Author: Irwin Collier

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard History of Economics

Harvard. History of economics, Pre-1848. Bullock, 1912-1913

Xenophon

Before he went off to the University of Wisconsin to study economics, Harvard’s professor of economics for public finance and the history of economics, Charles J. Bullock, taught high-school Latin and Greek. I wonder who would have been among the last American-born economists able to read Xenophon in the original. 

The mid-year and year-end exams for Bullock’s 1912-13 course is the new content transcribed for this post. The survey course was taken by seven graduate students.

________________________

FORMER WILLIAMS TEACHER IS DEAD
Prof. Charles J. Bullock,Retired Harvard Economist,
on Faculty Here at Century’s Turn.

The North Adams Transcript (March 20, 1941)

Dr. Charles Jesse Bullock, professor emeritus of economics at Harvard university, a nationally known tax authority and a former member of the Williams college faculty, died Monday at his home in Hingham. He was 72 years old.

From 1899 until 1903 when he went to Harvard, Dr. Bullock taught at Williams, first as an assistant professor of economics and sociology and then as Orrin Sage professor of history and political science. He became a full professor at Harvard in 1908 and continued to teach there until 1935 when he took the title of professor emeritus.

Prof. Bullock was the author of many books and articles on economics. In the presidential campaign year of 1936, after his retirement, he served as chief of the research division of the Republican National committee and conferred with Alfred M. Landon, the Republican candidate, on many occasions.

A native of Boston, Dr. Bullock was graduated from Boston university in 1889. He taught Greek and Latin in New England schools and served as principal of the Middlebury, Vt. high school before entering the University of Wisconsin to study economics. He earned a doctorate there in 1895.

Prof. Bullock returned to Williamstown in 1921 to receive an honorary degree of doctor of laws from Williams.

Dr. Bullock married Helena M. Smith of Washington in 1895 and they had one daughter, Grace Helena Bullock.

________________________

History of economics courses
pre-1911/12

Links to earlier course material for History of Economics at Harvard, 1883-84 through 1910-11.

_______________________

Economics 14
Course Description
1912-13

[Economics] 14 (formerly 15). History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848. Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 11. Professor Bullock.

The purpose of this course is to trace the development of economic thought from classical antiquity to the middle of the nineteenth century. Emphasis is placed upon the relation of economics to philosophical and political theories, as well as to political and industrial conditions.
A considerable amount of reading of prominent writers will be assigned, and opportunity given for the preparation of theses. Much of the instruction is necessarily given by means of lectures.

Source: Harvard University. Division of History, Government, and Economics, Courses of Instruction, 1912–13, pp. 63-64.

_______________________

Economics 14
Course Enrollment
1912-13

Economics 14 (formerly 15). Professor Bullock. History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848.

Total 7: 7 Graduates.

Source: Harvard University. Reports of the President and the Treasurer of Harvard College, 1912-13, p. 58.

_______________________

ECONOMICS 14
Mid-year Examination
1912-13

  1. What significant analyses of economic structure and processes were made by the writers of ancient and mediaeval times?
  2. Discuss the following statement concerning Greek economic thought: “The military constitution of society, and the existence of slavery, which was related to it, turned away the habitual attention of thinkers from that domain.”
  3. In the same connection, discuss the following: “The practical economic enterprises of Greek and Roman antiquity could not, even independently of any special adverse influences, have competed in magnitude of scale or variety of resources with those of modern times.”
  4. Write a critical estimate of Xenophon’s treatise on “The Revenues of Athens.”
  5. To what extent were ancient and medieval economic thought influenced by the concept of an order of nature?
  6. What were Aristotle’s views concerning economic and political equilibrium?
  7. How far has our knowledge of mediaeval economic thought been advanced by the application of the doctrine of the relativity of economic thought?
  8. What justification is there for regarding the sixteenth century as the beginning of a new era in political and economic thought?

Source: Harvard University. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 9, bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1912-13. 

_______________________

ECONOMICS 14
Year-end Examination
1912-13

  1. What significant analyses of economic structure and functions were made by the mercantilists?
  2. Discuss the development of economic opinions as reflected in the writings of Hales, Bodin, Montchrétien, Mun, Petty, Boisguilbert, Cantillon, Vanderlint, and Hume.
  3. Explain the structure and purpose of the “Wealth of Nations,” and give a brief analysis of the doctrines of the first two books.
  4. Discuss the treatment of the subject of population by Aristotle, the Schoolmen, Cantillon, Smith, and Malthus.
  5. At what points did the economic theories of Ricardo differ from those of Adam Smith?

Source: Harvard University Examinations. Papers set for final examinations in history, history of science, government, economics, philosophy, social ethics, education, fine arts, music in Harvard College (June 1913), p. 54.

Image Source: Xenophon. From the statue of Xenophon by Hugo Haerdtl that is located on the southern entry ramp to the Austrian Parliament (Dr.-Karl-Renner-Ring 3, im 1. Wiener Gemeindebezirk Innere Stadt).

________________________

Earlier versions of the course
by year and instructor

1899-1900. The History and Literature of Economics to the close of the Eighteenth Century. [William James Ashley]

1901-02. History and Literature of Economics, to the opening of the Nineteenth Century. [Charles Whitney Mixter]

1903-04. History and Literature of Economics to the opening of the Nineteenth Century [Charles Jesse Bullock]

1904-05. History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848. [Charles Jesse Bullock]

1905-06. History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848. [Charles Jesse Bullock]

1906-07. History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848 [Charles Jesse Bullock]

1907-08. History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848 [Charles Jesse Bullock]

1908-09. History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848 [Charles Jesse Bullock]

1909-10. History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848 [Charles Jesse Bullock]

1910-11. History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848
[Charles Jesse Bullock]

1911-12. History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848
[Charles Jesse Bullock]

Categories
Macroeconomics Northwestern Syllabus Theory

Northwestern. Syllabus for Income and Employment Theory. Clower, 1958

By chance I found the announcement of Robert Clower’s appointment to chair the Northwestern economics department while pimping out the 1958 syllabus for his course on income and employment theory. Some academics are born to be chair, some achieve that chair status, while others need to have the job of chair thrust upon them.

Once you have digested that amuse-bouche, you will be served the main course, Clower’s syllabus below.

_______________________

N.U. Appoints New Chairman in Economics

Robert W. Clower, associate professor of economics at
Northwestern university, has been appointed chairman of the economics department to replace Prof. Richard B. Heflebower, who will be on leave of absence for a year to engage in research.
Professor Clower, 1923 Orrington av., came to the university last year from the state college of Washington, where he was assistant professor since 1952. From 1954 to 1956 he was a visiting professor at the University of Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan.
The research project of Prof. Heflebower is on certain dynamic aspects of price and output determination in markets where sellers are relatively few.

Source: Chicago Sunday Tribune. 3 August 1958.

_______________________

SYLLABUS
Economic Theory:
Income & Employment

Economics C-11
Summer 1958

Instructor: Mr. Clower

General Information and Requirements

Texts:

Kurihara, Introduction to Keynesian Dynamics.
Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money

Supplementary Reading:

A.E.A. Series Readings on the Theory of Income Distribution
A.E.A. Series Readings in Business Cycle Theory
A.E.A. Series Readings in Monetary Theory
Harris, Seymour E., The New Economics
Hansen, Alvin H., Business Cycles and National Income
Duesenberry, J.S., Income, Saving, and the Theory of Consumer Behavior
Domar, E.D., Essays in the Theory of Economic Growth
Hicks, J.R., A Contribution to the Theory of the Trade Cycle
Kurihara, [K.K.] Post Keynesian Economics
Baumol, W.J., Economic Dynamics
Patinkin, D., Money, Interest and Prices
Clower, R.W., “The Dynamics of Investment,” American Economic Review, March, 1954

“Productivity, Thrift and the Rate of Interest,” Economic Journal, March, 1954
Friedman, [M.] A Theory of the Consumption Function
Klein, L.R., The Keynesian Revolution
Lange, O., Price Flexibility and Employment

Lectures will be presented on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday of each week. Wednesdays will be reserved for midterm examinations and for consultation about projects.

Students should become familiar with the general content of all the works cited above as “Supplementary Reading,” and they should acquire a thorough grasp of relevant portions of these works that are cited in connection with weekly assignments given below. Do not ask for special details; such matters should be settled by each student for himself.

Students are required to submit as projects for the session three short papers (six to twenty typewritten pages) chosen from the following topics:

        1. Keynes and the Classics
        2. The Consumption Function
        3. Keynesian Unemployment
        4. The Inducement to Invest
        5. Growth Models
        6. The Business Cycle

Exact titles are to be decided by the student in consultation with the instructor. Topics may be oriented toward applications, or theory, or both, and may be narrowed down to almost any desired degree. Papers must be submitted in a form fit for publication (see any reputable journal for ideas on this) even though their content may fall well short of this standard. The first essay is due at the end of the fourth week; the second at the end of the sixth week; and third at the end of the final examination (Saturday, August 16, 10:30 – 12:30 a.m.). Late papers will not be accepted. Between one-third and one-half weight will be given to these papers in determining final grades for the course.

Weekly Assignments

Week I.
Introduction.

Text assignments:

Kurihara, Preface and Chapter I;
Keynes, Preface and Book I.

Supplementary readings:

Hansen, Business Cycles, Chapters 1-5, 25-30.
Baumol, Economic Dynamics.
Harris, The New Economics, Parts one and two.
Klein, Keynesian Revolution

Week II.
Consumer Expenditure.

Text Assignments:

Kurihara, Chapter 2;
Keynes, Chapter 6 and Book III.

Supplementary readings:

Kurihara, Post Keynesian Economics
Friedman, Consumption Function
Hicks, Trade Cycle
Duesenberry, Income, Saving, etc.

***Hour Examination: Wednesday, July 2.***

Week III.
Investment Expenditure.

Text assignments:

Kurihara, Chapter 3;
Keynes, Chapters 11 and 12.

Supplementary reading:

Hicks, Trade Cycle.
Clower, “Dynamics of Investment.”
Klein, Keynesian Revolution.

Week IV.
The Rate of Interest.

