geometrical methods of estimating populations as applied to the United States in 1800 and at the present time. 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 8, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1908-09.

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HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 4

Year-end Examination, 1908-09

  1. Explain and illustrate the following proposition concerning the tendency toward concentration of wealth: “by imagining a group of persons having incomes represented by 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, etc., in the first epoch, and by 2, 6, 10, 14, 18, 22, etc., in the second epoch. Of course, as the income of each individual has doubled, the distribution of wealth is the same in both epochs. Yet if we arrange these ten individuals in fixed classes, and reason about the ‘concentration of wealth’ from the rate of increase in the higher and lower classes, we should probably conclude that some great change had taken place.” Can you suggest any better way to show the real facts than by the use of such “fixed classes”?
  2. What is available officially as to statistics of strikes and lockouts? Point out the limitations upon the value.
  3. Indicate the special field of statistics of as many as possible of the following authorities, viz.: Engel, Dewey, Rowley, Quetelet, Jevons, North, Wright, Hoffman, Willcox, Newsholme.
  4. What is the principal source of weakness in all statistics of the U. S. Department of Agriculture as to crop conditions? How have they met it?
  5. In what manner are statistics of profits in manufactures commonly computed? Point out sources of error in the process.
  6. What is the principal argument in favor of weighted averages in price statistics? How may this be best controverted?
  7. Set forth the main criticisms against the Aldrich Committee Report on Wages.
  8. What does a logarithmic curve show, which may not be properly shown otherwise?
  9. Define the following terms used in statistics, viz.: “improvement trade,” “quet,” decile, mode, fecundity.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1908-09; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1909), pp. 34-35.

Image Source: Harvard University Archives.  William Zebina Ripley [photographic portrait, ca. 1910], J. E. Purdy & Co., J. E. P. & C. (1910). Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.