Month: November 2025

Categories
Harvard Statistics

Harvard. Reflections on the teaching of economic and business statistics. Essay by William L. Crum, 1926

Reading the tribute published by colleagues at Berkeley for the statistician William Leonard Crum, one would come away with the impression that he was not just a nice man and good colleague, but that he was even a pretty, pretty good statistician. In fact Crum lagged the frontier of mathematical statistics by at least a full generation, cf. the 1945 report written by Crum and his younger colleague Edward Frickey on Harvard’s statistics and national income courses. 

I stumbled upon a reprint of the short 1926 article by Crum, transcribed below, at the Library of Congress, Manuscripts Division, Francis Willcox papers, 1851-1961 (Box 40, Folder “Outlines of Economics Statistics”). What the article lacks in profundity, the reprint provides in a somewhat better image of Crum in his early ’30s that I use here rather than a screen shot of the hathitrust.org image that provides an internet source for the text.

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In Memorium
University of California, 1968

William Leonard Crum,
Economics; Business Administration: Berkeley

1894-1967
Professor of Economics, Emeritus

On June 11, 1959, the University of California on the Berkeley campus conferred the honorary degree Doctor of Laws upon Professor W. L. Crum. The citation read as follows:

“Your academic career has involved membership in faculties of four great universities: Yale, Harvard, Stanford, and California. A warmly respected colleague, valued teacher, and careful administrator, an economist who brings to the ‘dismal science’ a wealth of human understanding, judgment, and objectivity…”

Professor Crum was born on April 8, 1894, in Hoosick Falls, New York. He was graduated from Williams College in 1914 in Physics and received the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Yale in 1916 and 1917 in Mathematics. Following his service in World War I, which included 13 months’ duty in the artillery in France, he returned to Yale’s Mathematics faculty. Beginning in 1923, he served on the faculty of Economics at Harvard for 25 years except for two years at Stanford from 1927-29 as Professor of Statistics. He came to
Berkeley in 1948 as Professor of Economics in the Departments of Business Administration and Economics. Honorary degrees were conferred upon him by Williams College (1940), Harvard (1945), and California (1959).
Leonard Crum had one of the finest minds and best tool kits (science, mathematics, statistics, economic theory) in the economics profession. Beginning in 1918, there was a steady flow of books, monographs, and scholarly papers both in the refinement and application of mathematical, statistical methods and in substantive contributions. Early in his career he became a recognized pioneering authority in business cycle analysis. From 1923 to 1935 he was associated with the new Harvard Economic Society in various capacities, including the posts of Vice President and President. From 1936 to 1949 he was a Director of the National Bureau of Economic Research. Prior to World War II he was consultant, Division of Research and Statistics and Division of Tax Research, United States Treasury. He has served many journals in an editorial capacity, including Harvard’s Review of Economic Statistics and Quarterly Journal of Economics. A number of his early publications were classics in their fields—among them, Advertising Fluctuations, Seasonal and Cyclical (1927), Corporate Earning Power (1929), and Corporate Size and Earning Power (1939). These early studies provided the background for his important The Age Structure of the Corporate System (1953), published by the University of California Press. In Berkeley his primary teaching field was private finance and investments, in which he was a leading authority.

Leonard Crum was an exceedingly active and influential member of the Berkeley faculties in Business Administration and in Economics. His contributions derived not only from his continuous leadership and productivity as a scholar and a teacher but also from conscientious, effective participation and leadership in all aspects of departmental, school, campus, and University-wide responsibilities. His budgetary requests and reports as Vice-Chairman of the Department of Business Administration became the models for all other administrative units. He always had time, or made time, to serve on faculty and administrative committees, to appraise the research papers of colleagues and students, to talk over personal investment problems, to serve as member or chairman of campus or University-wide ad hoc committees.

At the memorial service on June 1, 1967, a colleague in another department remarked that Leonard Crum, time and again, was made chairman of committees when there were deep divisions of opinion since “he alone could find the consensus, and compel its acceptance.” He also noted, “Few combine Leonard’s proud independence of judgement with his ability to find a basis for common action in the service of the University.” Yet it was also noted by a colleague in the School of Business Administration that Dr. Crum “usually offered advice with such warmth and diffidence that most of us believed that we had thought up the ideas ourselves…. He was an individualist, who valued and heeded the views of others, but he did not shape his own ideas by waiting for the results of public opinion polls.” Another colleague from his own faculty remarked upon his fairness and forthrightness and his sense of humor and dry wit.

His basic kindliness, warmth of personality, and warm camaraderie were also stressed, together with an inherent New England formality, dignity, and reticence in manner. Most important of all, however, was his basic integrity, which was reflected in all aspects of his own work and in his administrative and professional relations.

All will agree with the observation also made at the Memorial Service that “he was a very uncommon man, indeed,” a man of extraordinary talents and highest standards of performance and almost complete disinterest in recognition for himself alone. Consequently his personal leadership and influence were unquestioned.

Leonard Crum was married on June 29, 1938, to Eleanor Marshall Evans who survives him.

E. T. Grether D. Votaw P. F. Wendt

Source: University of California, In Memorium, 1968, pp. 32-34.

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THE TEACHING OF ECONOMIC AND BUSINESS STATISTICS

By WILLIAM L. CRUM *

[*Co-author, with A. C. Patton, of An Introduction to the Methods of Economic Statistics, published by A. W. Shaw Company, 1925]

In recent years and especially following the war, there has been an enormous increase in the attention devoted to the elementary methods of statistical analysis. Not only in schools of business administration but also in the economics departments of liberal colleges there has been a vigorous development in the teaching of statistics, particularly as applied to economic and business problems. This tendency has resulted, in part, from the realization during the war of the great utility of statistical records and their interpretation, in the approach to and solution of the business problems of private enterprise, and the economic problems of public affairs. It has resulted also in considerable measure from the great interest in forecasting the cycles of business prosperity and depression. Such forecasting has been advanced recently by the application of statistical methods to the analysis of the already available and rapidly accumulating records of economic and business conditions. No doubt also the increasing attention to economies in production and distribution, which became necessary during the readjustment following war-time inflation, has played a large part in expanding the emphasis upon the analysis of numerical records of performance.

The teaching problems involved in presenting a course in the methods of business statistics are somewhat more specialized than those incident to a course in economic statistics. In teaching economic statistics it is now rather generally understood that certain well-defined fundamental concepts must be introduced at an early stage. These relate to the nature of statistical facts, the standard methods for presenting statistical data, and the elementary arithmetical devices for summarizing such data. For the most part, these introductory matters comprise a discussion of the collection and assembling of statistical material, the organization of such material into tables or charts, and the derivation from such material of those particular statistical numbers which serve to give a brief but adequate picture of the main properties of individual groups of data. Indeed, the chief teaching problem here consists in the development of methods of deriving summary statistical numbers — numbers concerned primarily with the averages and with measures of dispersion or variability — of the particular series of economic data which may be under examination.

It is here first that the teacher is confronted with the question of the mathematical knowledge to be assumed. Although it is undoubtedly much simpler to present the essential principles of statistical analysis to students or readers who have a working understanding of college mathematics, it is an important fact that at present the majority of those who desire to secure an adequate knowledge of economic and business statistics do not have this mathematical equipment. It is in practice necessary, therefore, to outline the course with a view to making it understandable to this majority of students. An examination of the text-books which have been written on economic and business statistics in recent years clearly reveals the tendency, at least in the majority of instances, to give a treatment which can be comprehended by those individuals who have only a minimum of mathematical knowledge.

When once the basic concepts essential to an understanding of statistical analysis have been grasped, the student is ready for the study of numerous specific economic applications of statistics. He can be introduced, for example, to the general problems of price index numbers, of individual incomes, of foreign trade movements, of manufacturing and basic production, of the business cycle and its forecasting, and to other economic problems which are currently approached from the statistical side. Presumably, the bulk of effort in a course in economic statistics is given to these applications, to the adaptation of the elementary concepts to the particular needs incident to these applications, and to the development of certain specialized methods which are required in many particular applications. A satisfactory course of this sort not only teaches the student how to analyse the statistics involved in the economic applications, but it gives him also some schooling in the interpretation of his results, and it cautions him emphatically against the too confident inferences which he is likely to draw if he disregards the necessary limitations on the statistical processes.

The teaching of business statistics is necessarily somewhat more specialized than the teaching of economic statistics. It may fairly be said that the student of business statistics must first have a thorough course in the methods of economic statistics. Although it is possible for him to cut short some of the extensive study usually given in economic statistics to the applications of statistical method to specific economic problems, it is essential that he have a working knowledge of the basic concepts before attempting to make any considerable study of special business statistics. To be sure, it is quite feasible for the course in business statistics to confine its illustrations of method, even of elementary method, to business data rather than economic data, and in this way to introduce the student early to those special and frequently limited problems which confront the individual enterprise rather than industry or the economic structure as a whole.

When once the student of business statistics has gone over the preliminary ground which is also covered in economic statistics, and has become acquainted with some of those economic applications which are of importance also in business statistics — because a considerable part of business statistics, sometimes called external statistics, includes a large portion of so-called economic statistics — he is ready to go forward with the peculiar problems of business statistics. These problems are frequently so highly specialized that it is very difficult to outline a complete course based upon a few general principles of analysis, as is the case in economic statistics. Here, rather, one is impelled to a treatment somewhat resembling the so-called case system of instruction, in which the student takes up one particular problem after another and learns by a study of individual and frequently very different “situations” those principles and practices which fit him to cope with the ordinary problems of business statistics which he may encounter in the administrative work of a particular organization.

In conclusion, then, it may be said that a course in economic or business statistics commences with a study of elementary principles and methods common to both subjects and that in either case considerable attention must be given to the application of statistical methods to general economic problems. At some stage, however, the course in business statistics must break off from the general outline of the course in economic statistics, and from there on must be concerned largely with the treatment of numerous and diverse special problems each presenting its own difficulties and requiring its own peculiar method of treatment. In both courses a large amount of actual routine technical work on the part of the student is essential if he is to learn the subject thoroughly, and in both courses the teacher must lay a great deal of emphasis upon the interpretation of the results found by analysis.

Source: Ex Libris. Vol. I, (May 1926), No. 3, pp. 14-16. “A journal devoted to the professional interests of business, agriculture, engineering, and the social sciences.”

Image Source: Portrait of William L. Crum, ibid., p. 15.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Law and Economics

Harvard. Final Exam for Principles of Law governing Industrial Relations. Wyman, 1909-1910

Harvard Law School, ca. 1901

Third place in economics course enrollments at Harvard in 1909-10 was taken by the sop vocational course offered to undergraduates on the legal aspects of industrial relations that was taught by the law professor Bruce Wyman. First place was taken unsurprisingly by the Principles of Economics course and the second place by the Elements of Accounting course.

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Material from earlier years

1901-02. Autobiographical note of Bruce Wyman, enrollment, course description, syllabus, exams.

1902-03. Wyman’s Obituary, enrollment, course description, exams.

1903-04. Enrollment and exams.

1904-05. Enrollment, course description, exams.

1905-06. Enrollment, paper assignments, exams.

1906-07. Enrollment, paper topics, exams.

1908-09. Enrollment and exams.

1910. About Wyman’s reputation as a soft-grader (a “snapper problem”) and the scandal that led to the resignation of his Harvard law professorship in 1913.

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Course Enrollment
1909-10

Economics 21 1hf. Professor Wyman, assisted by Messrs. [Dana] Brannan and [John Mortimer Richardson] Lyeth [A.B. Harvard, 1907; A.M. 1908; Ll.B. 1910; New York Times Obituary (24 Dec 1957)] — Principles of Law governing Industrial Relations.

Total 183: 3 Graduates, 113 Seniors, 56 Juniors, 5 Sophomores, 6 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1909-1910, p. 45.

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ECONOMICS 21
Mid-year Examination, 1909-10

Give reasons clearly

  1. —
    1. Smith has made the “Perfect Safety Razor” for years. Jones now puts on the market a “perfect safety razor” in a black square box like Smith’s, with a similar inscription on the side, “No Stropping — No Honing.” On the box is this warning in large letters: “Do not be deceived by my rival. I make the only perfect safety razor. John A. Jones.” Can Smith restrain Jones’s methods in any way?
    2. Suppose Smith’s razor required stropping.
  2. —
    1. Suppose Jones publishes this advertisement: “Beware of Smith’s razors; they always rust, causing blood-poisoning; the blades crack easily; no man ever used one without cutting himself.” Assuming that the whole advertisement is false, is any part of it legally actionable?
    2. Would it affect your answer if Jones had added the additional false statement that “Smith is knowingly infringing my patents. I will prosecute all users of his razors”?
  3. May a combination of traders be sued by a rival company for:
    1. Giving $10 bonus with every 100 lbs. of tea bought by a patron who will leave one of their rivals and deal with them exclusively?
    2. Locating an agency next door whenever a rival starts a store, cutting prices till the rival is ruined, and then discontinuing the agency?
    3. Refusing to give credit to a rival?
    4. Selling at wholesale to an individual only on condition that he does not resell to a rival?
  4. —
    1. A, B, and C are expressmen in Cambridge. D is the publisher of a directory in which he includes a list of Cambridge expressmen, making no charge for so doing. He has hitherto always inserted A’s name. B and C go to D and by paying D $100 induce D to omit A’s name in the next edition of D’s directory. Can A sue B?
    2. Suppose the owners of several Boston theatres by paying an extra price induce the agency having charge of the street car advertising to display no theatre advertising but theirs, can the owner of a rival theatre sue them?
  5. —
    1. A was a druggist in Boston. He sold out his business to B and covenanted not to engage in the drug business within a radius of five miles of his store for ten years. The next week he formed the A corporation in which he took all the shares to himself except six, which he distributed among the members of his family. The general enabling statute provided that seven persons could incorporate. The A corporation immediately bought a druggist shop in the next block to A’s old stand. Can B sue the A corporation for doing business?
    2. Suppose a sign is put up, “A, now incorporated,” would that make any difference?
  6. A salesman is proposing to sell a large amount of silk to a partnership at a very high price. There are four partners. Two of them write to the salesman and say they refuse to buy. Nevertheless, the salesman after the receipt of these letters goes to the partnership place of business and concludes the sale with one of the other partners, the only one he could find. Could the salesman recover the price from the partnership, (a) supposing the fourth partner in fact assented, and (b) supposing he objected?
  7. Three railroads, X, Y, and Z, are competing in the carriage of coal from certain coal fields. A owns practically all the shares in the X railroad. He buys the majority of the stock in the M coal company, the largest producer in the field, and thereafter all the coal from M goes over the X railroad. A also buys the controlling interest in the Y railroad; and then conveys all his holdings to the X railroad. Under the Federal Anti-Trust Law:—
    1. Can the attorney-general move for a dissolution of this combination?
    2. Can the Z railroad sue it for treble damages?
  8. —
    1. What was the form of organization of the original trusts? and describe the proceedings by which they were broken up.
    2. Give the history of the successive cases under the Federal Anti-Trust Law in which the question was raised whether the combination involved was substantially suppressing interstate commerce.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 9, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1910-11; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1910), pp. 53-54.