Text Assignments:

Kurihara, Chapter 4;
Keynes, Chapters 13, 14, 15.

Supplementary readings:

Hicks, “Suggestion for Simplifying Theory of Money,” AEA Monetary Theory.
Modigliani, “Liquidity Preference,” AEA Monetary Theory
Clower, “Productivity, Thrift, and the Rate of Interest.”

***Hour Examination, Wednesday, July 23.***
Covering work of first four weeks of session.

Week V.
Income Determination.

Text assignments:

Kurihara, Chapters 5-7;
Keynes, Chapter 18.

Supplementary readings:

Lange, “The Rate of Interest and the Optimum Propensity to Consume,” AEA Business Cycle Theory.
Hicks, “Keynes and the Classics,” AEA Income Distribution.
Hicks, Trade Cycle.
Hansen, Business Cycles, Part II.

Week VI.
The Comparative Statics and Dynamics of Income Analysis.

Text assignments:

Kurihara, Chapters 8-9;
Keynes, Chapters 19-22.

Supplementary readings:

Hansen, Chapter 22 (by R. M. Goodwin).
Samuelson, “Interactions between the Multiplier and Accelerator,” AEA Business Cycle Theory

Week VII.
Price Flexibility and Employment.

Text assignments:

Kurihara, Chapter 10.

Supplementary readings:

Lange, Price Flexibility.
Patinkin, Money, Interest and Prices, part I, Chapters 1-3; Part II.

Week VIII.
Growth Economics; Concluding Comments.

Text assignments:

Kurihara, Chapters 11-13;
Keynes, Chapter 24.

Supplementary reading:

Domar, Economic Growth.
Harris, The New Economics, Part III.

***Final Examination***
Saturday, August 16, 10:30-12:30.

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Robert W. Clower Papers. Box 4, Folder “Econ C11. Economic Theory Income and Employment. Exam, Syllabus 1966-67 (sic, also includes this 1958 syllabus)”.

Image Source: Profile of Robert W. Clower, 1926-2011 at The History of Economic Thought website.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Social Insurance Social Work Sociology

Harvard. Social Ethics Courses. Enrollments and Final Exams. Peabody et al., 1912-1913

Room 2 of Harvard's Social Museum (1911)

 

Social Ethics 1-7
1912-13

Social Ethics 1. Social Problems in the Light of Ethical Theory
Social Ethics 2. Practical Problems of Social Service
Social Ethics 3. Criminology and Penology [omitted 1911-12]
Social Ethics 4. Social Problems of Immigration and Race
Social Ethics 5. The Housing Problem
Social Ethics 6. Social Amelioration in Europe
Social Ethics 7. Rural Social Development

The courses in this group are designed to apply philosophical principles to the modern problems of philanthropy, industry, and social life. They begin with a general introduction to Social Ethics and proceed to methods of applied ethics which approach those of a professional school. Students should have already elected courses both in Philosophy and in Economics, and should regard the courses in Social Ethics as concerned with the transition from academic to practical life.

Previously posted course material for social ethics at Harvard.

________________________

Social Ethics Instructors
1911-12

Jeffrey Richardson Brackett
Robert Franz Foerster
James Ford
Francis Greenwood Peabody

________________________

Social Ethics 1.
Poor-Relief, the Family, Temperance and the Labor Question

[Social Ethics] 1. The Problems of Poor -Relief, The Family, Temperance, and various phases of the Labor Question, in the light of Ethical Theory. Lectures, special researches, and prescribed reading. Tu., Th., Sat., at 10. Professor [Francis Greenwood] PEABODY, Dr. [James] FORD, and Dr. [Robert Franz] FOERSTER.

This course is an application of ethical theory to the social problems of the present day. It is to be distinguished from economic courses dealing with similar subjects by the emphasis laid on the moral aspects of the social situation and on the philosophy of society involved. In addition to lectures and required reading a special and detailed report is made by each student, based as far as possible on personal research and observation of scientific methods in industrial reform. These researches are arranged in consultation with the instructors; and an important feature of the course is the suggestion and direction of such personal investigation and the provision to each student of special literature and opportunities for observation. Students are advised, before beginning the study of Social Ethics, to take courses both in Economics and Philosophy; and must have taken a course, or the equivalent of a course, in one of these subjects.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. IX, No. 16 (May 10, 1912). Division of History, Government and Economics, 1912-13, p. 69.

Course Enrollment

[Social Ethics] 1. Professor [Francis Greenwood] PEABODY, Dr. [James] FORD, and Dr. [Robert Franz] FOERSTER. — Social Problems in the light of Ethical Theory. Poor relief, the family, temperance, and the labor question.

Total 75: 16 Seniors, 25 Juniors, 13 Sophomores, 2 Freshmen, 19 Others.

Source: Report of the President of Harvard College, 1912-1913, p. 62.

Year-end Examination
SOCIAL ETHICS 1

So allot your time that you may answer all questions

  1. What advantages would be secured by each of the devices described by Seager for dealing with unemployment?
  2. Describe the method employed for dealing with industrial disputes in (a) England, (b) New Zealand. What are the respective advantages and disadvantages of these methods?
  3. Compare and contrast the Victorian and the Massachusetts Minimum Wage Laws.
  4. What was the case of Priestley vs. Fowler? What were its consequences? What are the provisions of the present British law by which the problem in question is dealt with?
  5. What are the difficulties and dangers in the application of “welfare work “? Under what conditions, if any, should “welfare work” be undertaken by employers? (Treat specifically (a) “welfare work within the factory; (b) provision of facilities for recreation.)
  6. Define industrial partnership, copartnership, workers ‘ cooperative production. Show in how far these terms overlap.
  7. Criticize the following:–
    1. “Co-operation is incapable of raising wages and shortening hours.”
    2. “The aim of co-operation is to abolish utterly the wage system.”
  8. “Syndicalism asks that each industrial group of workers should control the instruments of production which it uses the railway — men, the railways; the miners, the mines; and so on. “Is this a practicable program? Give argument and evidence in detail.
  9. Outline the history, aim, structure, and methods of the British Co-operative Union.

Source: Harvard University Examinations. Papers set for final examinations in history, history of science, government, economics, philosophy, social ethics, education, fine arts, music in Harvard College(June 1913), pp. 71-72.

 

___________________________________

Social Ethics 2.
Practical Problems of Social Service

* 2 2hf. Practical Problems of Social Service: Public Aid, Charity, and Neighborhood Work. Lectures, prescribed reading, and observation of work under skilled direction. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., at 2.30. Dr. [Jeffrey Richardson] BRACKETT.

This course is for advanced students, especially for those who plan, as ministers, teachers, or as citizens, whatever their vocation, to be actively interested in charity, correction, or any form of social work. It is also an introduction to Social Ethics 20c, the School for Social Workers. It is a study of tendencies in Social Service, of law and custom, especially in England and the United States, bearing directly on such topics as neighborhood improvement, forms and sources of relief, modification of charitable trusts, treatment of special types of the needy, organization of charity, financial management, supervision of work by public and private agencies.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. IX, No. 16 (May 10, 1912). Division of History, Government and Economics, 1912-13, pp. 69-70.

Course Enrollment

[Social Ethics] 2 2hf. Dr. [Jeffrey Richardson] BRACKETT. — Practical Problems of Social Service: public aid, charity, and neighborhood work.

Total 23: 3 Graduates, 7 Seniors, 7 Juniors, 2 Sophomores, 4 Others.

Source: Report of the President of Harvard College, 1912-1913, p. 62.

Year-End Examination
SOCIAL ETHICS 2
  1. “At the beginning of the study of the causes of poverty, the personal causes, as we have seen, were chiefly emphasized.”
    Explain this statement.
    What is the present tendency in weighing causes of poverty and misery?
    What is your judgment as to tendencies?
  2. You are asked what a social settlement is for. What is your answer?
  3. What are the places in modern philanthropy:–
    1. Of “volunteer” or unpaid workers, usually giving part time, as compared with
    2. The professional workers who are usually paid for full time service?
  4. Illustrate your view of the meaning of social work by the treatment of two of the following types of need:–
    1. The feeble-minded.
    2. The blind.
    3. Offenders.
    4. Dependent children.
  5. What should be the chief results of a well used confidential bureau for exchange of information of needy families?
  6. What arguments do you give
    1. For,
    2. Against, the use of public money for private charity?
  7. What are the chief lessons of value which you have learned from the field work which has been accepted as practice work for this course?

Source: Harvard University Examinations. Papers set for final examinations in history, history of science, government, economics, philosophy, social ethics, education, fine arts, music in Harvard College(June 1913), pp. 72-73.

___________________________________

Social Ethics 3.
Criminology and Penology

[* 3 1hf. Criminology and Penology. — Lectures, prescribed reading, and reports. Half-course (first half-year).]

Omitted in 1912-13.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. IX, No. 16 (May 10, 1912). Division of History, Government and Economics, 1912-13, p. 70.

___________________________________

Social Ethics 4.
Social Problems of Immigration and Race

* 4 1hf. Social Problems of Immigration and Race. — Lectures, prescribed reading, and a research. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 11. Dr. [Robert Franz] FOERSTER.

This course deals principally with immigration into the United States, in its international aspects and as an internal problem; secondarily with the American negro problem. Emigration from foreign countries is first studied — in its causes, its historical course, and its consequences for the countries from which it proceeds. Next are considered the history and changes of immigration into the United States; the condition of immigrants in this country; and the effects, transitory and permanent, upon the United States, under social, industrial, and racial aspects. Questions of American internal policy (contact, utilization, assimilation) and the question of national policy (restriction, non-restriction, selection, protection) are studied, partly in relation to emigration and immigration legislation of other countries. To the negro problem less time is devoted; yet the rural and urban populations, their economic and social changes in the post-slavery period, and the broad questions of public and private policy will be considered.

The method of the course will be as far as possible analytical rather than historical or descriptive. Special emphasis will be laid on the thesis and from time to time research conferences will be substituted for lectures.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. IX, No. 16 (May 10, 1912). Division of History, Government and Economics, 1912-13, pp. 70-71.

Course Enrollment

[Social Ethics] 4 1hf. Dr. [Robert Franz] FOERSTER. — Social Problems of Immigration and Race.

Total 20: 6 Graduates, 8 Seniors, 2 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 3 Others.

Source: Report of the President of Harvard College, 1912-1913, p. 62.

Mid-year Examination
SOCIAL ETHICS 4

So allot your time that you may answer all questions. Carefully indicate the reasons for your conclusions.

  1. Is there an instinct of migration? Are there other peculiarly psychological causes of emigration? What psychological factor is of noteworthy consequence after arrival of immigrants in this country?
  2. Show the connection of immigration with the problem of insanity in the United States. What is our present legislation in regard to insane aliens?
  3. “Recent immigration has not reduced the rates of wages, nor has it prevented an increase in the rates of wages; it has pushed the native and older immigrant wage-earners upward on the scale of occupations.” Discuss both of these propositions, giving in some detail reasons for the position you take.
  4. A Massachusetts congressman recently said: “The literacy test, as I have repeatedly shown, discriminates strongly against the class of laborers who are most needed in the United States.” By what argument would that position be supported? Indicate the grounds of your agreement or disagreement with the argument.
  5. Compare the occupational position of the negro in the rural South with that in New York City. Upon what grounds are the differences to be explained? What is Murphy’s solution of the occupational problem?
  6. What can be said of the effects of (a) race mixture, (b) environment, upon the future race stock of the United States?
  7. What are the effects of emigration upon Greece?

Source: Harvard University Examinations. Papers set for final examinations in history, history of science, government, economics, philosophy, social ethics, education, fine arts, music in Harvard College(June 1913), pp. 73-74.

___________________________________

Social Ethics 5.
The Housing Problem

* 5 1hf. The Housing Problem. — Lectures, prescribed reading, and research. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 10. Dr. [James] FORD.

Primarily a course in social research. Each student is required to make an intensive original survey of housing conditions in a selected district, or to undertake detailed field work in some phase of the subject. The lectures and prescribed reading will deal with methods and results of existing housing surveys. Examination will be made of the causes and remedies of lot and room congestion, problems of construction, sanitation, and maintenance of tenements, lodging houses, and cottages. The agencies of improved construction of dwellings — philanthropic, coöperative and governmental — will be treated, together with methods of residential and industrial decentralization. The function of health and building codes, taxation, land reform, city planning, in the regulation and improvement of housing conditions, will be examined in detail.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. IX, No. 16 (May 10, 1912). Division of History, Government and Economics, 1912-13, p. 71.

Course Enrollment

[Social Ethics] 5 1hf. Dr. [James] FORD. — The Housing Problem.

Total 6: 1 Graduate, 3 Seniors, 1 Sophomore, 1 Other.

Source: Report of the President of Harvard College, 1912-1913, p. 62.

Mid-year Examination
SOCIAL ETHICS 5
  1. State the arguments for and against the construction by philanthropic corporations of improved dwellings for the working classes. Under what conditions is the philanthropic construction of model tenements of net social advantage?
  2. State the present provisions in the New York Tenement House Act designed to prevent lot congestion. Show in detail how these provisions are socially justifiable.
  3. What do New York statistics show to be the most frequent places of origin of tenement house fires? How do such fires spread?
    State the provisions (a) of the New York Tenement Act, (b) of the Massachusetts Tenement House Act for towns, which are designed to prevent such fires.
  4. What are the sources of the gross business profits of British Copartnership Garden Suburbs? How are net profits distributed to tenant members?
  5. What social advantage is there in the construction of homes for employees by employers of labor? What are the disadvantages of such a plan to the employer? To the employee? How can each disadvantage be obviated?
  6. A criticism of Howard’s “Garden Cities of Tomorrow” :—
    1. What parts of the scheme are impracticable?
    2. What suggestions are practicable and of value?
  7. Could housing conditions in American cities be improved by the application of local zone systems? What principles should govern the determination of zone boundaries?
  8. What size and shape of lot would you advocate for the construction of suburban homes for wage-earners? Why?

Source: Harvard University Examinations. Papers set for final examinations in history, history of science, government, economics, philosophy, social ethics, education, fine arts, music in Harvard College(June 1913), p. 74.

___________________________________

Social Ethics 6.
Social Amelioration in Europe

* 6 2hf. Social Amelioration in Europe. — Lectures and prescribed reading. Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 11. Dr. [Robert Franz] FOERSTER.

This course is mainly concerned with schemes of social amelioration that have so far been little considered in the United States. Remedial methods of dealing with poverty will be treated only incidentally. Chiefly the course will make a comparative study of the preventive and constructive measures, public and private, of several countries. After a brief consideration of the place of thrift institutions, unemployment and the important recent efforts to meet it will be discussed at some length. The experience of several countries in providing for the indigent in case of accident, sickness, invalidity, and old age will, in turn, be examined. The course will close with a study of recent developments of legislation governing conditions of labor.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. IX, No. 16 (May 10, 1912). Division of History, Government and Economics, 1912-13, p. 71.

Course Enrollment

[Social Ethics] 6 2hf. Dr. [Robert Franz] FOERSTER. — Social Amelioration in Europe.

Total 11: 3 Graduates, 4 Seniors, 1 Junior, 1 Sophomore, 2 Others.

Source: Report of the President of Harvard College, 1912-1913, p. 62.

Year-end Examination
SOCIAL ETHICS 6

So allot your time that you may answer all questions

  1. Suppose that in a country of 250,000 workmen the number of unemployed persons has been, over a long period of years, never less than 10,000. How far could the amount of unemployment be reduced by the following remedies (applied individually)?
    1. The erection of an industrial establishment by state authority, permitting the employment of 10,000 persons.
    2. Such a reduction of the hours of labor by law as would result in an undiminished output, if 10,000 more persons were to be employed.
  2. Point out the differences of the St. Gall and English schemes of unemployment insurance. Do these differences make for a difference of result?
  3. Describe the German system of sickness insurance in its present form in respect of:
    1. Source of financial support;
    2. Organization and administration;
    3. “Benefits” provided;
    4. Arrangements with physicians.
  4. What measures have the insurance authorities of Germany taken to reduce the extent of disease?
  5. How far is the workmen’s insurance of Germany a burden upon industry and how far is it not?
  6. “In Germany and other countries in which the system has been wholly or partly established, they [the socialists] work for the elimination of the workingmen’s contributions to the insurance funds on the theory that it is the duty of the state to insure the life and existence of the worker, without curtailing his wages for that purpose.” (Hillquit, “Socialism in theory and practice.”) What are the grounds of your own agreement or disagreement with the attitude of the socialists? How far does your knowledge of the instincts, as they are described by McDougall, affect your answer?
  7. What system of labor exchanges do you regard as the best? Why?

Source: Harvard University Examinations. Papers set for final examinations in history, history of science, government, economics, philosophy, social ethics, education, fine arts, music in Harvard College(June 1913), p. 75.

___________________________________

Social Ethics 7.
Rural Social Development

* 7 2hf. Rural Social Development. — Lectures, prescribed reading, and thesis. Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 10. Dr. [James] FORD.

This course will study the methods and results of rural social research. It will treat the social problems of rural communities — race composition, poverty, housing, health, recreation, labor, etc. The means of development of country life from without through “Back-to-the-Land” and other movements; and rural reconstruction from within through adaptation of existing local institutions, coöperative movements, and State activities will be considered.
The third hour of each week will be devoted to the discussion of prescribed reading or to direction of research.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. IX, No. 16 (May 10, 1912). Division of History, Government and Economics, 1912-13, p. 72.

Course Enrollment

[Social Ethics] 7 2hf. Dr. [James] FORD. — Rural Social Development.

Total 15: 1 Graduate, 10 Seniors, 2 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 1 Other.

Source: Report of the President of Harvard College, 1912-1913, p. 62.

Year-End Examination
SOCIAL ETHICS 7
  1. State in detail the possible sources of data for an exhaustive social survey of a New England rural township.
  2. Outline (a) the causes, (b) the local results of the rural exodus. State carefully in how far the causes can be eliminated by conscious social policy?
  3. Summarize the findings of the U. S. Immigration Commission with reference to the (a) economic status, (b) rapidity of assimilation, (c) contribution to community development, of immigrant farmers in the United States.
  4. Discuss:
    1. The conditions and results of marriage selection among the Hill Folk.
    2. The value of early placing-out of children as a means of meeting the social problem of a degenerate community (illustrate from the Hill Folk).
  5. What diseases may be transmitted through the farm water supply? State how each of the following may be contaminated: shallow wells; driven wells; cisterns. (Lipman “Bacteria,” and Ogden “Rural Hygiene.”)
  6. What powers for health control in rural communities reside in the best equipped State Boards of Health? Should any of these powers be left with local health officials and not with the State? Give reasons. (Fairlie and Lectures.)
  7. Name and classify the agencies of adult education in rural communities. Show the form and methods of university extension in rural communities, employed by State colleges of agriculture (especial reference to Massachusetts).
  8. State in detail the (a) organization, (b) business methods, of co-operative associations for disposal of eggs. What specifically is the importance of such associations in the betterment of rural social conditions? (Wolff and Lectures.)

Source: Harvard University Examinations. Papers set for final examinations in history, history of science, government, economics, philosophy, social ethics, education, fine arts, music in Harvard College(June 1913), p. 76.

Image Source: Room 2 of the Harvard’s Social Museum. Francis G. Peabody, The Social Museum as an Instrument of University Teaching. Publications of the Department of Social Ethics in Harvard University, Number 4 (Cambridge, MA: 1911).

_____________________________

Social Ethics à la Peabody
1888/89—1911/12

A short history of Harvard’s Department of Social Ethics through 1920.

Exam questions for late 19th century versions of Francis Greenwood Peabody’s course on the Ethics of Social Reform have been transcribed and posted:

1888-1889; 1889-1890; 1890-1891; 1892-1893; 1893-1894; 1894-1895; 1895-1896.