Image Source: Harvard Law School ca. 1901 from the Detroit Publishing Company photograph collection (Library of Congress).

Categories
Columbia Development Economic History Economists International Economics Socialism

Columbia. Memo of Musings Regarding Institutional Economics, Area Studies, and Economic History. Hart, 1973

A memorandum written in 1973 by 64-year old Albert G. Hart shares his laments concerning the path taken by the Columbia University department of economics to what he saw to be a grievous neglect of instruction and research into the institutional nuts-and-bolts, historical trajectories, and granular area studies of economics. A copy of the memorandum was found in the files of his colleague, historian of economics, Joseph Dorfman.

Chicago-style economics was explicitly disdained by Hart who actually wished good riddance to Gary Becker (“…he played dog-in-the-manger too much…” with a note of scorn for Milton Friedman (“… [he] ignores the risk that what passes for ‘general economic law’ may turn out to be a series of adhockeries concocted to be plausible for a very special and perhaps transitory state of society…”).

The memo closes with a question of what to do with the theoretical Wunderkinder of economics departments whose peak years have past with still another quarter century of tenure left in their respective academic life-cycles. Fortunately he stops considerably short of recommending senicide.

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Previously posted content related to Albert G. Hart

University of Chicago

Exams for Introduction to Money and Banking at Chicago, A. G. Hart, 1932-35

Course Outline for Introduction to Money and Banking at Chicago. A. G. Hart, 1933

Columbia University

Hiring Albert Gailord Hart as visiting professor, 1946

Core Economic Theory. Hart, 1946-47

First semester graduate economic analysis. First weeks’ notes. Hart, 1955

Reading list for Economic Analysis (less advanced level). Hart and Wonnacott, 1959

Hart Memo, Economics Faculty Salaries for 15 U.S. universities. April 1961

Personal Narrative of the Columbia Crisis. A.G. Hart, May 1968

__________________________

AGH 11 July 1973

RESPONSIBILITIES AND RESOURCES OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

Response, addressed to:

Professor Donald Dewey, Chairman,
Professor Ronald Findlay, Director of Graduate Studies
Continuing and Incoming members of the Department

Dean George S. FRANKEL, Graduate School
Dean Harvey PICKER, School of International Affairs

Interested bystanders

to report of Committee of Instruction on the Department of Economics,
by Albert G. Hart, Professor of Economies.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Preliminary generalities

The COI [Committee of Instruction] report is one of those papers which an informed reader finds simultaneously to be almost-excellent and almost-horrible. I can endorse with only minor reservations its conclusions that recent senior-staff recruiting has been of excellent calibre; that the intensification of workshop-patterns is very healthy; that much stress should be placed on catching good men before their qualifications known to us have become so generally know as to create a bull market; that the graduate students are only moderately happy, and that to build on the quantitative theoretical work of Lancaster, Phelps, and now Dhrymes is a promising way to rebuild morale as well as to establish Columbia again as a major professional focus.

Yet the report is so lop-sided that its net effect is likely not to be constructive. It overlooks entirely two major sides of economics in which Columbia has been, is, and ought to be prominent, and which are of major concern to students. And its lack of historical perspective and of a realistic view of the professional life-cycle may seriously distort its proposals and the reaction to the Department of the central leadership of the University. So I do not see how I can silently let this report stand as expressing real wisdom about the Department and its futures hence this “reaction”.

Some historical correctives

To clear the ground, let me disabuse the reader of the notion that the Department is only now beginning to work on the problems central to the COI report. In the first place, the fact that the workshop pattern of faculty-student interaction (taking in professional visitors) is central to the learning process in economics has been well understood for a long time. At the moment when I became chairman (in 1958), the Department was granted $250,000 by the Ford Foundation specifically to make a major shift toward workshop groupings. The deservedly-praised labor workshop (which non-accidentally had a Becker/Mincer leadership with experience in workshop endeavors at the University of Chicago) was one; we launched also an “Industrial Countries Workshop” (led by Carter Goodrich and Goran Ohlin) which developed a very useful line of publications, a Public Finance Workshop led by Carl Shoup and W. S. Vickrey, and an Expectational Economics workshop under my leadership which was clearly the least successful of the cluster, for reasons I won’t bother the reader with, but for all that far from useless). Presently we had a very lively and constructive International Economics workshop (led by Peter Kenen), which continued under Ronald Findlay; and for a number of years we have had a good-if-not-superlative Monetary Economics workshop (managed by Philip Cagan with partnership of Hart and Barger). In 1972/73 we tried a “Development/Regional” shop, which has been floundering somewhat — partly because it is hard to find a real focus with so many students not in the habit of working together, partly because of its natural leaders, Findlay had to put his main energy into the international field and Wellisz was absent on leave.

What is new in the workshop situation is in the first place the effort (led by Findlay, with enthusiastic support of most of the rest of the Department) to make it work for virtually everybody in the Department, faculty or student — and in the second place serious recognition by the Administration that this is an appropriate-if-expensive way to work, deserving serious backing even if no more Ford funds can be had.

A second consequential historical point (hinted at but not spelled out in the COI report) is that the Department has been working for years at the kind of staffing the COI report now indicates as appropriate. When I was chairman, for example, we had a deal arranged to recruit Svi [sic] Griliches —  which was frustrated by what I am bound to call sabotage at the ad hoc committee stage. In Carl Shoup’s chairmanship, we successfully recruited at the assistant professor level two key men who beautifully exemplify the application of quantitative theory and econometric research techniques to economics —  Peter Kenen and Gary Becker, both of whom were full professors very young, and were regarded as stars in the profession. In my chairmanship and afterwards, much of the work of the chairman went into nursing these two men’s careers and working conditions. Kenen contributed among other things a distinguished job as departmental leader — first Informally leading a curricular reform, then taking over as chairman for a term-and-a-fraction; had the 1968 not disrupted his strategy, he’d have brought us out as one of the two or three leading departments of economics. Becker, with all his virtues, was unlivable and not available as Departmental leader — being too much centered in his own work, too much inclined to insist that the only desirable recruits were quasi-Beckers, too narrow in his views of the profession’s responsibilities (despite his astounding record of success in applying his own apparently-narrow approach to an unexpectedly wide range of problems). Frankly, I felt it unburdened the Department when he moved to Chicago, because much as we must regret the loss of his lively influence on campus, he played dog-in-the-manger too much and helped foster the impression that economics was devoted to “apologetics for the system” rather than to a search for ways to guide constructive social policies.

Agreeing with the COI that we should recruit young and staff the tenure levels largely from local people, I would point out that we have been working at this with a remarkable lack of effective cooperation from outside the Department. As I just mentioned we did acquire Kenen and Becker as assistant professors; but we had no luck in persuading the Administration and ad hoc committees to let us repeat this success. In my time as chairman, we caught a star by converting Albert Hirschman (who accidentally was here without tenure as one-year replacement for Nurkse, on leave), and who was not at the time widely-enough appreciated in the profession. We were unable to hold David Landes on economic history. Two people who in the end proved to be very highly valued outside though when we acquired them they were rank outsiders are Alexander Erlich and Charles Issawi (both of whom were given tenure in my time as chairman). We should remember also that Vickrey (and earlier Barger and Shoup) started at Columbia in Junior ranks. Dewey, Hart, Cagan, Mincer (who however had filled in earlier), Lancaster, Findlay, Phelps, and now Dhrymes, represent recruiting-with-tenure.

What lends poignancy to the question of recruiting-young is that we now have a very distinguished collection of assistant professors — I think the best we’ve had simultaneously in my time at Columbia. But our uniform lack of success with ad hoc committees on promotions of such men (I think Nakamura has been our only promotion to tenure at all recently) creates a situation where we must tell them frankly that we have little hope of keeping them. Such anomalies as two successive years of leave for young Heckman (with serious problems of continuity for students, and loss of the experiential value of a disastrous first-try at reforming the econometrics curriculum) is an extreme example of the kind of handicap for the Department created by the fact that we are morally bound to help our assistant professors make the kind of showing that will get them goods jobs elsewhere — Columbia being unwilling to back us in getting deserved promotions.

Major areas disregarded

Two major areas of professional responsibility in which Columbia has had and must maintain great distinction are simply not mentioned in the COI report. These are the areas of “institutional economics” and of international/regional/developmental economics.

Traditionally, economics in the United States was split into two main camps —those of theoretical and those of “institutionalist” orientation — which maintained an uneasy partnership in the American Economic Association and in many departments. While the titular headquarters of institutionalism was at Wisconsin, its leading center was actually Columbia; and before the sudden recruitment at the end of World War II of a cluster of theoretically-oriented men (Vickrey, Stigler and myself) there was almost a vacuum in Columbia research and instruction on the theoretical side. J. M. Clark (a most distinguished mind whose personals shyness prevented him from being a major influence in face-to-face contact) was a distinguished theoretical thinker, but regarded himself as an institutionalist and had little curricular influence. Hotelling, who was just leaving at the time I came in 1946, was the nearest thing to an active theorist.

A merger of the theoretical and institutionalist schools began to shape up during the 1930’s and was to a considerable extent accomplished during and just after World War II. The terms of merger were much like those for the two meetings of Quakers in New York City, who obviated what might have been an awkward problem of merging properties by having each member of one meeting become a member also of the other! In the 1940’s and 1950’s, it began to look as if nobody could make a career as theorist without also doubling in some other area, and nobody could make a career as institutionalist without also paying serious attention to the theoretical aspects of his problem. But in the end the merger turned out to be slanted in favor of the theorists: it is again possible to make a career by pursuing problems that are trivial variations on theoretical themes; and large elements of the institutional side of economics are allowed to die out. Students doing quantitative work with data have no tradition of asking what their numbers mean in the context of wider social processes and problems.

At Columbia, the tradition that study of law-cases is one important way to understand the economic subject-matter is preserved chiefly by the fortunate fact that we have Dewey teaching “industrial organization”. Economic history was allowed to die out; and while at present we have in assistant professors Edelstein and Passell two excellent specimens of economic historians who are also competent theorists and econometricians, we have no assurances that economic history will not again be blanked out. Some institutional aspects of “economics of human resources” are very much alive in the labor workshop; but large parts of that tradition (including the tradition of trying to understand trade unions and more generally economic organizations other than business firms) seem to have evaporated. History of thought as an approach to economics is now represented almost entirely by Alexander Erlich (who is also our only member who is expert in Marxist economics and in the functioning of European communist economies). While in terms of professional fashions the lack of “institutionalist” instruction will not cause us to lose face in the profession, we should ask whether in bringing up a new generation of economists we should be willing to see the positive aspects of the institutionalist tradition simply evaporate.

The other major aspect of economics which is disregarded in the COI report — though in fact it absorbs much of our staff manpower and is of fundamental importance for many of our students, especially from overseas — is concern with the world outside the United States. We are seriously understaffed in the pivotal area of formal economics of international-trade-and-finance, where Ronald Findlay is saddled with both the responsibilities handled by Kenen and those which were handled by Hirschman. The problems of economic development (or its lack) in the world’s poor countries need and get a lot of attention. [Incidentally, since USA is rapidly evolving “backwards” into a state of underdevelopment, the insights one gets in studying Latin America or Asia become disconcertingly applicable at home!]

The presence at Columbia of a cluster of “regional institutes” has had an important impact on our work in economics. On the whole, the Department has resisted successfully pressures to recruit people who were expert on some “region” but lacked general professional competence. [Before Riskin fortunately turned up, we were under pressure to recruit an economist who combined Chinese language and willingness to function largely as librarian a combination of qualifications which didn’t seem to coexist with all-round professional competence. Bergson, who for years was our “Soviet specialist” was also a distinguished welfare-theorist. Erlich was originally recruited on “soft money” to be an East-Central-Europe specialist; when Bergson left, there was a closing-of-ranks operation which gave him the Russian field —  and it has turned out that his knowledge of Marxist economics and of economic thought, and the fact that he is regularly sought out by East European visitors in USA make him a major factor of general departmental strength. At present the nearest equivalents of “mere” area specialists are Issawi (who also handles general instruction in economics in the School of International Affairs, and a good deal of development-and-history work at the dissertation stage), Nakamura and Riskin — all men of great general usefulness. The roles of European and Latin American “regional specialists” are filled by two of our senior general economists —  Barger and myself.