Earlier 20th century course material:

1902-03. Listed as Philosophy 5. Taught by Peabody and Ireland.
1904-05. Listed as Philosophy 5 and Ethics 1. Taught by Peabody and Rogers.
1906-07. Taught by Peabody and Rogers.
1907-08. Taught by Peabody and Rogers.
1908-09. Taught by Peabody, McConnell, Ford and Foerster.
1909-10. Taught by Peabody, McConnell, Ford, and Foerster.
1910-11. Taught by Peabody, McConnell, Ford, Foerster, and Brackett. [complete set of social ethics exams]
1911-12. Taught by Peabody, McConnell, Ford, Foerster, and Brackett. [complete set of social ethics exams]

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Macroeconomics

Harvard. Final exam for Aggregate Economic Theory. Dorfman, 1962-1963

“Macro-economics” was explicitly named in the course description for the Harvard undergraduate economics tutorial [Economics 98b] in 1962-63. For the next several years, no course even included “macroeconomics” in its title. Instead graduate students were taught “aggregate economic theory”, an early and one might argue more felicitous name than “macroeconomics”.  In an earlier post the reading list for Robert Dorfman’s aggregate economic theory course has been transcribed. This post adds his final exam questions.

During the second term of 1958-1959 the same course content was taught by Dorfman as “Economics 241. Money and Banking”.

_________________________

Course Announcement

Economics 241. Aggregate Economic Theory

Half course (fall term). M., W., (F.), at 12. Professor Dorfman.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Courses of Instruction for Harvard and Radcliffe, 1962-1963, p. 106.

_________________________

Course Final Examination

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Economics 241

Midyear Examination
January 30, 1963

Answer any THREE questions. Spend about an hour on each, and develop your discussion to corresponding fulness. In each answer include citations to the literature where relevant. Please write legibly. Indicate which questions you answered on the cover of your first book.

  1. Among the simplifying assumptions made by Keynes are:
    1. The rate of interest does not enter into the consumption function,
    2. The level of income does not enter into the marginal efficiency of capital function,
    3. The level of income does not enter into the liquidity preference function.

Discuss the consequences of relaxing these assumptions, singly and in combination, for the equilibrium analysis and stability of an economy that can be described by a Keynesian-type model.

  1. It is sometimes argued that the Keynesian theory is nothing but a classical theory where price-rigidities are permitted in certain markets and where the velocity of money circulation depends on the rate of interest. Defend or refute this position.
  2. Compare the Swedish theory of the cumulative process, as expounded by Wicksell or Ohlin, with Harrod’s explanation of dynamic instability. Bring out the elements common to the two theories as well as the contrasts between them.
  3. One of Gurley and Shaw’s main conclusions is that if a central bank “stipulates not only the nominal reserves of commercial banks but the reserve-balance as well … [it will be] able to regulate creation of nominal money and the price level. Nominal money, nominal bonds, and money prices of goods and labor are now determinate.” (pp. 261-262) Sketch their model and the argument leading to this conclusion.
  4. Appraise the importance of the interest rate as a determinant of (a) the level of investment and (b) the level of employment.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Final Examinations. January 1963. Social Sciences. (HUC 700.28, No. 144 of 284).

Image Source: See the 27 June 2002 Boston Globe obituary for Robert Dorfman.

Categories
Berkeley Brown Carnegie Mellon Chicago Columbia Economics Programs Harvard M.I.T. Maryland Michigan Minnesota Northwestern Pennsylvania Princeton Rochester Stanford UCLA Wisconsin Yale

Northwestern. Ranking of top 18 economics departments. Robert J. Gordon, 1979-1980

Robert J. Gordon calculated his own ranking of the top 18 economics departments in the United States and provided a description of his methodology in 1981. His motivation was to sell Northwestern’s program to prospective graduate students.

In an earlier post we encounter a couple of earlier attempts at departmental rankings.

____________________________

NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

Robert J. Gordon
Professor of Economics

Department of Economics
Evanston, Illinois 60201
Telephone (312) 492-3616

May 18, 1981

Professor E. Cary Brown
Department of Economics
E52-373A
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA  02139

Dear Cary:

As you may know, for several years I have attempted to provide an independent rating of the quality of faculty at the top 20 U.S. economics departments.  I am writing to you to obtain the information needed to update the last quality ranking that I did two years ago.

Because the questionnaire form for the Boddy survey has just been distributed, you may rightly ask why an additional department ranking is necessary or desirable.  The strength of the Boddy survey is its wide coverage and large sample of respondents, but its weakness is that no information is provided to respondents to inform them accurately of the current members of the faculties of the departments on the list.  The average respondent may be several years out of date in knowing that Professor A has migrated from Department B to Department C, and in the case of many departments may have no information at all.  Also, there is no standard criterion on which to judge contributions of younger versus older faculty members, and contributions of economists in other parts of the university, e.g., business schools.

My own rating system is a complement to, not a substitute for, the Boddy survey.  As described in the attached sheet, the strengths of the system are that it includes only tenured faculty, is based on actual faculty lists, and provides a uniform treatment of economists in business schools and other outside departments.  The assignment of quality scores to individuals obviously must contain a subjective element, but is based as much as possible on objective criteria, e.g., prizes, awards, outside job offers, and citations.

I hope you will help me provide the information I need about your department.  This consists of:

    1. Your faculty list for 1981-82. If this is not yet typed, please send a list for 1980-81 and pencil in any changes that involve tenured faculty members.  Indicate any members who are on leaves of two years or more in government or administrative jobs.
    2. Just as important, please provide a list, which can be handwritten, of tenured economists in other departments (Business School, Law School, etc.) who make a significant contribution to the life of economics graduate students by (a) giving courses taken by substantial numbers of economics graduate students, (b) regularly attending seminars in economics, (c) serving on dissertation committees, etc.

Originally this rating system was used to provide information to prospective Northwestern graduate students (even though Northwestern has never ranked higher than eighth).  Now the results have taken on a life of their own, so I would appreciate any improvements in the methodology that you would like to suggest (so long as it does not involve rating non-tenured faculty members, which I think is basically impossible).

Sincerely,
[signature: Bob]
Robert J. Gordon

Enclosure

RJG/JR

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

EXPLANATION OF METHOD USED TO COMPILE
1979-80 “GORDON QUALITY SCORE”

As a partial substitute I have compiled a quality ranking for each of the top 18 departments in the United States.  In consultation with several highly regarded economists, all permanent (tenured) faculty members in the top 18 U.S. departments have been rated with a “quality score” ranging from one (low) to 10 (superman).  Then the total scores in each department of faculty members rated “6” or above have been added up.  While my score is obviously subjective, whereas the Boddy score is based on a large sample, nevertheless there are two primary advantages to my method.  (1) The ratings are current, taking account of the movements in Summer 1979 of J. Stiglitz from England to Princeton and in Summer 1978 of K. Arrow from Harvard to Stanford, R. Hall from M.I.T. to Stanford, T. Bewley from Harvard to Northwestern, and D. McFadden from Berkeley to M.I.T.  (2) The ratings are based on a great deal more information than was available to most if not all of the Boddy respondents — I obtained complete faculty listings from all 18 departments in May, 1978, and have consulted with a wide variety of individuals and other sources of information in making the individual faculty rankings.

Because many economists have expressed an interest in the methods used in establishing the ranking, a few details are included here for the record:

  1. Only tenure members are included, reflecting the risk that nontenure members may depart a department before new graduate students can benefit from them, as well as the difficulty of rating young professors who are not yet widely known or cited.
  2. Heavy weight is given to objective evidence in establishing the rankings–winners of the Nobel Prize and the A.E.A.’s John Bates Clark award are all awarded scores in the “9” or “10” category, as are several close contenders for those prizes.Another useful piece of information is the list of Fellows of the Econometric Society, perhaps the only honor in economics in which the selection is made annually by a worldwide electorate of distinguished economists.  Other honors, including selection to the NSF advisory panel and the editorial boards of leading journals, are taken into account as well.
  3. Some account is taken of recent productivity, reflecting the fact that a faculty member who is currently working on the frontier is likely to be more useful to a graduate student than an established “star” whose main achievements date back to the 1940s or 1950s. A helpful and objective guide is the comprehensive Social Science Citations Index.1/
  4. The ranking of each department is not limited to the tenure economists who happen to be on the premises with full-time appointments in the economics department.Quality scores are allocated, and a weight of one-half given, to (a) economists in closely related departments (usually business schools, but also law schools, statistics departments, and schools of public administration); (b) economists who now have a full-time job in the university administration; and (c) economists who are on a multi-year leave in Washington and who may be unavailable to graduate students for several years.

1/These criteria have offsetting biases.  For instance, young mathematical economists tend to be elected relatively easily to the Fellowship of the Econometric Society but do not tend to be cited often in the Citations Index.

The results are:

1975 Boddy Ranking
Rank Department

1979-80 Gordon Quality Score

 Quality of Graduate Faculty

Effectiveness of Graduate Program
1. Harvard

179

 1 (tie)

5 (tie)
2. Yale

155

 4

2 (tie)
3. M.I.T.

148

 1 (tie)

1
4. Princeton

141

 7

5 (tie)
5. Chicago

140

 1 (tie)

2 (tie)
6. Stanford

136

 5 (tie)

4
7. Pennsylvania

130

 8

10 (tie)
8. Northwestern

128

 9 (tie)

8 (tie)
9. Berkeley

100

 5 (tie)

7
10. U.C.L.A.

97

 12 (tie)

14 (tie)
11. Minnesota

96

 9 (tie)

8 (tie)
12. Wisconsin

90

 9 (tie)

10 (tie)
13. Michigan

67

 13 (tie)

10 (tie)
14. Columbia

60

 13 (tie)

17
15. Maryland

57

 (Below 20)

(Below 20)
16. Rochester

56

 13 (tie)

13
17. Carnegie-Mellon

37

 17

14 (tie)
18. Brown

33

 18 (tie)

18

Source: M.I.T. Institute Archives and Special Collections. MIT. Department of Economics. Records. Box 3, Folder “Quality Rankings”.

Image Source: Robert J. Gordon at First Bank of Japan Monetary Conference, June 1983. Detail from picture with James Tobin.