While one could imagine a budgetary situation such that one must recommend reducing to a token scale a University’s involvement in this area (except for basic international-trade-and-finance courses), it is hard to believe that Columbia specifically should withdraw from this kind of work. Surely the economic profession in USA has as part of its responsibility an understanding of the economic processes of other countries. [True, I have heard Milton Friedman say that to have a different economics for Brazil as against USA makes no more sense than to have a different science of chemistry; but he simply disregards the ethnocentric character of the economics which inward-looking economists develop for USA, and ignores the risk that what passes for “general economic law” may turn out to be a series of adhockeries concocted to be plausible for a very special and perhaps transitory state of society.] This responsibility surely comes home to Columbia. For one thing, New York is the natural focus of such work, what with its outward-looking tradition and the presence of the UN. Besides, we incur a special responsibility because we have so many overseas students. I would add that to educate overseas students too exclusively in economics-for-USA is dysfunctional: one of the major handicaps of development has been the attempt of US-trained economists overseas to apply Keynesian remedies to unemployment problems of non-Keynesian type, for example.

Economics and the SIA [School of International Affairs]

If the University were very strong financially, it seems to me plain that one would recommend developing the Economics Department in a way that would greatly strengthen the general work on international relations and on the understanding of societies outside USA which is represented by the School of International Affairs. The SIA could advantageously be much more of a research body and center of workshop activity.

I would not recommend developing an economics department within the SIA (even if SIA eventually develops a distinct and separately-recruited faculty, which I don’t think I would recommend either). To set up standards of recruiting, teaching and publication for “SIA economists” that will pass muster with the general profession is an essential safeguard, and the generally low standards of economic thinking in the UN and in overseas universities outside Europe, Japan and Australasia should be a warning that a separate international economics might not be a genuine “discipline”. But it will be a major defeat if Columbia cannot maintain and improve its standard of keeping a stable of economists for whom understanding of outside economies (and especially of the economies of poor countries) is a major concern.

A question which interacts with this, of course, is whether the SIA can develop its own sources of financing, as seemed so probable a few years ago. If not, the general financial debility of the University will mean that we must stop far short of optimum in the whole area represented by SIA, and hence also on its economic side. Specifically, it may make a great difference whether or not SIA can finance workshop activity in this area, and make a role for research posts for young economists (for example, teaching two-thirds time in the Department and working one-third-time-plus-summer in a research branch of SIA).

If the University’s policy toward economics is primarily to develop its mathematical-economics core, the contribution the Department can make on the SIA side may suffer. And reciprocally, failure to develop strength on this side may be a handicap to SIA in its efforts to get backing for a really strong program.

A postscript on professional life-cycles

One of the most valuable pieces of education I picked up in my earlier years at Columbia was a comment by Isador Rabi at a University Seminar about the problems of a field like physics where the most impressive men “peak” very young and the work regarded as important by the profession is done largely by youngsters. It would be a tremendous waste to throw men on the scrap-heap after their “peak” years, or to regard them as living on the benefits of tenure, as non-producers, for most of their profession lifetimes. The solution, Rabl indicated, was surely to be found in an appropriate division of labor between colleagues at different stages of life-cycle, working out what economists call an area of comparative advantage for the older men.

The COI report seems to me to ignore this problem, and to frame problems as if we could hope to recruit good men between age 25 and age 30 and have them conveniently remove themselves (suicide recommended?) along about age 40 — significant activities being described as those appropriate to men aged 25-40. In good part, I think the “problem” of life-cycle (once recognized) and the “problems” of maintaining strength in institutional economics and in the development/regional areas exist largely because we don’t integrate our approaches to different aspects of economics work. To a considerable degree, the natural life-cycle of the economist is to be obsessed with very abstract problems in youth, and mature into a person more concerned with and more knowledgeable about the real world. To a very large degree, the staffing of the institutional fields and of the SIA-type activities should then be handled by shifting over of people who have graduated from being pure theorists. If we don’t do this, the channels of recruiting and promotion for the continuation of the supposedly -central mathematical-economics core are apt to get clogged. It is very tricky to suppose that giving tenure to a theoretically creative young man is to acquire forty years of theoretically creative activity. Most of the relevant people have their key ideas very young, and develop them as fully as is profitable by age 40. If they continue to preempt the key teaching roles in these fields, they will keep the young from advancing and will impair the freshness of the curriculum offered to graduate and undergraduate students. [It was because of this view that I allowed myself to be pushed out of micro-teaching by Becker and Co. in the early 1960’s.] But to suck the tenured men out of these lines and make room for their successors, a Department needs a lot of roles for the maturing older man. Unless we can do well with the institutional and SIA aspects of the field, I conclude, we can’t do well in the long run with the “core” aspects.

Source: Columbia University Libraries, Manuscript Collections. Joseph Dorfman Collection, Box 13 (Columbia University-teaching, etc.); Folder “Economic H…P…”

Image Source:  Obituary in The Columbia Spectator, October 3, 1997.

Categories
Columbia Monetary economics Suggested Reading Syllabus

Columbia. Reading List for Monetary Economics. Angell, 1954-1955

In 1954-55 the executive officer of the department of economics, Arthur R. Burns [not Arthur F. Burns], requested his colleagues provide current reading lists for their courses to Joseph Dorfman to arrange for the library to order as many titles as possible. James Waterhouse Angell (Harvard Ph.D., 1924) obliged for his courses on monetary economics (see below), international monetary policy, and income, employment and international trade.

_______________________________

Other blog posts for
James Waterhouse Angell

James W. Angell’s 1921 Ph.D. application at Harvard.

James W. Angell’s Columbia University appointment, 1924.

Reading list for James W. Angell’s 1933 Money and Banking course at Columbia (found in Milton Friedman’s papers)

Reading list for James W. Angell’s 1933 International Economics course at Columbia (found in Milton Friedman’s papers).

James W. Angell’s 1943 report to the Harvard Class of 1918.

_______________________________

Course Announcement

Economics 121-122—Monetary economics. Professor Angell.
M. W. 10. 310 Fayerweather.

The part played by money and banking operations in the structure and movements of the general economic system. The development of monetary theory. Saving, investing, and employment. Keynesian and neo-Keynesian analysis. Current problems of monetary and general fiscal policy.

Source: Columbia University, Bulletin of Information, 54th Series, No. 23 (June 19, 1954). Announcement of the Faculty of Political Science for the Winter and Spring Sessions 1954-1955, p. 35.

_______________________________

December 15, 1954

TO: MEMBERS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

FROM: Arthur R. Burns

Will you please send to Professor Dorfman your lists of readings with recent amendments including optional readings, in order that he may endeavor to arrange for the library to have as many as possible of the books that are being recommended. Please also forward requests for future additions to the library to Professor Dorfman.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

ECONOMICS 121-122
READING LIST
in
MONETARY ECONOMICS

Note: Eligible veterans may purchase at government expense any four books marked “V”.

1954

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

ECONOMICS 121
REQUIRED READING

(References are to numbered sections in Reading List.)

First Semester

Section:

I (If necessary)
II-1 (Outside reading)
IV-1 (Partly for discussion in class, as indicated)
V-1 (Outside reading)

Second Semester

Section:

III (Outside reading, as indicated)
IV-2 (Partly for discussion in class, as indicated)
V-2 (Outside reading)
VI-1 (Outside reading)
VII (Look into several of the books)

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

READING LIST IN MONETARY ECONOMICS

Required reading should if possible be read in the order in which the titles are presented.

I. INTRODUCTORY

(Students who have had little or no previous work in Money and Banking are advised to read at least one title in each group.)

1. General Texts

Chandler, L. V., Economics of Money and Banking (1953). “V”

James, F. C.: Economics of Money, Credit and Banking (3rd edition, 1940)

Kent, R. P.: Money and Banking (1951). “V”

Thomas, R. G.: Our Modern Banking and Monetary System (1950), Chapters 1-30. “V”

2. Other References

Chandler, L. V.: Introduction to Monetary Theory (1940)

Mitchell, W. C.: Business Cycles (Volume I, 1927) Chapter 2

Robertson, D. H.: Money (2nd edition, 1929)

II. MONETARY AND BANKING ORGANIZATION OF THE U.S.

1. Required Reading

Thomas, R. G.: Our Modern Banking and Monetary System (1950), Chapters 18, 19

Kent, R. P.: Money and Banking (1951), Chapters 20-22,26-28

Burgess, W. R.: The Reserve Banks and the Money Market (Revised edition, 1946)

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Banking Studies (1941), Chapters 3, 17

Angell, J. W.: The Behavior of Money (1936), Chapters 1-4

Goldenweiser, E. A.: Federal Reserve Objectives and Policies (AER, June, 1947)

Thomas, W.: The Heritage of War Finance (AER, Proceedings, May, 1947)

Board of Governors, Federal Reserve System: Federal Reserve Policy (Post-War Economic Studies, No. 8: 1947)

Goldenweiser, E. A., American Monetary Policy (1951)

2. Other References

Beckhart, B. H., ed.: The New York Money Market (4 volumes, 1931-32)

Board of Governors, Federal Reserve System: Federal Reserve Bulletin (current issues)

_________________: The Federal Reserve System (1939)

_________________: Post-War Economic Studies (published serially)

Crawford, A. W.: Monetary Management under the New Deal (1940)

Currie, L.: The Supply and Control of Money in the U. 5. (1934)

Dewey, D. R.: Financial History of the U. S. (1903)

Federal Reserve Bank of New York: Monthly Review

Hardy, C. O.: Credit Policies of the Federal Reserve System (1932)

Harris, S. E.: Twenty Years of Federal Reserve Policy (2 volumes, 1932)

Hepburn, A. B.: History of Currency in the U. S. (2nd edition, 1924)

Jacoby, N. H. and Saulnier, R. J.: Business Finance and Banking (1947)

Johnson, G. G., Jr.: The Treasury and Monetary Policy, 1933-38 (1938)

Macaulay, F. R.: Interest Rates, Bond Yields end Stock Prices in the U.S. Since 1856 (1938)

Mints, L. W., History of Banking Theory (1945) (U.S. and U.K.)

Mitchell, W. C.: History of the Greenbacks (1903)

National Monetary Commission: Reports (1910, 1911): includes volumes on various phases of money, banking and related legislation in the U.S.

Paris, J. D.: Monetary Policies of the U.S., 1932-1936 (1938)

Riefler, W. W.: Money Rates and Money Markets in the U. S. (1930)

Saulnier, R. J., and Young, R. A.: Finance and Credit in the American Economy, 1900-1944 (1946)

U. S. Government Printing Office: Federal Reserve Act of 1913, with Amendments and Laws Relating to Banking (1940)

Westerfield, R. B.: Historical Survey of Branch Banking in the U.S. (1939)

_________________: Our Silver Debacle (1936)

Whitney, C.: Experiments in Credit Control: The Federal Reserve System (1934)

III. MONETARY AND BANKING ORGANIZATION IN OTHER COUNTRIES

(Select and read enough to understand the general organization and history of at least one country.)

Andreades, A.: History of the Bank of England (2nd edition, 1934)

Arnold, A.T.: Banks, Credit and Money in Soviet Russia (1937)

Bagehot, W.: Lombard Street (14th edition, 1915)

Brown, W. A., Jr.: England and the New Gold Standard (1929)

Clapham, Sir John: The Bank of England (1944)

Conant, C. A.: History of Modern Banks of Issue (6th edition, 1927)

Dacey, W. M.: The British Banking Mechanism (1951)

Dulles, E. L.: The French Frano, 1914-1928 (1929)

Dupriez, L. H.: Monetary Reconstruction in Belgian (1947)

Feaveryear, A. S.: The Pound Sterling (1931)

Flink, S.: The Geran Reichsbank (1931)

Harris, S. E.: Monetary Policies of the British Empire (1931)

Hawtrey, R. G.: A Century of Bank Rate (1936)

Higgins, B. H.: Canada’s Financial System in War (National Bureau of Economic Research, 1944)

Holladay, J.: The Canadian Banking System (1938)

Hubbard, L. E.: Soviet Money and Finance (1936)

King, W. T. C.: History of the London Discount Market (1936)

League of Nations: Gold Delegation: Reports, etc. (1930, ff.)

_________________: Money and Banking (periodically, 1931 ff.)

Madden, J.T., and Nadler, M.: International Money Markets (1935)

National Monetary Commission: Reports (1910, 1911): includes volumes on a series of foreign systems

Northrop, M. B.: The Control Policies of the German Reichsbank, 1924-1933 (1938)

Plumptre, A. F. W.: Central Banking in the British Dominions (1940)

Rogers, J. H.: The Process of Inflation in France, 1914-1927 (1929)

Sayers, R. S.; Modern Banking (1947). Chiefly on England

Shepherd, H. L.: The Monetary Experience of Belgium, 1914-1936 (1936)

Whale, P. B.: Joint Stock Banking in Germany (1930)

Willis, H. P.: Theory and Practice of Central Banking (1939)

Willis, H. P., and Beckhart, B. H., eds.: Foreign Banking Systems (especially on Great Britain and Canada) (1929)

IV. THE GENERAL RELATIONS BETWEEN THE MONETARY AND BANKING SYSTEM AND ECONOMIC ACTIVITY

1. Required Reading (First Semester)

(In approximate order. Titles marked with asterisk (*) should be prepared for discussion in class.)

*Layton, Sir W. T.: Introduction to the Study of Prices (3rd ed., 1938) (skim)

*Fisher, Irving: The Purchasing Power of Money (2nd ed., 1926) (skim)

*Keynes, J. M.: Monetary Reform (1924), Chapters 1 and 3 (Section 1)

Angell, J. W.: Theory of International Prices (1926), pp. 116-135, 178-186, 274-280, 308-312, 324-331

_________________: The Behavior of Money (1936), Chapters 5, 6

Ellis, H. S. German Monetary Theory, 1905-1933 (1934), Chapters 8-11

Hawtrey, R. G.: The Gold Standard in Theory and Practice (5th edition, 1947). “V”

*Hawtrey, R. G.: The Art of Central Banking (1932), Chapter 4

*_________________: Currency and Credit (3rd edition, 1927), Chapters 1-4, 10, 11

*Keynes, J. M.: Treatise on Money (2 volumes, 1930), Chapters 9-14, 30, 35-37

Klein, L. R.: The Keynesian Revolution (1947), Chapter l (on Keynes’ Treatise). “V”

Robertson, D. H.: Essays in Monetary Theory (1940), Chapters 1, 4-6, 11

*Hicks, J. R.: A Suggestion for Simplifying the Theory of Money (Economica, February, 1935) (Reprinted in Am. Econ. Assoc., Readings in Monetary Theory, 1951)

*Keynes, J. M.: The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1936). “V”

2. Required Reading (Second Semester)

Haberler, G.: Prosperity and Depression (1946), Chapter 8. 3rd edition 1941. “V”

Hansen, A. H.: Full Recovery or Stagnation (1938), Part IV

*_________________: Fiscal Policy and Business Cycles (1941), Part III. “V”

Wilson, T.: Fluctuations in Income and Employment (1942), Part I

*Burns, A. F.: Economic Research and the Keynesian Thinking of our Times (National Bureau of Economic Research, 1946)

*Hicks, J. R.: Value and Capital (1939), Chapters 9-14, 19, 23. “V”

*Lerner, A. P.: The Economics of Control (1946), Chapters 21-25. “V”

*Angell, J. W.: Investment and Business Cycles (1941), Chapters 9-11, 13. “V”

*Hansen, A. H.: Economic Policy and Full Employment (1947); Chapters 11-19

Klein, L. R.: The Keynesian Revolution (1947), Chapters 3, 4 (only pp. 110-123), 6. “V”

Harris, S. E., ed.: The New Economics (1947), Chapters 4, 9, 14, 31, 37

Ellis, H. S., ed.: Survey of Contemporary Economics (1948), Chapter 9 (article by H. H. Villard, “Monetary Theory.”) “V”

Modigliani, F.: Fluctuations in the Saving-Income Ratio (in National Bureau of Economic Research, Studies in Income and Wealth, Vol. 11, (1949), Part V)

Samuelson, P. A.: Interactions of the Multiplier Analysis and the Principle of Acceleration (RES, May 1939; reprinted in Am. Econ. Assoc., Readings in Business Cycle Theory)

3. Other Preferences

American Economic Association, Readings in Business Cycle Theory (1944), especially Chaps. 5-9, 12, 15, 17

_________________: Readings in Monetary Theory (1951), especially Chaps. 7, 11, 13, 17. “V”

_________________: Readings in Price Theory (1952), especially Chaps. 14, 15

American Economic Review: Proceedings (May, 1948): papers on Keynes

Angell, J. W.: Keynes and Economic Analysis Today (Rev. Econ. Stat., November, 1948)

Clark, J. M.: Alternatives to Serfdom (1948), Chapter 4

_________________: Economics of Planning Public Works (1935)

Domar, E. D.: Expansion and Employment (AER, March, 1947)

_________________: The Problem of Capital Accumulation (AER, Dec. 1948)

Duesenberry, James F.: Income, Saving and the Theory of Consumer Behavior (1949)

Durbin, E. M.: Purchasing Power and Trade Depression (1934)

Eisner, R.: Underemployment Equilibrium Rates of Growth (AER, Mar. 1952). On papers by Domar and Schelling in this Section.

Ellis, H. S., ed.: Survey of Contemporary Economics (1948), Chapters 2, 5

Fellner, W.: Monetary Policies and Full Employment (1946)

_________________: The Robertsonian Evolution (AER, June 1952)

_________________: and Somers, H. M.: Alternative Monetary Approaches to Interest Theory (RES, Feb. 1941)

Gayer, A. D.: Monetary Policy and Economic Stabilization (2nd edition, 1937)

_________________, ed.: Lessons of Monetary Experience (1937)

Halm, G.: Monetary Theory (1942). Second edition 1946

Hansen, A. H., Monetary Theory and Fiscal Policy (1949)

Hart, A. G.: Anticipations, Uncertainty and Dynamic Planning (1940)

Hawtrey, R. G.: A Century of Bank Rate (1938)

Hayek, F.: Prices and Production (2nd edition, 1935)

_________________: The Pure Theory of Capital (1941)

Henderson, H. D.: The Significance of the Rate of Interest (Oxford Economic Papers, October, 1938). Also see articles in later issues on interest rates and liquidity preference.

Kuznets, S.: National Product Since 1869 (1946)

Lange, O.: Price Flexibility and Employment (1944)

_________________: The Theory of the Multiplier (Econometrica, July-October, 1943)

Lange, O., et al., eds.: Studies in Mathematical Economics and Econometrics (1942; in memory of Henry Schultz) papers by Lange, Mosak, Samuelson, Hart, Tinbergen

Lundberg, E.: Studies in the Theory of Economic Expansion (1937)

Machlup, F.: International Trade and the National Income Multiplier (1943)

Mack, R. P.: The Direction of Change in Income and the Consumption Function (RES, November, 1948)

Marshall, A.: Money, Credit and Commerce (1923)

Modigliani, F.: Liquidity Preference and the Theory of Interest and Money (Econometrica, January, 1944)

Myrdal, G.: Monetary Equilibrium (1939)

Niebyl, K. H.: Studies in the Classical Theory of Money (1946)

Nussbaum, A.: Money in the Law (1939). 1950 edition

Ohlin, B.: The Stockholm Theory of Savings and Investment (EJ, 1937; reprinted in Am. Econ. Assoc., Readings in Business Cycle Theory, 1944)

Pigou, A. C.: Employment and Equilibrium (1941)

_________________: Lapses from Full Employment (1945)

Robinson, Joan: Introduction to the Theory of Employment (1939; expanded 1949)

Robertson, D. H.: Banking Policy and the Price Level (2nd edition, 1932)

_________________: Saving and Hoarding (EJ, September, 1933)

Rueff, J.: The Fallacies of Lord Keynes’ General Theory (QJE, May 1947)

Samuelson, P. A.: The Principle of Acceleration and the Multiplier (JPE, Dec. 1939)

_________________: Interactions between the Multiplier and the Principle of Acceleration (RES, May, 1939; reprinted in Am. Econ. Assoc., Readings in Business Cycle Theory, 1944)

Saulnier, R. J.: Contemporary Monetary Theory (1938)

Schelling, T.: Capital Growth and Equilibrium (AER, Dec. 1947). On paper above by Domar

Schumpeter, J. A.: Theory of Economic Development (1934)

Symposium: Five Views on the Consumption Function (Rev. Econ. Stat., November, 1946)

Temporary National Economic Commission: Saving and Investment (Hearings, Part 9: 1939)

Terborgh, G.: The Bogey of Economic Maturity (1945)

Tinbergen, J.: Some Problems in the Explanation of Interest Rates (QJE, May, 1947)

Villard, H. H.: Deficit Spending and the National Income (1941)

Viner, J.: Studies in the Theory of International Trade (1937), Chapters 3-7

Wicksell, K.: Interest and Prices (English edition, 1936)

_________________: Lectures on Political Economy, Volume II: Money (1935); also VoI. I, Introduction

Williams, J. H.: An Appraisal of Keynesian Economics (American Economic Review, Proceedings, May, 1948)

Wood, E.: English Theories of Central Banking Control, 1819-1858 (1938)

Wright, D. McC.: The Economics of Disturbance (1947)

V. BUSINESS CYCLES

(Also see references in Section IV)

1. Required Reading (First Semester)

Mitchell, W. C.: Business Cycles: The Problem and Its Setting. Volume I (1927), especially Chapters 1, 2, and 5

Clark, J. M.: Strategic Factors in Business Cycles (1934), especially pp. 1-22, 96-123, 167-183

Ellis, H. S.: German Monetary Theory, 1905-1933 (1934); Part IV

Amer. Econ. Assoc.: Readings in Business Cycle Theory (1944), Chaps. 1, 15, 17, 21. “V”

Haberler, G.: Prosperity and Depression (1946), Part I

2. Required Reading (Second Semester)

Haberler, G.: Prosperity and Depression (1946), Part III

League of Nations: Economic Stability in the Post-War World (1945), Section I. “V”

Schumpeter, J.: Business Cycles (1939), Chapter 4

Hicks, J. R.: Value and Capital (1939), Chapter 24

Angell, J. W.: Investment and Business Cycles (1941), Chapters 7, 8, 12

Hansen, A. H.: Fiscal Policy and Business Cycles (1941), Parts I, III

Wilson, T.: Fluctuations in Income and Employment (1942), Part II (on the U.S. 1919-1937)

Metzler, L. A.: Business Cycles and the Modern Theory of Employment (AER, June 1946)

Burns, A. F., New Facts on Business Cycles (National Bureau of Economic Research, Annual Report, 1950), Part I

3. Other References

Achinstein, A.: Introduction to Business Cycles (1950)

Burns, A. F.: Production Trends in the U. S. since 1870 (1934)

Burns, A. F., and Mitchell, W. C.: Measuring Business Cycles (1946)

_________________: Hicks and the Real Cycle (JPE, Feb. 1952)

Frickey, E.: Economic Fluctuations in the U. S., 1866-1914 (1942)

Harrod, R. F.: The Trade Cycle (1936)

_________________: Notes on Trade Cycle Theory (EJ, June 1951)

Hicks, J. R.: A Contribution to the Theory of the Trade Cycle (1950)

Kaldor, N.: A Model of the Trade Cycle (EJ, 1940)

_________________: Mr. Hicks on the Trade Cycle (EJ, Dec. 1951)

Kalecki, M.: Essays in the Theory of Economic Fluctuations (1939)

Knight, F. H.: The Business Cycle, Interest and Money (RES, May, 1941)

Robbins, L.: The Great Depression (1934)

Röpke, W.: Crises and Cycles (1936)

Salant, W.: Foreign Trade Policy in the Business Cycle (in C. J. Friedrich and E. S. Mason, eds., Public Policy, 1940, vol. II)

Tinbergen, J.: Statistical Testing of Business-Cycle Theories (2 volumes, 1939)

Tinbergen, J., and Polak, J. J.: The Dynamics of Business Cycles (1950)

VI. CURRENCY AND EXCHANGE DEPRECIATION:
INTERNATIONAL MONETARY POLICIES

1.  Required Reading

Gayer, A. D.: Monetary Policy and Economic Stabilization (2 ed., 1937), Chapters 1-8

Hansen, A. H.: Full Recovery or Stagnation? (1938), Chapters 10-15

Gilbert, M.: Currency Depreciation (1939), Chapters 3, 5, 6

League of Nations: Economic Stability in the Post-War World (1945), Chapter 17

Hansen, A. H.: America’s Role in the World Economy (1945), Apps. A and B. “V”

Nurkse, R.: Conditions of International Monetary Equilibrium (1945) (reprinted in Am. Econ. Assoc., Readings in Intl. Trade, 1948)

_________________: Domestic and International Economic Equilibrium (in S. E. Harris, ed., The New Economics, 1947)

Robinson, Joan: Introduction to the Theory of Employment (1939; reprinted 1947), Chapter on The Foreign Exchanges

2. Other References

Angell, J. W.: Theory of International Prices, Chapters 7, 17 (1926)

Bloomfield, A. I.: Operations of the American Exchange Stabilization Fund (RES, May, 1944)

Bresciani-Turroni, C.: The Economics of Inflation (1937) (On Germany, 1914-24)

Brown, W. A., Jr.: The International Gold Standard Reinterpreted, 1914-1934 (2 volumes, 1944)

Cassel, G.: The Downfall of the Gold Standard (1936)

_________________: Money and Foreign Exchange After 1914 (1922)

Dulles, E. L.: The French Franc, 1914-1928 (1929)

Dupriez, L. H.: Monetary Reconstruction in Belgium (1947)

Ellis, H. S.: Exchange Control in Central Europe (1941)

Graham, F. D.: Exchanges, Prices, and Production in Hyper-Inflation: Germany, 1920-1923 (1930)

Gregory, T. E.: The Gold Standard and Its Future (1932)

Hall, N. F.: The Exchange Equalization Account (London, 1935)

Harris, S. E.: Exchange Depreciation (1926)

Heilperin, M. A.: International Monetary Economics (1939), Chapters 3, 6, 9

League of Nations: The Course and Control of Inflation (1946) (Experience after World War I)

_________________: International Currency Experience (1944)

Leavens, D. H.: Silver Money (1939)

Li, C. M.: Theory of International Trade under Silver Exchange (QJE, Aug. 1939)

Patterson, G.: Survey of U. S. International Finance (annual, 1950 ff.)

Sayers, R. S.: Modern Banking (1947), Chapters 7, 8

Southard, F. A., Jr.: Some European Currency and Exchange Experiences, 1943-1946 (1946)

U. S. Tariff Commission: Foreign Trade and Exchange Controls in Germany (1942), pp. 1-34

U. S. Treasury Department: Articles of Agreement: International Monetary Fund and International Bank for Reconstruotion and Development (1944)

Waight, L.: The Exchange Equalization Account (1939)

Westerfield, R. B.: Our Silver Debacle (1936)

Whittlesey, C. R.: International Monetary Issues (1937)

Williams, J. H.: Post-War Monetary Plans (1944)

VII. CURRENT PROBLEMS IN THEORY AND POLICY

(These references are in large part supplementary to the more recent among the titles in Section IV, above. Look into a number of them, and read carefully what interests you.)