 

 

Categories
Economist Market Economists Harvard

Harvard. Five year associate professorship appointment offered to Haberler, 1935

Gottfried Haberler returned to Harvard in 1936 to begin a five-year appointment as associate professor of economics offered to him in 1935. Besides the official department package submitted to the Dean’s Office to justify his appointment, this post also includes a note to Harvard President Conant written by then chairman of the Visiting Committee for the Economics Department, Walter Lippmann, that quoted a scathing opinion of Haberler’s potential from John Maynard Keynes. Lippmann’s note was too late to derail the hiring process but it stands as Keynes’ testimony. Haberler and Keynes were not mutual admirers. We have seen earlier that Haberler himself was not above writing the occasional bitchy note  (Galbraith and Bowles).

From Haberler’s 1931-32 year at Harvard.

Fun Fact: Anna Maria Island, where Walter Lippmann was writing from, is a barrier island on the West coast of Florida, immediately north of Long Boat Key which is where Paul Samuelson later had a vacation condo. And for what it’s worth, my maternal grandmother even had a little bungalow on Anna Maria Island.

__________________________________

Dr. Gottfried Haberler

Biography

Born: Purkersdorf near Vienna, July 20, 1900

Humanistisches Gymnasium, Vienna
Doctor rerun politicarum, University of Vienna, 1923
Doctor utriusque juris, University of Vienna, 1925

1927— , Privatdozent, University of Vienna (At Vienna, Haberler conducted an Economic Seminar and offered series of lectures on International Trade and the Theory of Value and Price)

1927-29, Fellow, Rockefeller Foundation (United States, England, France)

1929 (Spring), Lectured on Economic Statistics, Harvard University

1929-31, Secretary, Austrian National Committee of the International Chamber of Commerce

1930 (October), Visiting Lecturer, University of Cambridge

1931-32, Visiting Lecturer on Economics, Harvard University

Rechtskonsulent at the Chamber of Commerce of Vienna

1934, Selected by the Economic Intelligence Service of the League of Nations to make its study of the business cycle, Geneva

[I am informed that Haberler has been elected to a Professorship at Vienna. His duties at Geneva were completed at the end of 1934. He is to return to Vienna to resume his professorial work at the beginning of the spring term.                                H.H.B.]

January 7, 1935

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Research

Books Published:

Der Sinn der Indexzahlen. Eine Untersuchung über den Begriff des Preisniveaus und die Methoden seiner Messung. (Tübingen, 1927)

Der Internationale Handel. (Berlin, Julius Springer, 1933)
[This book is generally regarded as a distinct contribution. H. H. B.]

Liberale und Planwirtschaftliche Handelspolitik. Berlin: Junker und Dunnhaupt, 1934)
[Zwischenstaatliche Wirtschaft. Herausgegeben von Professor Herbert von Beckerath, Heft 8.]

Selective list of articles (to 1932):

“Die theorie der comparativen Kosten und Ihre Auswertung für die Begründung des Freihandels” (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv)

“Wirtschaft als Leben kritische Bemerkungen zu Gottl’s methodologischen Schriften” (Zeitschrift für Nationalöconomie)

“Transfer und Preisbewegung” (Zeitschrift für Nationalöconomie)

“The Meaning and Use of a General Price-Index” (Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1928)

“Irving Fisher’s Theory of Interest” (Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1931)

“Money and the Business Cycle” (Public Lecture of the Harris Foundation Institute, January, 1932)

“The Different Meanings attached to the term ‘Fluctuation in the Purchasing Power of Gold’ and the best Instrument for Measuring such Fluctuations” (Memorandum for the Gold Delegation of the League of Nations, Geneva, 1931)

“Internationale Kartelle und ihre Beziehungen zur Handelspolitik” (Österreichischer Volkswirt, 1931)

“Die Kredittheorie der Cambridger Schule” (Archiv für Sozialwissenschaften, 1929)

Book in preparation:

Dr. Haberler is carrying on an investigation initiated by the Economic Intelligence Service of the League of Nations into the Causes of the Recurrence of Periods of Economic Depression. A tentative memorandum, “A Systematic Analysis of the Theories of the Business Cycle” has already appeared. A complete report will be made at an early date.

January 7, 1935

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Vote of the Executive Committee

The Department of Economics recommended the appointment of Dr. Haberler May 23, 1934. This recommendation has been reconsidered by the Executive Committee of the Department a number of times this fall. On December 18 the Executive Committee voted to press the recommendation as strongly as it could and to urge that Haberler be appointed for a term of five years beginning in September, 1935. At that meeting, there were present and voting the following members of the Committee: Professors Black, Burbank, Crum, Gay, Schumpeter, and Taussig, Associate Professors Chamberlin, Mason, and Usher, and Dr. Monroe. The vote was unanimous. The Chairman of the meeting asked each member present to express any reservations he might have. The Chairman was assured that there were no reservations. Further, the Chairman was instructed to report that the vote was “unanimous and enthusiastic.” Professors Williams and Bullock were unavoidably absent from the meeting. Both had been consulted, however, and both had expressed their approval of the recommendation. In addition to the usual members of the Executive Committee voting on this appointment, the Chairman consulted Assistant Professors Frickey, Harris, and Leontief, all of whom were in favor of the appointment.

                  I am enclosing letters of recommendation from Professors Taussig, Williams and Mason. When Professor Bullock returns to Cambridge, I shall ask him to write.

January 7, 1935

__________________________________

GOTTFRIED HABERLER
RECOMMENDATION OF THE DEAN OF THE FACULTY

Dr. Haberler is one of the foremost economic theorists of the present day and has in the past taught at Harvard with success. His appointment at Harvard for five years would in my opinion greatly strengthen our work in Economics and I recommend the appointment.

[signed] Kenneth B. Murdock

February 12, 1935

__________________________________

NEW YORK
HERALD TRIBUNE

Anna Maria
Florida
Feb 16 [1935]

Dear Mr. Conant,

                  I have word from Keynes about Haberler and in view of what he says I think you will agree that his name should not be used in talking with the Department.

                  He says: “I should put H. as B plus rather than in the A class. He is by no means an inferior man, but I have been rather disappointed recently with his development. Shortly after he had taken his degree, when I first knew him, I had rather high hopes of him, and thought him one of the best of the younger! Harvard Austrians, but, in my judgment, he makes not much progress.

                  “You are no doubt aware that he is now employed in the Economic Intelligence Service of the League, preparing a work on the causes of depressions. He sent me an early draft of what he is doing, and I thought it rather poor, though other judges do not agree with me….To sum up, I should have thought it rather doubtful whether he was of such outstanding ability as to stand transplantation to a foreign country.”

                  This opinion seems to me to raise a very strong doubt about the appointment and should at least be checked against some equally authoritative opinion outside the Department.

                  I saw Wolman after his interview with you and gained a very definite impression that the only thing which keeps him from coming to Harvard is the feeling that he must see through to the end the work he is doing for the government. The more I learn about that work the more impressed I am with Wolman. You may remember that I did not rate him at the top intellectually, and I would still not do that, but he has certainly shown a very high degree of practical wisdom in a field which few economists know much about.

                  I heard from J.M. Clark the other day that a German economist named von Beckenrath (or approximately that) is in this country teaching at Bowdoin. He was read is a great authority on trusts and cartels[*] and his book, which I read last year was excellent. Taussig, I believe wrote an introduction and so could probably tell you about him. He might be a prospect and worth inviting for some lectures.

                  I shall be in Cambridge for the next Overseers meeting.

Yours
[signed] Walter Lippmann

[*] “A subject of [illegible word]  importance and one not adequately covered in the Department today.”

__________________________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
CAMBRIDGE

FACULTY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
OFFICE OF THE DEAN

20 UNIVERSITY HALL
February 23, 1935

Dear Jim:

                  Mr. Burbank has heard from Professor Haberler that he would accept an offer for five years at Harvard if one were made to him. I assume, therefore, that you will wish to carry the appointment through promptly.

Sincerely yours,
[signed] Kenneth B. Murdock

President J.B. Conant
University 5

__________________________________

Source: Harvard University Archives. Records of President James B. Conant, Box 29, Folder “Economics, 1934-1935”.

Image Source: Faculty portrait of Gottfried Haberler in Harvard Album 1939.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Macroeconomics Microeconomics Theory

Harvard. Graduate General Exams in Micro- and Macro-Theory. Fall 1993

The following general examination for macroeconomic theory (Spring 1993) has been transcribed from a collection of general exams at Harvard from the 1990s provided to Economics in the Rear-view Mirror by Abigail Waggoner Wozniak (Harvard economics Ph.D., 2005). Abigail Wozniak was an associate professor of economics at Notre Dame before being appointed a senior research economist and the first director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis’ Opportunity & Inclusive Growth Institute. She is currently Vice-President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.

Economics in the Rear-view Mirror is most grateful for her generosity in sharing this valuable material.

Because the “Wozniak collection” is over 90 pages long, it will take time for all the exams to get transcribed. To date the following general examinations have been transcribed and posted:

Spring 1991
Microeconomics; Macroeconomics

Spring 1992
Micro- and Macroeconomics

Fall 1992
Micro- and Macroeconomics

Spring 1993
Microeconomics; Macroeconomics

_________________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

GENERAL EXAMINATION
IN MICROECONOMIC THEORY
FALL 1993

Instructions:

You have FOUR hours.

Answer a total of FOUR questions, subject to the following constraints:

You must answer questions 1, 2, and 3. You must answer either question 4 or 5 (but not both).

Please use a separate blue book for each question.

Please put only your exam number on the blue book.

Good luck!

1. Indirect Utility (20 points)

This is a question on the indifference map of indirect utility functions.

There are two commodities. The utility function is U(x_1, x_2). Wealth is normalized to w=1, so that the indirect utility function has the form V(p_1, p_2).