Beveridge, Sir W.: Full Employment in a Free Society (1945)

Board of Governors, Federal Reserve System: Post-War Economic Studies (published at intervals)

Brunner, K.: Inconsistency and Indeterminacy in Classical Economics (Econometrica, Apr. 1951). On Patinkin papers listed below

Buchanan, N. S.: International Investment and Domestic Welfare (1945)

Chandler, L. V.: Federal Reserve Policy and the Federal Debt (AER, 1949; reprinted in Am. Econ. Assoc., Readings in Monetary Theory, 1951)

Clark, C.: The Economics of 1960 (1944)

Cohen, M.: Postwar Consumption Functions (RES, Feb. 1952)

Fisher, A. G. B.: International Implications of Full Employment (1946)

Fisher, Irving: 100 Per Cent Money (2 ed., 1936)

Friend, Irving: Personal Savings in the Post-War Period (Survey Current Bus., Sept. 1949 and Suppl., 1950-51

_________________ and Bronfenbrenner, J.: Business Investment Programs and their Realization (Survey of Current Business, Dec. 1950)

Hansen, A. H.: Classical, Loanable-Fund and Keynesian Interest Theories (QJE, Aug. 1951)

_________________: Income, Employment and Public Policy (1948) (Essays in honor of Hansen)

Harrod, R. F.: Toward a Dynamic Economics (1948)

International Labor Office: Public Investment and Full Employment (1946)

Lerner, A. P.: The Economics of Employment (1951)

Liu, T. C. and Chang, C. G.: U.S. Consumption and Investment Propensities (AER, Sept. 1950)

Millikan, M. F., ed.: Income Stabilization for a Developing Democracy (1953)

Morishima, M.: Consumer’s Behavior and Liquidity Preference (Econometrica, Apr. 1952)

Norton, F. E.: Capital Theory and Progressive Equilibrium (AER, Papers and Proc., May 1951)

Oxford University, Institute of Statistics: The Economics of Full Employment (1944). A symposium

Patinkin, D.: Relative Prices, Say’s Law and the Demand for Money (Econometrica, Apr. 1948)

_________________: The Indeterminacy of Absolute Prices in Classical Economic Theory (Econometrica, Jan. 1949)

_________________: The Invalidity of Classical Monetary Theory (Econometrica, Apr- 1951)

Robinson, Joan: Collected Economic Papers (1951). Parts I-III

Rosa, R.: The Revival of Monetary Policy (RES, Feb. 1951)

Schelling, T. C.: The Dynamics of Price Flexibility (AER, Sept. 1949). And see replies by Patinkin and Klein in AER, Sept. 1950

Tobin, J.: Monetary Policy and the Management of the Public Debt: The Patman Inquiry (RES, May 1953)

Tsiang, S. C.: Accelerator, Theory of the Firm and the Business Cycle (QJE, Aug. 1951). On Kaldor and Samuelson

United Nations: National and International Measures for Full Employment (Report by a group of experts: 1949)

_________________: Measures for International Economic Stabilization (Report by a group of experts: 1951)

Williams, J. H.: Money, Trade and Economic Growth (1951). (Essays in honor of Williams) Part III

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

1954-55

ECONOMICS 121-122

Add the following titles:

Sec. II-2:

Bach, G. L: Federal Reserve Policy-Making (1950).

Brandt, Harry: U.S. Monetary and Credit Policies, 1945-50 (unpubl. Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia 1954).

U.S. Congress: Joint Committee on the Economic Report: Monetary, Credit and Fiscal Policies (1949: U.S. Cong. 81:1).The Patman-Douglas Report. On the Federal Reserve, esp. Chap. II; on fiscal policy, Chap. XI.

Sec. IV-2:

Hansen, A. H.: A Guide to Keynes (1953), Chap. 7.

Sec. VII:

Abramovitz, M.: Economics of Growth (in: Survey Contemp. Econ., vol. II; ed. B. F. Haley, 1952).

Ferber, R.: Aggregate Consumption Functions (Natl. Bur. Econ. Res., Tech, Paper #8; 1953).

Friedman, Milton: Essays in Positive Economics (1953), Part III.

Hubbard, J.C.: The Marginal and the Average Propensity to Consume (QJE, Feb. 1954).

Kalecki, M.: Theory of Economic Dynamics (1954).

Kuznets, S.: The Proportion of Capital Formation to National Product (AEA, Proc., May 1952).

Mack, Ruth P.: Economics of Consumption (Survey Contemp. Econ., vol. II; ed. B. F. Haley, 1952).

Yeager, L. B.: Some Questions about Growth Economics (AER, March 1954).

Source: Columbia University Libraries, Manuscript Collections. Joseph Dorfman Collection, Box 13 (Columbia University – teaching, etc.) in an unlabeled folder.

Image Source: Harvard Class of 1918, Twenty-fifth Anniversary Report. Cambridge: 1943, pp. 24-26.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Exams for Elements of Accounting. W.M. Morse, 1909-1910

This post completes the collection of final exams for accounting taught at Harvard during the first decade of the 20th century.  With an enrollment of 212 students, it helped to add a note of business practice to Harvard’s liberal arts curriculum.

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Earlier Accounting Exams at Harvard

1900-01
1901-02
1902-03
1903-04
1904-05
1905-06
1906-07
1907-08
1908-09

________________________

William M. Cole
His Textbook

Accounts. Their Construction and Interpretation for Business Men and Students of Affairs. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1908.

“The first issue of this book was brought out at a time when no general, non-technical, non-professional treatise on accounting had been published . The author had then been giving for eight years a course of instruction to seniors in Harvard College on the principles of accounting, and believed that many business men and students of affairs would be interested to see briefly but comprehensively how accounts are constructed and interpreted.”
Revised and enlarged edition, 1915.

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Course Enrollment
1909-10

Economics 18. Asst. Professor W. M. Cole, assisted by Messrs. J. J. Kaplan, R. M. Johnson, and H. B. Platt. [For biographical information about the teaching assistants, see the post for the 1908-09 course Economics 18] — Principles of Accounting.

Total 212: 3 Graduates, 99 Seniors, 56 Juniors, 9 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 44 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1909-1910, p. 45.

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[“1909-10” noted in pencil]

ECONOMICS 18

The following transactions are to be entered in complete form, with full details and index references; the resulting figures are to be carried through a six-column statement; the books are then to be closed as for the end of the year, and a Balance Sheet for the beginning of the new year is to be shown.

The books to be used are a journal, a special-column cash-book, a sales book, a purchase book, a sales ledger, a purchase ledger, and a general ledger. When insufficient details for a complete entry are given below, reasonable details are to be assumed. Interest and discount should be figured at 6%.

In determining and recording profit, all additional facts necessary to know are to be assumed at fairly reasonable figures. Care should be taken that all necessary additional facts are considered.

Do not attempt in this case to analyze the profit into its three elements, — wages of management, interest on investment, and pure profit, — but consider it an entity and carry it to the account representing the proprietor.

January

  1. You as sole proprietor begin business under the name of the Fair Deal Co. with the following capital: cash, 15,000; store building, 15,000; promissory notes to the amount of 5000 (as follows: Roderick Hudson, 1000, dated to-day, payable in two months; Silas Marner, 2000, dated Dec. 1, two months; Adam Bede, 500, dated Dec. 16, one month; Henry Esmond, 1500, dated Nov. 1, payable on demand with interest). Buy office and store furniture for cash, 500. Pay for postage, 15. Buy stationery, books, etc., for cash, 125.
  2. Buy goods of Oliver Twist, payment due in 10 days, 4000. Buy goods of David Copperfield for cash, 3000.
  3. Pay freight, 65. Pay telephone bill, three months, in advance, 25.
  4. Buy horses and wagon, cash, 500. Pay for advertising, 30.
  5. Sell goods to Enoch Arden, 30 days’ time, 700. Buy goods of Dombey & Son, cash, 6000

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

  1. Pay wages: bookkeeper, 25; three clerks, at 15 each; driver, 10.
  2. Buy goods of Richard Feverel, 10 ds., 7000. Accept Oliver Twist’s draft on you, payable in three days, for the amount of your bill.
  3. Discount at a bank your own note (signed by the Fair Deal Co.), face 5000, 30 days. Henry Esmond pays his note.
  4. Buy goods of David Balfour, cash, 6000.
  5. Discount at a bank Silas Marner’s note. Pay your acceptance of the 9th.
  6. Sell goods to Felix Holt, 10 ds., 575.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

  1. Sell goods to Silas Lapham, 10 ds., 200.
  2. Adam Bede’s note is paid. Sell goods to John Nicholson for his note, 30 ds., 600.
  3. Sell goods to John Halifax, cash, 300.
  4. Borrow on your own note for 30 ds., bearing interest, 4000.
  5. Pay Richard Feverel in full. Pay insurance, 100.
  6. Pay freight, 75. Sell goods for cash, 150. Sell goods to Joseph Vance, 30 ds., 1200.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

  1. Pay wages, two weeks, at the same rates as on the 8th. Pay for remodelling offices, 400. Three months’ rent is paid in advance by a tenant to whom one of the remodelled offices is let, 100.
  2. Felix Holt’s bill is paid. Paid for coal, 100.
  3. Pay subscription for flood sufferers, 100. Sell goods for cash, 1200.
  4. Draw a draft on Enoch Arden, payable in ten days, to your own order, for the amount of his bill due Feb. 4. Pay a dry-goods bill for your wife out of the cash drawer, 75. Silas Lapham’s bill is paid.
  5. You receive, accepted, the draft drawn on the 25th.
  6. You discount at a bank Enoch Arden’s acceptance.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

  1. Sell goods to Silas Lapham, 30 ds., 1300.
  2. Pay wages as before.
  3. Pay for lighting, 15. You draw for your own use, 150.

Source: Harvard University Archives. HUC 8522.2.1. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 1. Folder: 1909-1910.

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ECONOMICS 18
Mid-year Examination, 1909-10

  1. Distinguish in nature between: —
    1. Bills Receivable account and Accounts Receivable account;
    2. Capital Stock account and Surplus account;
    3. Real Estate account and Rent account;
    4. Bond Discount account and Merchandise Discount account (supposing the latter to be of the common type);
    5. Insurance account and Repairs account.
  2. Show, in the form of a simple journalization, what should be debited and what credited in each of the following cases: —

Payment, by you, of wages in the form of merchandise.
Receipt, by you, of a bond which you have agreed to take in payment of an accepted draft.
Writing off a bad debt owed you by a customer.
Interest allowed you on your bank deposit.
A discovery that included in a bill for goods purchased to be sold as merchandise, and charged as merchandise, is included $100 worth of office supplies, and $100 worth of goods shipped to the proprietor’s residence, and broken goods to the value of $100.
Receipt of a promissory note for an account already written off as bad.

  1. The following is the trial balance of a manufacturing concern for January 1, 1910. Make any allowances and state any additional facts that you think probably necessary (any fairly reasonable figures will be accepted), and show the income sheet and the balance sheet, on the understanding that no profits are withdrawn by partners.
Proprietors $60,000
Plant and machinery $35,000
Merchandise purchases $38,000
Merchandises sales $95,000
Merchandise Inventory
(balance on closing the books a year ago, and unadjusted since then)		 $15,000
Wages and salaries $30,000
Traveling expenses $2,500
Interest $600
Stationery and printing $1,200
Rents and taxes $3,500
Discounts $1,250
Fuel $3,000
Insurance (one year from July 1, 1909) $1,150
Freight $1,500
General expenses $600
Bills Payable $5,000
Creditors $4,000
Accounts Receivable $25,000
Rent of steam power $1,500
Cash on hand $200
Bills Receivable $7,000
$165,500 $165,500
  1. Comment upon the condition of a corporation which shows the following changes from 1910 compared with 1909:––
1909 1910
Accounts Receivable $55,000 $66,000
Bills Receivable $20,000 $25,000
Accounts Payable $20,000 $23,000
Bills Payable $15,000 $16,500
Merchandise Inventory $30,000 $37,500
Cash $8,000 $8,500
Sales $300,000 $310,000
Purchases $225,000 $238,000
Surplus $10,000 $29,500
  1. You find, after charging $1000 to Maintenance of Buildings for repairs made this year, that the interruption of business caused by the repairs has cost $200, and that the repairs actually increased the value of the building to the amount of $200. Should you make any new entry? Why, or why not? If so, what?
  2. In a manufacturing business what accounts should you open and charge for the following expenditures? Should each of such accounts be treated at the end of the year as a capital account or as a revenue account? Defend your decision in each case.
    Taxes on a piece of real estate held for possible extension of plant.
    Wages of a chemist carrying on experiments for improvement of processes.
    Contributions to an agency for gathering information about foreign markets.
    Expense of maintaining an exhibit at an international exposition.
    Compensation to the owner of a piece of land when a lease on that land is by mutual agreement canceled.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 8, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1909-10.

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ECONOMICS 18
Year-end Examination, 1909-10

  1. A trial balance for the ledger below shows error. Find the trouble.
PROPRIETOR
Sundries $16,000.00
BILLS PAYABLE
Merchandise $1,684.00
BILLS RECEIVABLE
Proprietor $2,000.00 Aaron Burr $1,527.10
MERCHANDISE
Cash $10,549.00 Aaron Burr $1527.10
Bills Payable $1,648.00
AARON BURR
Merchandise $1527.10 Bills Receivable $1,527.10
CASH
Proprietor $14,000 Merchandise $10,549.00
  1. A summary of transactions for the year 1909 shows the following changes:—
Increases Decreases
Notes held $2,000
Notes outstanding $3,000
Cash $7,000
Due from customers $5,000
Due to creditors $6,000
Goods on hand $11,000

The balance sheet, Dec. 31, 1909, was as follows:—

Merchandise $16,000 Capital Stock $25,000
Bills Receivable $7,000 Bills Payable $7,000
Accounts Receivable $10,000 Accounts Payable $8,000
Fixtures $2,000 Surplus $3,000
Cash $8,000
$43,000 $43,000

Show the balance sheet for Dec. 31, 1908.

  1. Comparing two trial balances of the same business six months apart, you find the only changes to be an increase of debits to nominal accounts amounting to $12,000 and a corresponding increase of credits to accounts not nominal. What does this disclose? Illustrate by an imaginary case.
  2. What entries should you make for the following?
    1. Collecting an account previously written off to Bad Debts.
    2. Redeeming an endorsed discounted note on which the maker has defaulted.
    3. Paying wages to a cabinet maker regularly in your employ in a furniture factory when he has been working at sorting woods recently bought for manufacturing purposes.
    4. Paying off debt by a sinking fund previously accumulated and carried on both sides of the balance sheet.
    5. Depreciation on a machine found to be so poorly built that its life will be only half that assumed in previous allowances for its depreciation.
    6. Purchasing a new machine to replace, at the same purchase price, one superannuated.
    7. Purchasing out of an accumulated replacement fund a new machine that costs the same as the one which it replaces but will save one-fourth in the costs of operation.
    8. Purchasing in the natural process of maintenance a new machine that will do the same work as that which it replaces and at the same cost of operation but costs only three-fourths as much at purchase.
  1. Show what should be entered on the books for the collection of the last, and maturing, interest payment, and the payment of principal, on a bond with a book value on the preceding interest-date of $1,002.45, when the interest payment is $25.
  2. Schedule I was the balance sheet at the beginning of the year. Schedule Il is the trial balance at the end of the year. The proprietor, intending to close his business, has brought all matters to a settlement at the end of the year, and there are therefore no outstanding or accrued items, and no inventories. Give in the form most intelligible to persons not acquainted with accounts a history of the business for the year past. Then show entries for closing out the business, so that no balances remain on the books.
I
Real Estate $10,000 Proprietor $45,000
Merchandise $25,000 Bills Payable $5,000
Bills Receivable $8,000 Accounts Payable $12,000
Accounts Receivable $12,000 Accrued liabilities $610
Cash $7,610
$62,610 $62,610
II
Proprietor $43,000
Bills Payable $4,000
Accounts Payable $10,000
Real Estate $41,350
Bills Receivable $6400
Accounts Receivable $8,000
Cash $1,516
Repairs $88
Freight $249
Insurance $250
Expense $2,740
Purchases $64,550
Sales $67,167
Interest $740
Commission $236
$125,143 $125,1143

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 9, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1910-11; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1910), pp. 50-52.

Image Source: U.S. Patent Office. Patent for green eyeshade by W. F. Mahony in 1903. Wikipedia.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Public Finance

Harvard. American Taxation, course description, enrollment, and final exam. Bullock and Huse, 1909-1910

It is not only inquisitorial; but public morality forbids that the taxpayer should be forced to do any more hard swearing than he already does.

Time to add more economics course artifacts from Harvard in the early 20th century. By 1910 the division of labor regarding the economics curriculum was well-established with Charles Jesse Bullock serving as point man in public finance, especially for taxation.

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Readings

Cf.  “Taxation” bibliography by Charles Jesse Bullock in Francis G. Peabody, et al. A Guide to Reading in Social Ethics and Allied Subjects, Lists of Books and Articles Selected and Described for the Use of General Readers. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University, 1910, pp. 54-56.

________________________

Previously posted material
from earlier years

1906-07
1907-08
1908-09
________________________

Course Announcement and Description
1909-10

*16 1hf. American Taxation. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 9. Professor Bullock.

This course is designed for graduate students and for undergraduates who are especially interested in public finance. It cannot be elected by students who have taken Economics 7 [Public Finance course exclusively offered to undergraduates], except by express consent of the instructor.

The course is devoted to American Taxation, — federal, state, and local. One or more reports calling for independent investigation will ordinarily be required. Special emphasis will be placed upon questions of American finance.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VI, No. 29 (23 July 1909). History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government, and Economics, 1909-10, p. 60.

________________________

Course Enrollment
1909-10

Economics 16 1hf. Professor Bullock and Dr. [Charles Phillips] Huse. — American Taxation.

Total 31: 6 Graduates, 12 Seniors, 10 Juniors, 2 Sophomores, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1909-1910, p. 45.

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ECONOMICS 16
THE THEORY AND METHODS OF TAXATION
Mid-year Examination, 1909-10

  1. On what two distinct grounds has progressive taxation been advocated? Give your opinion of each.
  2. Discuss the incidence of a tax on the gross profits of a monopoly; on a real estate mortgage; on the land and buildings in a decadent city.
  3. Describe the Massachusetts method of taxing personal property, mortgages, income.
  4. What are the defects of the general property tax as administered in Massachusetts? What remedies have been suggested to correct these?
  5. Compare the British and the Prussian income taxes, pointing out similarities and differences. What lessons can be learned from a study of these taxes?
  6. What has been the experience of the United States with income taxes?
  7. Compare the customs systems of the United States and England. Write a brief history of each since 1890, for the purpose of bringing out its merits or defects.
  8. Describe the Massachusetts method of taxing corporations. How does the rate of the Massachusetts tax compare with that of the Federal corporation tax?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 9, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1910-11; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1910), p. 50.

Image Source: No Income Tax! by Charles Jay Taylor, a scene at the Income Tax Office with a crowd clamoring at the door where a notice states “One at a Time”; inside, a wealthy man is standing by a desk, on the floor at his feet, in his hat, are papers labeled “Personal Property Tax Sworn Off”, “Tax on Capital Sworn Off”, and “Tax on Investments”, he kisses the Bible while a government official sits at the desk with his right hand raised. Cover of Puck, v. 34, no. 881, (1894 January 24). Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

Categories
Exam Questions M.I.T. Social Insurance Suggested Reading Syllabus

M.I.T. Reading List and Final Examination for Social Insurance. Diamond and Summers, 1981

The following reading list and final exam were found in the Peter Diamond papers at Duke University’s Economists’ Papers Archive. No instructor is named on either the reading list or the exam. While transcribing for this post, I thought I had better base the small detail of the course instructor on some evidence. Checking the published course catalogue for the 1980-81 academic year at M.I.T., I was able to confirm my suspicion that Peter Diamond was indeed a course instructor. Not surprising in hindsight was that the course was co-taught with Lawrence H. Summers (a.k.a. “Larry” Summers) of most recent infamy.

On Summers’ Jeffrey Epstein connection: see the series of articles in the Harvard Crimson by Dhruv T. Patel and Cam N. Srivastava, Exhibit #1, Exhibit #2, Exhibit #3 (with Elise A. Spenner).

Once I go to the trouble of preparing an artifact for posting, I cannot resist the compulsion to share it. I ask my visitors to accept this post as a tribute to Peter Diamond’s contribution to graduate economics education à la M.I.T. rather than a rehabilitative look at the young Larry Summers in the Rear-view Mirror.

The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with the archival records. 

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14.476 Social Insurance

Prereq.: 14.121, 14.122
Year: G (2)

Theory of social insurance and examination of some of existing and proposed US programs including some subset of Social Security, Unemployment Compensation, Worker’s Compensation, National Health Insurance.

P. A. Diamond, L. H. Summers

Source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Bulletin 1980-81. Courses and Degree Programs Issue 1980-81, p. 513.

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14.476 Social Insurance
Spring 1981

(x) – optional

  1. Introduction
    1. (x) H. Kunreuther et al, Disaster Insurance Protection, Chapters 1, 10.
    2. (x) P. Diamond, “A Framework for Social Security Analysis,” Journal of Public Economics, 1977, 275-98.
    3. (x) Debreu, G., Theory of Value, Chapter 7. Also in P. Diamond and M. Rothschild, Uncertainty in Economics.
    4. (x) Feldstein, M., “The Theory of Social Insurance,” Public Policy, 1977.
    5. (x) FTC Staff Report, “Life Insurance Cost Disclosure.”
  2. Moral Hazard
    1. (x) M. Pauly, “Overinsurance and Public Provision of Insurance,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1974, 44-54. Also in Diamond and Rothschild.
    2. Shavell, “On Moral Hazard and Insurance,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, November 1979.
  3. Adverse Selection
    1. Diamond and Rothschild, Uncertainty in Economics, Chapters 14, 16.
    2. Akerlof, “The Market for Lemons,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1970, 488-500. Also in Diamond and Rothschild.
    3. Rothschild and J. Stiglitz, “Equilibrium in Competitive Insurance Markets,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1976, 269-650. Also in Diamond and Rothschild.
  4. Property Insurance
    1. Joskow, “Cartels, Competition and Regulation in the Property-Liability Insurance Industry,” Bell Journal, 1973, 375-427.
    2. (x) Stone, J., “Opinion, Findings and Decision on 1978 Automobile Insurance Rates, Part II.” Also in Division of Insurance, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Automobile Insurance Risk Classification: Equity and Accuracy.
    3. Smallwood, D., “Competition, Regulation, and Product Quality in the Automobile Insurance Industry,” in A. Phillips, ed., Promoting Competition in Regulated Markets.
    4. Shavell, “On Moral Hazard and Insurance,” mimeo version, Section 6, Experience Rating.
    5. State Farm Insurance Company, Research Department, “The Effect of a Suburban Driving Population on Urban Auto Insurance Premiums.”
    6. DuMouchel, “Computing Territorial Relativities which Include the Effects of Travel Between Territories on Claims Costs.”
  5. Pension and Social Security
    1. (x) Munnell, A., The Future of Social Security, Brookings.
    2. (x) Boskin, M., ed., The Crisis in Social Security, 1977.
    3. (x) Myers, R.J., Social Insurance.
    4. Pellechio, A., “Social Security Financing and Retirement Behavior,” AER, May 1979.
    5. Boskin, M., “Social Security and Retirement Decision,” Economic Inquiry, 1977.
    6. Quinn, J., “The Early Retirement Decision,” Journal of Human Resources, Summer 1977.
    7. Bulow, J., “Analysis of Pension Findings under ERISA,” mimeo, 1979, National Bureau of Economic Research working paper.
    8. Hagens, J., “Social Security as Retirement Insurance,” mimeo.
    9. Crawford and Lilien, “Social Security and the Retirement Decision,” mimeo.
    10. Mirrlees, J., “Intended Labour Supply.”
    11. Mirrlees J. and Diamond, P., “A Model of Social Insurance with Variable Retirement,” Journal of Public Economics, 1979, 295-336.
    12. __________ and __________, “Payroll Tax Financed Social Insurance with Variable Retirement.”
    13. __________ and __________, “Social Insurance where the Value of Retirement Varies.”
    14. __________ and __________, “Social Insurance with Variable Retirement and Private Savings.”
    15. HEW Task Force on the Treatment of Women Under Social Security, Report.
    16. HEW, “Social Security and Changing Roles of Men and Women.
    17. (x) 1979 Advisory Council on Social Security, Report.
    18. (x) National Commission on Social Security, Report.
    19. (x) President’s Commission Pension Policy, Interim Report.
  6. Unemployment
    1. (x) Unemployment Compensation: A Background Report, Background Paper 15, Congressional Budget Office, 1976.
    2. (x) “The Economics of Unemployment Insurance: A Symposium,” Industrial & Labor Relations Review, 30:4, July 1977.
    3. (x) Baily, M.N., “Unemployment Insurance as Insurance for Workers,” in J. Hight, ed., Symposium on the Economics of Unemployment Insurance.
    4. (x) Shavell, S., and L. Weiss, “The Optimal Payment of Unemployment Insurance Benefits over Time,” Journal of Political Economy, December 1979.
    5. (x) Hall, R., and D. Lilien, “Efficient Wage Bargains under Uncertain Supply and Demand,” AER, December 1979.
    6. Feldstein, M., “Private and Social Costs of Unemployment,” American Economic Review, May 1978, 155-8.
    7. Feldstein, M., “The Impact of Unemployment Insurance on Temporary Layoff Unemployment,” AER, March 1979.
    8. Clark, K., and L. Summers, “Labor Market Dynamics and Unemployment: A Reconsideration,” BPEA, 1979:1.
    9. Clark, K., and L. Summers, “Unemployment Insurance and Labor Market Transitions,” mimeo.
    10. (x) Baily, M., “On the Theory of Layoffs and Unemployment,” Econometrica, 1977, 1043-64.
    11. (x) Flemming, S., “Aspects of Optimal Unemployment Insurance, Journal of Public Economics, 1978, 403-425.
    12. (x) Jovanovic, B., “Job Matching and the Theory of Turnover,” Journal of Political Economy, 1979, 972-990.
    13. (x) “Firm-Specific Capital and Turnover,” Journal of Political Economy, 1979, 1246-1260.
    14. (x) Burdett, K. and Mortensen, D., “Search, Layoffs, and Labor Market Equilibrium.”
    15. (x) Holmstrom, B., “Equilibrium Long-Term Labor Contracts.”
    16. (x) Akerlof, G. and Main, B., “Pitfalls in Markov Modeling of Labor Market Stocks and Flows.”
    17. (x) __________, “Unemployment Spells and Job Tenures.”
    18. (x) National Commission on Unemployment Compensation, Report.
    19. Gustman, National Bureau of Economic Research working paper.
    20. Nickell, S., “The Effect of Unemployment and Related Benefits on the Duration of Unemployment,” Economic Journal, 89, 1979.
    21. Atkinson, A., “Unemployment Benefits and Incentives,” unpublished.

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14.476
Spring 1981
Final Exam

Answer four questions. They all count equally.

  1. “Unlike the case of adverse selection, with moral hazard but no adverse selection, competitive equilibrium is efficient.” Comment.
  2. Using a two period model of labor supply with uncertain incidence of (unobserved) disability, explain the effect of private savings opportunities on the ability of the government to provide disability insurance.
  3. Discuss the cases for and against cross-subsidization of different risk classes for automobile insurance (assuming that auto insurance as a whole breaks even).
  4. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of annual sharing of husband’s and wife’s earnings for Social Security purposes.
  5. Discuss the determinants of the optimal waiting period for unemployment benefits. Be clear about the criteria you are using and the separate moral hazard problems affected by the waiting period.