Assume that U(x_1, x_2) is continuous and increasing in both arguments.

a) Draw an indifference map of the indirect utility function. Be sure that the axes are properly labelled, that the indifference curves have the proper shape and that the direction of increasing preference is clearly marked. (5 points)

b) Argue that if the utility function U(x_1, x_2) is not quasi-concave then some indirect indifference curve will exhibit a kink. (5 points)

c) Suppose that an indifference curve of the indirect utility function has a piece that is a straight line. What does this correspond to in the direct utility function? Why? (5 points)

d) Consider the slope of an indifference curve of the indirect utility function. Interpret it in terms of the demand function. Justify your answer. (5 points)

2. (20 points)

Consider an industry in which there are two firms: an incumbent and a potential entrant. In each of two periods, total inverse demand in the industry is given by

p = 5 - Q,

where Q is total output. The incumbent’s marginal cost of production c_I can either be “high” (c_I = 2) or “low” (c_I = 1). The incumbent knows the value of c_I, but the potential entrant knows only that the two values each have a 50% probability ex ante. In the first period, the incumbent chooses an output level q_{I1}. The entrant can observe q_{I1} (but not the incumbent’s profit). In the second period the two firms choose quantities q_{I2} and q_{E2} simultaneously. The entrant’s marginal cost c_E is 2. In addition, if the entrant chooses q_{E2} > 0, it incurs an “entry” cost of \frac{1}{2}. The two firms each maximize their (expected) profits (the incumbent maximizes the expected sum of its first- and second-period profits). The model and all its parameters are common knowledge (the value of c_I is not common knowledge, but the fifty-fifty prior distribution on 1 and 2 is common knowledge).

A. Suppose that the entrant concludes, after observing q_{I1}, that the incumbent’s costs are low (i.e., the entrant attaches posterior probability 1 to c_I = 1). Show that, in this case, the entrant will not enter. That is, show that q_{E2} = 0 in the unique continuation equilibrium starting in period 2. What are the incumbent’s second-period output and profit in this continuation equilibrium?

B. Suppose that the entrant concludes, after observing q_{I1}, that the incumbent’s costs are high (c_I = 2). Show that, in this case, the entrant will enter, i.e., choose q_{E2} > 0, in equilibrium. Find the second-period continuation equilibrium outputs and profits for both firms.

C. Using the results from parts (A) and (B), show that there exists a “separating” perfect Bayesian equilibrium for the two-period model in which (i) the incumbent chooses a “small” value of q_{I1} if c_I = 2 and a “big” value if c_I = 1, and (ii) the entrant enters if and only if q_{I1} was small. In particular, show that q_{I1} is at the high-cost monopoly level if c_I = 2 but strictly above the low-cost monopoly level if c_I = 1.

3. Gross Substitute Excess Demand (20 points)

Consider an excess demand system (f_1(p_1,\ldots,p_{L-1}),\ldots,f_{L-1}(p_1,\ldots,p_{L-1})). There is an Lth commodity for which price is 1 and for which demand is not explicitly recorded.

a) How would you determine the demand for the Lth commodity? (5 points)

b) Suppose that the excess demand system for all L commodities satisfies the gross substitute property (when the price of a single commodity goes up the excess demand of each of the other commodities increases). Argue that the competitive equilibrium is then unique. (5 points)

c) Suppose that the excess demand functions for all L commodities are differentiable and that as in (b) the gross substitute property holds. What is the sign pattern induced in the Jacobian matrix of price effects? (5 points)

d) Suppose that the excess demand functions for all L commodities are differentiable and satisfy the gross substitute property. Suppose now that there is a shock (if this is helpful you can limit yourself to a small shock) the effect of which is to decrease the demand for commodities 1 to L−1 at every vector of prices. What should be the effect of this shock on the equilibrium prices of commodities 1 to L−1? Give a justification of your answer which is as rigorous as possible. (5 points)

Part IV:
Answer ONE of the following two questions:

4. Suppose there is another energy shock and the world-market price of oil goes from its present price of under $20 per barrel to $100. Analyze the short and long term effects on growth and distribution from neoclassical, Marxian, and Keynesian perspectives on the simplifying assumption that all energy is imported at the world-market price.

5. Milton Friedman has argued (“The Methodology of Positive Economics”) that a theory should be judged not on the realism of its assumptions, but on its predictive power. What are the principal criticisms of Friedman’s view? How might Friedman respond to the criticisms?

_________________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

GENERAL EXAMINATION
IN MACROECONOMIC THEORY
FALL 1993

Instructions:

You have FOUR hours.

You will answer a total of SIX questions from four sections of the exam:

In section I, you must answer the one question given.
In section II, answer both questions.
In section III, answer one of the two questions.
In section IV, answer two of the three questions.

Please use a separate blue book for each question.

Please put only your exam number on the blue book.

Good luck!

PART I:

1. Suppose that each household-producer has the production function,

Y_i = AK_i \cdot (G/Y)^{\alpha},

where A>0, 0<\alpha<1. Y_i and K_i are the ith producer’s output and capital stock, respectively, G is the total of government purchases and public services, and Y is aggregate output. The output of all producers is identical and can be used on a one-for-one basis for consumption, investment, or government services. Each household seeks to maximize utility, given by the standard Ramsey expression,

\displaystyle U = \int_0^{\infty} \left(\frac{c^{1-\theta}-1}{1-\theta}\right) e^{-\rho t}\,dt,

where \theta>0, \rho>0, and c is consumption per person. The economy is closed, depreciation and population growth are zero, and no technological change occurs. The government finances its purchases by a proportional tax on output at the rate \tau:

G = \tau Y,

where \tau is constant over time.

a. What is the growth rate of Y? Does the model exhibit a convergence property? Why or why not?

b. How does the growth rate depend on \tau? What condition holds if \tau is chosen to maximize the growth rate?

c. Are the outcomes Pareto optimal if \tau is set to maximize the growth rate? How does this result relate to the usual view that lump-sum taxation is superior to proportional taxation?

PART II:
Answer BOTH questions:

2.—

a.) Under what assumptions does the permanent income hypothesis predict that consumption should follow a random walk?

b.) Derive explicitly the random walk of result (a).

c.) Discuss briefly what you know about the empirical evidence on the random walk.

d.) Consider a pre-announced future temporary tax cut. What are the effects on consumption of this policy before, during, and after the tax cut? Consider the cases of: (1) the life cycle model; (2) the life cycle model with bequests, (3) the Keynesian consumption function; (4) a life cycle model with liquidity constraints.

3. Consider a monopolistic trade union, that can unilaterally set the nominal wage. The union’s utility function is:

\displaystyle U = \left(\frac{w}{p}\right)^{\frac{1}{2}} + \beta N

Where: w is the nominal wage
p is the price level
N is employment
and \beta>0 is a parameter.

\displaystyle N = n_0 - \alpha\frac{w}{p},

where n_0>0 and \alpha>0 are parameters

1) Suppose first that p is fixed, and compute what is the nominal wage chosen by the union.

2) Suppose that a monetary authority can influence the price level with monetary policy, and suppose that the union can change the nominal wage at any time but with a small cost; that is, any change in the nominal wage has a very small administrative cost for the union. Discuss the effects of monetary policy in this model.

PART III:
Answer ONE of the following two questions:

4. Consider the case of a central bank conducting monetary policy in a standard fractional reserve banking system. The central bank can set either the short-term interest rate or the quantity of bank reserves (but not both simultaneously) to whatever level is chosen. What factors determine the central bank’s optimal choice of which one to set, under each of the following sets of circumstances?

(a) The central bank is trying to come as close as possible to hitting a target for the money stock (defined as public holdings of bank deposits).

(b) The central bank is trying to come as close as possible to hitting a target for real output.

In answering each part, show explicitly what difference (if any) it makes whether the economy is subject to aggregate supply shocks or whether demand-type disturbances are the only ones the economy faces.

5. Under what conditions can a central bank’s prior announcements of its policy actions influence the macroeconomic effect of those actions? If the central bank is free to conduct a politically independent monetary policy, what determines whether it will then actually implement the actions it has announced? Be explicit about the assumptions on which your answer relies.

PART IV:
Answer TWO of the following THREE questions:

6. Consider an unemployed worker searching for work. Each period she draws a wage offer w from a distribution F(w). Assume that there are no quits or layoffs so once the worker accepts a job, she works at it forever. Assume that wages in future periods are discounted by \beta.

(a) Write a Bellman equation that characterizes the value of an optimal search policy given a current offer of w.

(b) The optimal policy is to set a reservation wage. Explain what this means and write an equation that implicitly defines the reservation wage.

(c) Suppose that the worker only receives a wage offer with probability \phi each period. Explain in words or equations what happens to the reservation wage and why?

(d) Suppose that the worker receives two wage offers each period. Explain in words or equations what happens to the reservation wage and why?

7. Consider the following open economy macroeconomic model

(1) Y = f(K, L)
(2) W/P = f_L
(3) Y = C(Y) + G + NX(e, Y)
(4) e = EP^*/P
(5) M/P = L(Y)

Where asterisks denote foreign variables, NX is net exports, E is the nominal exchange rate and all other variables have their usual interpretations.

(a) What is the sign of \partial NX/\partial e? Explain.

(b) Suppose that workers and firms set nominal wage contracts:

W = \bar{W}

What is the effect of a change in M or in G on Y?

(c) Suppose that wages are indexed to the CPI:

W = \bar{w}P^{\alpha}(EP^*)^{1-\alpha}

What is the effect of a change in M or in G on Y?

8. Suppose that price in a market is initially equal to zero, but is expected to rise linearly with time:

p(t) = \alpha t.

Suppose that you have a machine that costs k to install and once installed produces a unit flow of output. Time is continuous and the date zero present value of a dollar at date t is e^{-rt}.

(a) At what date t should you have the machine installed in order to maximize profits?

(b) What is the present value of profits at the optimal time of investment?

(c) What is the value of Tobin’s Q at the optimal time of investment? What did Tobin argue should be the relationship between Q and investment? Speculate about what is special about the case considered here.

Source: Department of Economics, Harvard University. Past General Exams, Spring 1991-Spring 1999, pp. 84-88. Private copy of Abigail Waggoner Wozniak.

Image Source: Harvard University Economics PhD graduates from May 2025.

Categories
Economics Programs M.I.T.