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Peter Diamond papers, Box 4. Folder “Teaching Material”.

Image Sources: Portrait of Peter Diamond (2003) by Donna Coveny/MIT in “An Interview with Peter Diamond”, Macroeconomic Dynamics, 11, 2007, 543-565. Portrait of Lawrence H. Summers (1982) from MIT Museum.

Categories
Methodology Northwestern Suggested Reading

Northwestern. Readings on Economic Theory and Methods. Clower, 1970

Most of the items on Robert Clower’s 1970 list of recommended readings regarding the methodology of economics will be familiar to regular visitors of this blog. Still I expect even specialists in matters methodological will find a few unfamiliar references in this Northwestern University course.

___________________________

Economics D-12
Economic Theory and Methods
Robert W. Clower, Fall 1970

METHODOLOGY

Recommended Readings

  1. Tarski, Alfred, Introduction to Logic and to the Methodology of Deductive Sciences, Oxford Univ Press, NY, 2nd ed., 1946, Ch. VI.
  2. Polya, G., Patterns of Plausible Inference, Vol. II of Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning, Princeton U Press, Princeton, N.J. 1954. Chs. XII and XIII.
  3. Russell, B., “Non-Demonstrative Inference,” Basic Writings of B. Russell, Egner and Devonn, eds. Pp. 647-659.
  4. Cairnes, J.E., The Character and Logical Method of Political Economy, MacMillan and Co, London, 1875, 2nd ed.
  5. Keynes, John Neville, The Scope and Method of Political Economy, 4th ed., MacMillan and Co, London, 1917.
  6. Weber, Max, The Methodology of the Social Sciences, trans. and edited by Edward A. Shils and Henry A. Finch, the Free Press, Glencoe, Ill., 1949.
  7. Kuhn, T.S., The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Chicago, 1962.
  8. Kaufmann, Felix, Methodology of the Social Sciences, The Humanities Press, NY, 1958. Ch XVI.
  9. Robbins, Lionel, An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science, 2nd ed., Macmillan and Co, London, 1940.
  10. von Mises, Ludwig, Human Action — A Treatise on Economics.
  11. Hayek, Friedrich A., The Counter Revolution of Science, essay “Scientism and the Study of Society,” reprinted from Economica (Aug., 1942; Feb., 1943, Feb ., 1944).
  12. Kirzner, Israel M., The Economic Point of View, Van Nostrand, 1960.
  13. Papandreou, Andreas, “Types of Empirical Relevance in Modern Economics,” Economica Internazionale, v.2 (Maggio, 1952), 3-14.
  14. Friedman, Milton, Essays in Positive Economics, U. of Chicago, Chicago, 1953, ch. 1.
  15. Rotwein, Eugene, “On the Methodology of Positive Economics,” The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Nov., 1959.
  16. Koopmans, Tjalling C., Three Essays on the State of Economic Science, McGraw-Hill, NY, 1957, Essay II.
  17. Clower, R.W., “Monetary History and Positive Economics,” Journal of Economic History, September 1964, pp. 364-380.
  18. Nagel, Ernest, “Assumptions in Economic Theory,” AER, LIII, 2, May, 1963, pp. 211-219.
  19. Samuelson, Paul A., “Problems of Methodology: Discussion,” AER, LIII, 2, May, 1963, pp. 231-236.
  20. Machlup, Fritz, “Professor Samuelson on Theory and Realism,” AER, LIV, 5, September, 1964, pp. 733-736.
  21. Samuelson, Paul A., “Theory and Realism: A Reply,” AER, LIV, 5, September, 1964, pp. 736-739.
  22. Helmer, Olaf, and Nicholas Rescher, “On the Epistemology of the Inexact Sciences,” Management Science, Vol. 6, No. 1, Oct. 1959, pp. 25-52.
  23. Gordon, D.F., “Operational Propositions in Economic Theory,” JPE, 63, pp. 150-161, April, 1955.
  24. Stigler, George J., Five Lectures on Economic Problems, Longmans, Green and Co., 1949, Lecture IV.
  25. Keynes, J.M., “Alfred Marshall,” Essays in Biography.

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Robert W. Clower papers, Box 4, Folder “Econ D-12. Economic Theory and Methods, 1968-1970. Syllabus, Strotz notes”.

Image Source: Robert W. Clower page at The History of Economic Thought website.

Categories
Chicago Exam Questions Theory

Chicago. Preliminary Exam in Economic Theory, Summer 1956

One oddity in the economic theory preliminary examination from the summer quarter of 1956 transcribed below is that the True-False-Uncertain section consisted of 23 questions for a total of 140 points.

The mimeographed copy of the exam was fished from the papers of Zvi Griliches (U. Chicago Ph.D., 1957) at Harvard University Archives.

_________________________

Previously transcribed and posted Preliminary and Field Exams from the economics graduate program of the University of Chicago

Note: The chronological ordering of quarters at the University of Chicago during a calendar year goes Winter, Spring, Summer, Autumn. For this reason the following is arranged chronologically.

_________________________

ECONOMIC THEORY
Preliminary Examination
Summer Quarter 1956

Write your number and not your name on your examination paper. Answer all questions. Time: 4 hours.
Total points: 240.

I. (140 points) True, False, or Uncertain. Explain your answer in each case. Your score will depend heavily on your explanations.
  1. If a firm is producing in the region of rising marginal costs, the firm is realizing profits.
  2. If a commodity has a negative income elasticity, the function relating price and quantity consumed may have a positive slope.
  3. If two goods are substitutes in consumption, a fall in the price of one will always result in a fall in the price of the other.
  4. A demand schedule for labor shows the amount of labor in physical units that will be taken at each wage. A demand schedule for capital shows the amount of capital in physical units that will be taken at each interest rate.
  5. For a single consumer, the sum of the income elasticities of demand for all commodities is unity, while the sum of their price elasticities is zero.
  6. An excise tax affects the allocation of resources among different uses, whereas an income tax does not.
  7. The competitive firm attempts to equalize price, marginal cost and average cost.
  8. The marginal cost of producing a commodity is equal to the price of any one factor divided by its marginal physical product, even though many factors are used in producing the commodity.
  9. An effective price ceiling on cotton, i.e., one that holds its price below the free market level, will decrease the market price of textiles.
  10. A subsidy of a fixed number of dollars per unit of output might be used as part of a program to control a monopoly in the public interest.
  11. If the “true cost of living” for a consumer is interpreted to mean the cost of staying on a given indifference surface, then upper and lower limits for the change in a consumer’s true cost of living between period 0 and period 1 are given respectively by the Laspeyres and Paasche indexes using the consumer’s own purchases as weights.
  12. The supply curve for the output of a monopolist is inelastic at the point of maximum monopoly profit.
  13. Resources are seriously misallocated in the broadcasting industry in the U.S., through the fact that the cost of broadcasts is borne by advertisers rather than by listeners and viewers directly.
  14. The rate of interest in a stationary state would be zero.
  15. It is a convention in economics to draw consumption indifference curves convex to the origin, but we have no way of knowing whether they really are.
  16. Assume that if the prices of farm products fall farmers will expend more effort in an attempt to maintain their income. Under these circumstances, a reduction in effective farm price supports will increase the volume of farm surpluses.
  17. If a worker’s utility function in the two dimensions, (1) leisure and (2) all other goods and services, is homogeneous of first degree, then his supply curve of labor will be backward sloping.
  18. If it takes one day to catch a beaver and two to catch a deer, one deer will exchange for two beavers.
  19. Almost all railroads are reported to have gross revenues from dining car service that are less than the direct expenses of providing the service. In their own interest the railroads should increase the price of dining car meals.
  20. Because of the facts stated in number 19, the railroads should discontinue dining car service.
  21. The elasticity of a linear supply function that passes through the origin is always unity.
  22. The price of haircuts in Chicago is approximately 40 per cent higher than in New York; therefore, average earnings of barbers in Chicago are higher than in New York.
  23. Take it as a fact that grade one cocoa commands a premium on world markets over inferior grades; that the Nigerian Cocoa Marketing Board (which is the sole purchaser from producers) has set a differential between grades in prices paid to producers wider than the world market differential; and that they have succeeded in this way in raising sharply the proportion of Nigerian production which is grade one. By so doing, they have greatly improved the efficiency of the Nigerian economy.
II. (60 points)

The competitive private enterprise form of economic organization is regarded by many economists as a sort of ideal which it would be desirable to approximate in practice.

(a) On a purely theoretical level, use the tools of economic analysis to explain to a skeptic precisely in what way(s) and why the competitive private enterprise form is so good. State whatever assumptions and define whatever terms you require, and state explicitly the criteria of excellence that you are using.

(b) Assume an economy that is perfectly competitive. What important economic problems, if any, may still be unsolved despite the fact that perfect competition has been achieved? Explain in each case why the problem is important and why perfect competition does not solve it, or explain why there are no unsolved problems.

III. (40 points)

Some prominent manufacturers such as Sunbeam, Eastman Kodak, and Bayer Aspirin, set minimum prices below which retailers may not resell their products. In most states an agreement to this effect between a manufacturer and some retailers is legally enforceable on all retailers.

(a) What is the probable effect of this practice on the net rate of return on factors of production used in retailing?

(b) What is the probable effect of this practice on the net profits of the manufacturers concerned?

Explain your answers fully.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Zvi Griliches. Box 129. Folder “Preliminary Examinations, 1955-1957”.

Image Source: University of Chicago Photographic Archive, Zvi Griliches portrait (undated), apf1-06565, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

Categories
Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Course Readings for Economics and Social Ethics, 1920-1921

Old Gate at Harvard College (August 6, 1920)

The artifact transcribed and linked for this post was found in last of ten boxes in the Harvard Archives collection “Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003”. I had worked through the previous nine boxes containing folders chronologically ordered by academic year. Box 10 contained five folders of poorly sorted course materials that were undated, requiring some effort to establish a probable time range for any of the artifacts. 

In the first folder I found an eight page typed list of courses, with the names and assigned readings (for most of the courses offered to both undergraduate and graduate students, though no reading lists for the courses that were primarily offered for graduate students) which was relatively easy to date by looking at the course staffing announced in the annual catalogue for the Division of History, Government, and Economics, 1920-21. There is one reference to Taussig’s third edition (Dec. 1921) in the list which would suggest that the list was probably prepared for the 1921-22 or 1922-23 year using materials gathered from the earlier 1920-21 academic year. But the perfect correspondence of course staffing between the transcribed list below and the published announcement for 1920-21 is sufficient for me to assign the 1920-21 academic year to the post.

Square brackets […] have been used to distinguish additional information from the typed list. All explicit titles have been linked, increasing the value of this post considerably.

______________________

Course Descriptions for
Economics and Social Ethics,
1920-21

Division of History, Government, and Economics, 1920-21 published in the Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XVII (May 22, 1920) No. 27.

______________________

One Harvard Graduate’s Memoir
of the 1920s

Carlson, Valdemar. “The Education of an Economist before the Great Depression: Harvard’s Economics Department in the 1920’s.” The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, vol. 27, no. 1, 1968, pp. 101–12.

______________________

ASSIGNED READINGS IN ECONOMICS

A. PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICS

[Assistant] Professor [Harold Hitchings] Burbank and assistants

Readings:

Taussig, [Frank William], Principles of Economics

[First Edition (1911): Volume I; Volume II]
[Second Edition, Revised (1915): Volume I; Volume II]
[Third Edition, (Dec. 1921): Volume I; Volume II]
[Fourth Edition (1939) requires readers to set up an individual account at archive.org for temporary access: Volume I; Volume II]

[Questions on the Principles of Economics by Edmund Ezra Day and Joseph Stancliffe Davis (Revised for the thrid edition of Taussig’s Principles of Economics) edition, 1922.]