M.I.T. Report of the Visiting Committee on the Economics and Statistics Department, 1924

A century ago economics at M.I.T. was struggling to grow beyond being a mere service department for science and engineering students, having particular emphasis on the intersection of engineering and administration. The following two-page report of the M.I.T. Corporation’s Visiting Committee on the Department of Economics and Statistics (1924) provides us relatively little programmatic grist to grind, so I have chosen to let the report speak for itself and add notes regarding the members of the 1924 Visiting Committee.

The Committee included one of the members of the Jekyll Island group responsible for an initial draft of the proposal for a Federal Reserve System (Frank Arthur Vanderlip), a Harvard-educated man from the Forbes family business (William Cameron Forbes), and my personal favorite, one of the co-founders of Thom McAn’s Shoes (New Hampshire shoe manufacturer, J. Franklin McElwain).  Personal favorite because in high-school and the summer before going off to college, I worked as a floor salesman for Thom McAn at the Parmatown Mall.

_________________________

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

REPORT OF THE
CORPORATION VISITING COMMITTEE ON THE
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS

Submitted March 12, 1924

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

TO THE CORPORATION OF THE MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY:

                  The Visiting Committee on the Department of Economics and Statistics begs to report as follows:

                  Your committee met at the Union Club on January 7, 1924. There were present Messrs. Vanderlip, McElwain, Miller, Humphreys, and Forbes, chairman. We were privileged to have President Stratton as our guest, and Professor [Davis Rich] Dewey brought with him Professors [Martin Joseph] Shugrue, [Erwin Haskell] Schell, [Willard Eldridge] Freeland and Mr. [Oscar William] Hausserman of his department.

                  At our meeting last year, there was discussion as to the possibility of limiting the course in engineering administration. This limitation has been effectively accomplished by making the conditions of entrance somewhat more drastic, the number reported for this year being three hundred fifty-one as compared with three hundred eighty-four last year, and four hundred sixty-four in 1922. There has also been a falling off of twenty-three in the course in Elementary Economics.

                  Your committee again agreed on the importance and necessity of an advisory council, to be selected from different industries in different localities and thus to put the Department in touch with representative people whose industrial enterprises are benefited by the training given to young men capable of entering their service. It is believed that the Department is now taking steps to secure such a council, and it is expected that the Visiting Committee will invite the advisory council to sit with it at least once a year.

                  The need was pointed out in the last report of your committee for an auditorium or lecture hall sufficiently large to hold the entire class in Elementary Economics or in Engineering Administration. This need is recognized by President Stratton and we are assured that in making plans for the future an effort will be made to provide such a room.

                  In this year’s budget for the Department an appropriation for an additional assistant professor of accounting was recommended and was allowed. Professor Dewey reports that as yet he has been unable to fill this position as he has not found the right person. But efforts are under way to secure a suitable appointee. Meanwhile an instructor has been secured who is assisting in this direction.

                  Your committee recommended last year that a fifth-year course is desirable and that the staff of the Department be increased by two additional members, to be selected primarily for their research ability and qualification in some specialized field of economics. These men would enable the Department to provide extra courses in subjects usually covered by business schools and not covered by the Institute, such as railroad economics, public utilities, foreign trade, etc. This would give a broader curriculum and an opportunity for advanced students to obtain a master’s degree. We beg to repeat this recommendation and urge that whenever funds of the Institute are available, such increase in staff and courses be established.

                  We repeat, too, the recommendation of last year that a man be employed to travel from plant to plant where students of the Institute are taking vacation or even term time employment and supervise their work, making sure that they are getting the most out of it and giving the best service to it. As this travelling would not necessarily take his whole time, such an officer could be of great assistance to the Department while not travelling, and could supervise the theses requirements in the fourth year.

                  Your committee, in closing, calls attention to the low scale of salaries paid in the Department and the difficulty encountered in obtaining and retaining men of the class needed with the meager salaries allowed, and urges that wherever possible more liberal salaries be paid for the staff of this important Department.

Respectfully submitted,

W. CAMERON FORBES, Chairman
J. FRANKLIN McELWAIN
WALTER HUMPHREYS
FRANKLIN T. MILLER
FRANK A. VANDERLIP
LESTER D. GARDNER

Source:  M.I.T. Archives. Office of the President. Box 426. Folder “Economics, 1924, 1936-37”.

_________________________

Meet the Visiting Committee of the M.I.T. Corporation

Chairman. William Cameron Forbes (1870-1959).

Life member of the Corporation, 1913-51. Life Member Emeritus 1951-1959.

      • A.B. Harvard 1892.
      • Becomes partner in J. M. Forbes & Co., merchants, 1899.
      • Governor-General of the Philippine Islands, 1909-13.
      • Overseer of Harvard University from 1914-20.
      • Ambassador to Japan, 1930-32.
      • Obituary in The Boston Globe (26 December 1959).
James Franklin McElwain (1874-1958).

Term member of the Corporation, 1919-24.

Franklin Thomas Miller (1873-1940).

Term member of the Corporation, 1920-25.

      • S.B. (M.I.T.) in naval architecture, 1895.
      • Assistant Secretary of Commerce under Herbert Hoover as secretary of commerce.
      • Director of the Division of Construction in the Department of Labor during WWI.
      • Retired in 1927 after serving as publisher of architectural and engineering magazines.
Walter Dexter Humphreys (1874-1970).

Alumni term member of the Corporation, 1923-28.
Life member of the Corporation, 1929-1960.
Secretary of the Corporation, 1929-1960.

Frank Arthur Vanderlip (1864-1937).

Life member of the Corporation, 1916-37.

      • Begins serious career in journalism as the city editor of the Aurora Evening Post (Illinois), 1885.
      • Becomes financial editor at the Chicago Tribune, 1892. Takes extension course in political economy at the University of Chicago.
      • Assistant Secretary of the Treasury 1897-1901.
      • November 1910, at the invitation of Senator Nelson Aldrich, Vanderlip joined a small group of leading bankers on a train to Jekyll Island that would lead to the early plans for the Federal Reserve system.
      • President of National City Bank 1909-19.
      • Finding Aid to the Frank Arthur Vanderlip papers at Columbia University (includes short biography).
Lester Durand Gardner (1876-1956).

Term member of the Corporation, 1922-27.

Image Source: M.I.T. Museum website, Great Court with Dome, [April 5,] 1924. Object ID: GCP-00030328.

Categories
Harvard Math Statistics

Harvard. Career of Math Ph.D. turned Economist/Operations Researcher, J. L. Holley, 1950-1959

Thumbing through the economics department correspondence at the Harvard archives, I came across a file for the mathematics Ph.D., Julian Laurence Holley, who had tried both insurance and finance, but found himself returning to Harvard for graduate work in economics. Ultimately he ended up doing applied operations research for the Pentagon with a published trail in mathematical economics consisting of two short pieces, one of which was published in Econometrica, “Note on the Inversion of the Leontief Matrix”. I pieced together his time-line for this post. Analogous to not all heroes wearing capes, we have here an example that demonstrates not all serious economic researchers bear Ph.D.’s in economics. 

____________________________

Julian Laurence Holley

Born: 25 Aug 1898 in Bristol, Connecticut.

1917-18. Attended Williams College.

WWI Service in the Harvard Naval Unit..

1921. A.B. (specialized in physics and mathematics), Harvard. Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude, Highest Honors in Mathematics.

1922. A.M. (Mathematics), Harvard.

1924. Ph.D. (Mathematics), Harvard. Thesis: Linear spaces and their fixed points.

1924-25. Benjamin Peirce Instructor of Mathematics, Harvard.

1925-27. Business Administration course at the Bryant & Stratton Commercial School of Boston (emphasis on accounting). First year work at the Northeastern University Evening Law School. Several special courses at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

1927-28. Six months working in the actuarial department at the Aetna Life Insurance Company (Hartford, Connecticut). Passed the first two actuarial examinations.

1928-29 [ca.]. Temporary job in personnel work.

1929-1936. Investment Counsel on the research staff of Loomis, Sayles & Company at their Boston headquarters. Organized and ran the department of bank and insurance stocks and supervised work on investment trust issues.

1936-37

 Economics 101 Economic Theory

A
Economics 141 Principles of Money and Banking

B+
Economics 121a1 Theory of Economic Statistics, I

½ A
Economics 121b2 Theory of Economic Statistics, II

½ A-

1937-38

 Economics 116 Price Theory and Price Analysis

A+
Economics 103a1 Trends in Modern Economic Theory

½ A+
Economics 1152 Selected Problems in Advanced Economic Theory

½ A

1937-39. Instructor and Tutor in Economics, Harvard, in elementary economics (Economics A) and assisted in accounting (Economics 26b).

1940. Joined the staff of the War Production Board. [WWII Draft registration: still employed at War Production Board as of February 1942].

Revenue estimator for the U.S. Treasury.

1946. Married Helen Amelia Lewis (b. 14 June 1900; d. 14 January 2002) in D.C. 1 January 1946. No children. Her A.B. was from Mount Holyoke College, 1922. M.Ed., 1941 Boston University.

1950 Census. Employed as Mathematician for the U.S. Department of the Air Force. [wife employed as economist with the Internal Revenue Service]

1951. [His affiliation: U.S. Air Force]. “Note on the Inversion of the Leontief Matrix” in Econometrica, Vol. 19, Issue 3, pp. 317-320. [Perhaps he was with Project SCOOP (Scientific Computation of Optima Programs) established 1947-48, a Pentagon -based U.S. Air Force research program]

1954. [His affiliation: Melpar, Inc., subsidiary of Westinghouse Air Brake Company, Alexandria Virginia] “Letter to the Editor—Waiting Line Subject to Priorities” in Journal of the Operations Research Society of America. Vol. 2(3), pp. 341-343.

Final position: Senior mathematician and member of the principal staff of the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University.

Died: 22 Feb 1959

Sources: Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics, Correspondence and Papers (UAV 349.11) Box 16, Folder “Holley, Julian Laurence”.
Obituaries: Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), 23 February 1959, p. 16; Boston Globe, 23 February 1959, p. 38.

Image Source: Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), 23 February 1959, p. 16.