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

1a. ACCOUNTING

Asst. Professor [Joseph Stancliffe] Davis

Readings:

[none listed]

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

1b. STATISTICS

Asst. Professor [Joseph Stancliffe] Davis

Readings:

Secrist, Introduction to Statistical Methods, 1-77, 116-424

King, Elements of Statistical Method, pp.1-19, 64-82, 167-196

Elderton, W. P. and E. M., Primer of Statistics, ch. 1-4

U.S. Census, The Story of the Census, 1790-1915

Field, “Some Advantages of the Logarithmic Scale in Statistical Diagrams,” Journ. Pol. Econ., Oct. 1917

Persons, W. M., Measuring and Forecasting General Business Conditions

Joint Committee on Graphic Standards, Preliminary Report
[Publications of the American Statistical Association 14, no. 112 (1915): 790–97. https://doi.org/10.2307/2965153]

Additional;

Unprescribed portions of King and Secrist

List of references appended to chapters in King and Secrist

References for Statistical Work (Prepared for Economics 1b, 1920)

Questions and Exercises in Statistics (Prepared for Economics 1b, 1920)

The Review of Economic Statistics

Lists of references in specific fields

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

2a. EUROPEAN INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

Dr. [Edmund Earle] Lincoln

Readings:

See printed bibliography on file in Tutorial Library

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

2b. ECONOMIC HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES

Dr. [Edmund Earle] Lincoln

Readings:

See printed bibliography on file in Tutorial Library

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

3. MONEY, BANKING, AND COMMERCIAL CRISES

Professor [Allyn Abbott] Young

Readings:

[none listed]

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

4a. ECONOMICS OF TRANSPORTATION

Professor [William Zebina] Ripley

Readings:

Ripley, Railroad Rates, vol. 1, (not vol. II)

Ripley, Railway Problems

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

4b. ECONOMICS OF CORPORATIONS

Professor [William Zebina] Ripley

Readings:

Ripley, Trusts, Pools, and Corporations

Haney, Business Organization and Combination

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

5a. PUBLIC FINANCE, EXCLUSIVE OF TAXATION

Asst. Professor [Harold Hitchings] Burbank

Readings:

Bastable, Public Finance

Bullock, Selected Readings in Public Finance
[Second edition, 1921]

Daniel [sic], Public Finance [Possibly: Winthrop More Daniels, Elements of Public Finance (1899)]

Adams, H. C., Public Finance [sic]
[Probably: The Science of Finance, An Investigation of Public Expenditures and Public Revenues (1912)]

Seligman, Essays in Taxation

Darwin, Municipal Trade

Stourm, The Budget

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

5b. THE PRINCIPLES AND METHODS OF TAXATION

Asst. Professor [Harold Hitchings] Burbank

Readings:

Bastable, Selections on Public Finance

Bullock, Selected Readings in Public Finance
[Second edition, 1921]

Seligman, Essays in Taxation

Means, Methods of Taxation

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

6a. TRADE-UNIONISM AND ALLIED PROBLEMS

Professor [William Zebina] Ripley

Readings:

Webb, Industrial Democracy

Commons, Trade Unionism

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

7a. THEORIES OF VALUE AND DISTRIBUTION

Professor [Edmund Ezra] Day

Readings:

Marshall, Principles of Economics

Carver, The Distribution of Wealth

Taussig, Principles of Economics (1921 edition)
[Third Edition, (Dec. 1921): Volume I; Volume II]

Clark, The Distribution of Wealth

Walker, Political Economy

Fisher, The Rate of Interest

Böhm-Bawerk, Capital and Interest

Fetter, Economic Principles

Davenport, Economics of Enterprise

Veblen, The Theory of Business Enterprise

Hobson, Work and Wealth

Anderson, Social Value

Anderson, The Value of Money

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

7b. SOCIALISM, ANARCHISM, THE SINGLE TAX

Professor [Thomas Nixon] Carver

Readings:

See printed circular on file in the Tutorial Library

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

8. PRINCIPLES OF SOCIOLOGY

Professor [Thomas Nixon] Carver

Readings:

Bristol, Social Adaptation

Carver, Sociology and Social Progress

Sumner, Folkways

Spencer, Principles of Sociology [Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3]

Carver, Essays in Social Justice

Giddings, Sociology

Tardl [sic], Social Gains [sic]   [Looks like a typographical error. Probably Social Laws, An Outline of Sociology by Gabriel Tarde (1899 translation from the French)[

Kidd, Social Evolution

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

9a. ECONOMICS OF AGRICULTURE

Professor [Thomas Nixon] Carver

Readings:

Carver, Principles of Rural Economics

Carver, Selected Readings in Rural Economics

Various bulletins and reports

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

9b. INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND TARIFF POLICIES

Professor [Frank William] Taussig

Readings:

Taussig, Free Trade, the Tariff and Reciprocity

Mill, Principles of Political Economy

Smith, Wealth of Nations

State Papers and Speeches on the Tariff

Taussig, Selected Readings (to appear shortly)

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

10. ECONOMIC THOUGHT AND INSTITUTIONS

Dr. [Arthur Eli] Monroe

Readings:

Aristotle, Politics, Bk. I, ch. 1-11; Bk. II, ch. 1-6; IV, ch. 11-13; V, ch. 1-9

Maine, Ancient Law, ch. 5-8

Ashley, Economic History of England, vol. I, ch. 3

Mun: England’s Treasure by Forraign Trade

Turgot, Reflections on the Formation and Distribution of Wealth

Smith, Wealth of Nations, Bk. I, 1-3, 5-9, 11 (secs. 1,2)

Smith, Wealth of Nations, Bk. II, 3-5; IV, 1, 2, 9

Malthus, Essay on Population, [Vol. I, 6th ed. ] Bk I, 1, 2; Bk. II, 13; [Vol. II, 6th ed.] III, 2, 3; Bk. IV, 1, 2, 3. (Or selections in Ashley’s Classics)

Mill, Political Economy [Vol. I], Bk. I, 5; Bk: II, 11; Bk. III, 1-5

Mill, Political Economy [Vol. II], Bk. IV, 3,4; Bk. V, 8, 10, 11 (sec. 1-9)

List, National System of Political Economy, Bk. II, 2-5, 7

Carlyle, Past and Present (selected chap.) or
Ruskin, Unto this Last, ch. 1, 3

 Bücher, Industrial Evolution, chs. 3, 4

Ashley, Economic Organization of England, ch. 1-7

Wells, Mankind in the Making

(Several optional assignments to be announced later)

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

11. ECONOMIC THEORY

Professor [Frank William] Taussig
[“Maurice Beck Hexter’s notes from Harvard University, 1921-22” and “Supplemental notes from F.W. Taussig’s Course in economic theory with contributions by A.A. Young” edited by Marianne Johnson and Warren J. Samuels in Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology, Vol. 28-C (2010), pp. 11-176]

Readings:

Ricardo, Principles of Political Economy
[Third edition, 1821]

Mill, Principles of Political Economy

Marshall, Principles of Economics

Clark, Distribution of Wealth

Böhm-Bawerk, Positive Theory of Capital

Fetter, Principles of Economics

Hobson, Work and Wealth

Veblen, Theory of Business Enterprise

Divers separate articles and chapters in other books

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

9a. THE DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH

Professor [Thomas Nixon] Carver

Readings:

Carver, Distribution of Wealth

Marshall, Principles of Economics

Böhm-Bawerk, Positive Theory of Capital

Fisher, The Rate of Interest

Clark, The Distribution of Wealth

Taussig, Work [sic] and Capital [Wages and Capital]

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

14. HISTORY AND LITERATURE OF ECONOMICS TO THE YEAR 1848

Professor [Charles Jesse] Bullock

PRIMARILY FOR GRADUATES

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

15. MODERN SCHOOLS OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT

Professor [Allyn Abbott] Young

PRIMARILY FOR GRADUATES

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

31. PUBLIC FINANCE

Professor [Charles Jesse] Bullock

PRIMARILY FOR GRADUATES

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

32. ECONOMICS OF AGRICULTURE, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO AMERICAN CONDITIONS

Professor [Thomas Nixon] Carver

PRIMARILY FOR GRADUATES

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

33.  INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND TARIFF PROBLEMS

Professor [Frank William] Taussig

PRIMARILY FOR GRADUATES

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

34. PROBLEMS OF LABOR

Professor [William Ripley] Ripley

PRIMARILY FOR GRADUATES

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

35a. BUSINESS CORPORATIONS

Asst. Professor Davis

PRIMARILY FOR GRADUATES

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

35b. BUSINESS COMBINATIONS

Asst. Professor [Joseph Stancliffe] Davis

PRIMARILY FOR GRADUATES

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

36a. PUBLIC OWNERSHIP: HISTORICAL, THEORETICAL, AND PRACTICAL ASPECTS

Dr. [Edmund Earle] Lincoln

PRIMARILY FOR GRADUATES

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

36b. PUBLIC REGULATION AND CONTROL OF PRIVATE INDUSTRY WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO PUBLIC SERVICE INDUSTRIES

Dr. [Edmund Earle] Lincoln

PRIMARILY FOR GRADUATES

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

37. COMMERCIAL CRISES

Professor [Warren Milton] Persons

PRIMARILY FOR GRADUATES

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

38. SELECTED MONETARY PROBLEMS

Professor [Allyn Abbott] Young

PRIMARILY FOR GRADUATES

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

[ASSIGNED READINGS]
IN SOCIAL ETHICS

1. SOCIAL PROBLEMS AND SOCIAL POLICY

Asst. Professor [Robert Franz] Foerster and Asst. Professor [James] Ford

Readings:

Booth, Life and Labour of the People of London, vol. 1 of Series 1, 3-8, 24-73, 131-171

Conklin, Heredity and Environment, rev. ed. pp.197-242, 256-258, 297-306, 416-456, 475-497

Dewey, and Tufts, Ethics, ch. 15, pp. 297-304; ch. 18-26, pp. 364-606

Flexner, and Baldwin, Juvenile Courts and Probation, Pts.1, 2, pp. 3-78

Oppenheimer, The Rationale of Punishment, pp. 1-4, 171-175, 234-295

Spencer, Principles of Sociology, vol. 1, pt. 3, ch. 9 and 12, pp. 686-724, 745-756

Warner, American Charities, 3rd ed., ch. 4, 6-10, 12, 14-15, 17-22, pр. 64-90, 113-225, 248-284, 305-346, 363-476

Wines, Punishment and Reformation, ch. 8, 10, 12-14 (3rd ed.) pp. 133-167, 199-234, 265-412

Committee of Fifty to Study the Liquor Problem, Summary of Investigations, pp. 15-134

Burritt, Dennison, Gay, Heilman, and Kendall, Profit Sharing, pp. 159-257

Commons and Andrews, Principles of Labor Legislation, pp. 1-414, 454-464

Fay, Cooperation at Home and Abroad, pp. 273-285, 310-354

Foerster, A Promising Venture in Industrial Partnership, Annals American Academy of Political and Social Science, Pub. 703, November 1912, pp. 97-103

Hoxie, Scientific Management and Labor, pp. 25-139

King, Industry and Humanity, ch. 7, 8, pp. 167-303; ch. 10, pp. 364-390

British Labor party, Sub-committee on Reconstruction, report, Labor and the New Social Order, reprint from the New Republic, Feb. 16, 1918, pp. 12

Lee, Play in Education, pp. 319-391, 423-494

Schaeffle, Quintessence of Socialism, pp. 39-127

Schloss, Industrial Remuneration, pp. 286-309

Spargo, Applied Socialism, pp. 87-325

Veiller, Housing Reform, pp. 3-190

Williams, Profit-sharing, pp. 17-42, 146-171

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

4. AMERICAN POPULATION PROBLEMS: IMMIGRATION AND THE NEGRO

Asst. Professor [Robert Franz] Foerster

Reading:

Byington, Homestead: The Households of a Mill Town, ch. 9-11, pp.131-157

Fairchild, Immigration, ch. 1-5, 7, 9, 10, 12-14, 16, pp. 1-105, 123-143, 163-212, 233-368, 393-415

Foerster, The Italian Emigration of Our Times, ch. 21-24, pp. 415-525

Ibid. Quarterly Journal of Economics, Aug.1913, Review of Hourwich’s book on immigration, pp. 656-671

Hourwich, Immigration and Labor, ch. 4, 5, 12-15, 18, 23, pp. 82-112, 284-352, 375-383, 489-501, 414-431 and in chapter 21, Report of the MASS. COMMISSION ON IMMIGRATION, 1914, pp. 54-104

Millis, The Japanese Problem in the United States, ch. 1, pp. 1-29

Reely, Selected Articles on Immigration (Debaters’ Handbook) pp. 131-134, 200-204, 219-222, 225-229

Roberts, The New Immigration, ch. 9, 11-13, pp. 124-138, 156-199

Ross, The Old World in the New, ch. 1-4, 6, 11, pp. 1-92, 120-140, 259-281

U. S. Immigration Commission, vol. 39, pp. 5-81, 127-129

Walker, Discussions in Economics and Statistics, vol. 2, pp. 417-426

Warne, Slav Invasion, pp. 28-38, 47-83

U. S. Immigration Commission, vol. 1, pp. 491-541; vol. 4, pp. 239-281, 337-348

Ovington, Half a Man, ch. 4-8, pp. 75-217

Shaler, The Neighbor, pp. 278-336

Stone, Studies in the American Race Problem, pp. 149-208

Tillinghast, The Negro in Africa and America, Amer. Econ. Review, May 1902, pp. 28-45, 60-79, 102-170

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

6. UNEMPLOYMENT AND RELATED PROBLEMS OF THE WORKING CLASSES

Asst. Professor [Robert Franz] Foerster

Readings:

Beveridge, Unemployment, pp. 1-237

Webb, Seasonal Trades, ch. 1, 2, pp. 1-90

U. S. Bureau of Labor, Report on Women and Child Wage-Earners, vol. 7, pp. 43-60, 64-67, 177-192

Barnes, The Longshoremen, pp. 55-92, 199-206, 210-227

Chicago, Report of the Mayor’s Commission on Unemployment, 1914, pp. 107-165

U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bulletin 206, B. Lasker, British System of Labor Exchanges, pp. 1-56

Kellor, Out of Work, Ch. 6, pp. 157-193

Gibbon, Unemployment Insurance, pp. 187-203

Dawson, Vagrancy Problem, ch. 4, 11, pp.104-132; 229-249

Ibid. Social Insurance in Germany, ch. 2-4, 7-9, pp. 22-127,182-265

Gibbon, Medical Benefit …Germany and Denmark, ch. 2, 6, 9, 12, 18 pp. 10-14, 43-52, 81-106, 125-131, 192-203

Rubinow, Standards of Health Insurance, Ch. 5-9, pp.67-152

Belloc, The Servile State, pp. 155-189

24th Annual Report of the U.S. Commissioner of Labor, 1909, Vol. 2, pp. 1499-1530, 1540-1544

Foerster, The British National Insurance Act, Q. J. of Econ., Feb. 1912, pp. 275-298, 305-312

Bernhard, Undesirable Results of German Social Legislation, pp. 39-75

Mass. Commission on Old Age Pensions, 1910 Report, pp. 112-122, 164-203, 224-259, 268-284, 300-344

U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Bulletin 195, Unemployment in the United States, 1916

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 10, Folder “Economics, undated (1 of 5)”.

Image Source: Old Gate at Harvard College (Leon H. Abdalian, photographer). Boston Public Library Arts Department.  [No Copyright – United States]