Categories
M.I.T. Theory

M.I.T. Reading list for Economics of Uncertainty. Diamond and Maskin, 1978

About three decades lie between the following course on the economics of uncertainty jointly taught at M.I.T. in 1978 and the respective awards of economics Nobel prizes to Eric Maskin (2007, mechanism design) and Peter Diamond (2010, economics of search). Still a solid reading list.

_________________________

14.145 Economics of Uncertainty
P. A. Diamond and E. S. Maskin

Fall 1978

Reading List

TEXT

Diamond and Rothschild, UNCERTAINTY IN ECONOMICS, READINGS AND EXERCISES, Academic Press.

REFERENCES

    1. Arrow, ESSAYS IN THE THEORY OF RISK BEARING.
    2. De Groot, OPTIMAL STATISTICAL DECISIONS.
    3. Drèze, ALLOCATION UNDER UNCERTAINTY.
    4. Ferguson, MATHEMATICAL STATISTICS: A DECISION THEORETIC APPROACH.
    5. Raiffa, DECISION ANALYSIS.

READINGS (* refers to required readings)

I. Individual Choice (Static)

A. Criterion

1.

 Tamerin, J. and H. Resik, “Risk taking by individual option–Case Study–cigarette smoking in perspectives on benefit-risk decision making,” National Academy of Engineering, 1972 in Diamond-Rothschild.

2.

 Tversky, A. and D. Kahneman, “Judgment under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases,” SCIENCE (September 27, 1974), in Diamond-Rothschild.

3.

 Tversky, A. and D. Kahneman, “Value theory: An analysis of choices under risk.”

4.

 Milnor, “Games Against Nature,” in DECISION PROCESSES, edited by G. Thrall, 1954.

5.

 Maskin, Decision making under ignorance, with implications for social choice, Theory and Decision, forthcoming.

6.

 Radner, R. and M. Rothschild, “On the Allocation of Effort,” JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC THEORY (1975).

7.

 Kunreuther, H., “Economic Analysis of Low Probability Events.”

*8.

 Drèze, J., “Axiomatic Theories of Choice…,” in Drèze, ALLOCATION UNDER UNCERTAINTY.

*9.

 Arrow, Chapter 2.

B. Comparative Statics

*10.

 Pratt, J., “Risk Aversion in the Small and in the Large,” ECONOMETRICA (January 1964), 122-36, in Diamond and Rothschild.

*11.

 Arrow, K., Chapter 3.

*12.

 Rothschild, M. and J. Stiglitz, “Increasing Risk: I. A Definition,” JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC THEORY (September 1970), 225-243, in Diamond and Rothschild.

*13.

 Rothschild, M. and J. Stiglitz, “Increasing Risk: II. Its Economic Consequences,” JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC THEORY (March 1971), 66-70, 78-80 only.

*14.

 Yaari, M., “Some Remarks on Measures of Risk Aversion and on their Uses,” JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC THEORY (October 1969), 315-29, in Diamond and Rothschild.

15.

 Dasgupta, P., A. Sen, and D. Starrett, “Notes on the Measurement of Inequality,” JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC THEORY (1973).

16.

 Diamond, P. and J. Stiglitz, “Increases in Risk and in Risk Aversion,” JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC THEORY (1974).

*17.

 Leland, H., “Saving and Uncertainty: The Precautionary Demand for Saving,” QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS (August 1968), in Diamond and Rothschild.

18.

 Hahn, F., “Savings and Uncertainty,” REVIEW OF ECONOMIC STUDIES (1969).
II. Equilibrium (Traditional)

*19.

 Debreu, G., THEORY OF VALUE, Chapter 7, pp. 98-102 in Diamond and Rothschild.

*20.

 Arrow, Chapter 4.

21.

 Hirshleifer, J., “Investment Decisions under Uncertainty–Choice Theoretic Approaches,” QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS (November 1965), 509- .

22.

 Radner, R., “Competitive Equilibrium Under Uncertainty,” ECONOMETRICA (1968), 31-58, in Diamond and Rothschild.

*23.

 Diamond, P., “The role of a stock market in a general equilibrium model with technological uncertainty,” AER (September 1967), 759-776, in Diamond and Rothschild.

*24.

 Grossman, S., “A Characterization of the Optimality of Equilibrium in Incomplete Markets,” JET, June, 1977.

25.

 Dreze, J., ALLOCATION UNDER UNCERTAINTY, Chapters 4,5,8.

26.

 Hart, O., “On the optimality of equilibrium when markets are incomplete,” JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC THEORY (1975).

27.

 Leland, H., “Capital asset markets, production, and optimality: A Synthesis,” IMSSS TECHNICAL REPORT.

28.

 Gould, “Inventories and Stochastic Demand: Equilibrium Models of the Financial Industry, J. BUSINESS, Jan. 1978, 1-42.

29.

 Lucas, Jr., Robert E., “Asset Prices in an Exchange Economy.”

30.

 Diamond, “Efficiency with Price Uncertainty,” mimeo.
III.  Adverse Selection: Signalling and Screening

*31.

 Akerlof, G., “The Market for Lemons: Qualitative Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism,” QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS (August 1970), 488-500, in Diamond and Rothschild.

32.

 Spence, M., “Job Market Signaling,” QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS (August 1973), in Diamond and Rothschild.

*33.

 Spence, M., “Competitive and Optimal Responses to Signals: Analysis of Efficiency and Distribution,” JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC THEORY (March 1974).

34.

 Riley, J., “Competitive Signalling,” JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC THEORY (1975).

35.

 Riley, J., “Competitive Signalling: Further Remarks.”

36.

 Wilson, C., “A Model of Insurance Markets with Asymmetric Information,” JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC THEORY, 1977.

*37.

 Rothschild, M. and J. Stiglitz, “Equilibrium in Competitive Insurance Markets,” QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS (1976), in Diamond and Rothschild.

38.

 Stiglitz, J. E., “The Theory of ‘Screening,’ Education, and the Distribution of Income,” AER (1975).

39.

 Wilson, C., “The Nature of Equilibrium in Markets with Adverse Selection,” SSRI #7715, 1977.
IV. Moral Hazard

40.

 Pauly, M., “Overinsurance and the Public Provision of Insurance,” QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS (1974), 44-62 in Diamond and Rothschild.

41.

 Shavell, S., “On Moral Hazard and Insurance.”

42.

 Spence, M. and R. Zeckhauser, “Insurance, Information and Individual Action,” AER (May 1971), 380-87 in Diamond and Rothschild.

43.

 Diamond, P. and J. Mirrlees, “A Model of Social Insurance with Variable Retirement,” M.I.T. Economics Working Paper No. 210.

44.

 Mirrlees, J., “Notes on Welfare Economics, Information and Uncertainty,” in Balch, McFadden et al., ESSAYS ON ECONOMIC BEHAVIOR UNDER UNCERTAINTY.

*45.

 Spence, M., “Consumer Misperceptions, Product Failure and Producer Liability,” REVIEW OF ECONOMIC STUDIES (1977).
V.  Information

*46.

 Hirshleifer, J., “The Private and Social Value of Information and the Reward to Inventive Activity,” AER (1971), 561-74, in Diamond and Rothschild.

*47.

 Arrow, K., “Uncertainty and the Welfare Economics of Medical Care,” AER (1963), 941-73 (also in Arrow, and in Diamond and Rothschild).

48.

 Arrow, K. and A. Fisher, “Preservation, Uncertainty, and Irreversibility,” QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS (May 1974), 312-19.

49.

 Cheung, S., “Transaction Costs, Risk Aversion and the Choice of Contractual Arrangements,” JOURNAL OF LAW AND ECONOMICS (April 1969), 23-42, in Diamond and Rothschild.

50.

 Nelson, P., “Advertising as Information,” JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS (July 1974).

51.

 Lucas, R., “Expectations and the Neutrality of Money,” JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC THEORY (April 1972).

*52.

 Danthine, “Information, Future Prices and Stabilizing Speculation,” JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC THEORY, (Feb. 1978).

*53.

 Blackwell and Girschick, THEORY OF GAMES AND STATISTICAL DECISIONS (last chapter).
VI. Individual Choice (Sequential)

54.

 De Groot, OPTIMAL STATISTICAL DECISIONS, Chapters 12-14.

55.

 Kohn, M. and S. Shavell, “The Theory of Search,” JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC THEORY (October 1974), 93-123.

56.

 Rothschild, M., “A Two-Armed Bandit Theory of Market Pricing,” JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC THEORY (1974).

*57.

 Rothschild, M., “Searching for the Lowest Price When the Distribution is Unknown,” JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY (July 1974), in Diamond and Rothschild.

58.

 Lippman, S. and J. McCall, “The Economics of Job Search: A Survey,” ECONOMIC INQUIRY.

59.

 Axell, B., “Prices under Imperfect Information, A Theory of Search Market Equilibrium.”

60.

 Wilde, L., “Labor Market Equilibrium under Nonsequential Search,” JET, 1977.

*61.

 Weitzman, M., “A Basic Result in the Theory of Optimal Search,” M.I.T. Working Paper, 373-93.

VII.  Equilibrium with Search

62.

 Pratt, J., D. Wise, and R. Zeckhauser, “Price Variation in Almost Competitive Market.”

63.

 Rothschild, M., “Models of Market Organization with Imperfect Information,” JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY (November 1973), 1283-1308, in Diamond and Rothschild.

64.

 Salop, S. and J. Stiglitz, “Bargains and Ripoff,” REVIEW OF ECONOMIC STUDIES (1977).

65.

 Lucas, R. and G. Prescott, “Equilibrium Search and Unemployment,” JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC THEORY (February 1974), 188-200, in Diamond and Rothschild.

*66.

 Butters, G., “Equilibrium Distributions of Prices and Advertising,” REVIEW OF ECONOMIC STUDIES (1977), in Diamond and Rothschild.

67.

 Diamond P., “Welfare Analysis of Imperfect Information Equilibria,” BELL JOURNAL, Spring 1978.

68.

 Salop, S., “The Noisy Monopolist,” REVIEW OF ECONOMIC STUDIES (1977).

69.

 Mortensen, D., “Job Matching Under Imperfect Information.”

*70.

 Diamond and Maskin, “Search, Liquidated Damages, and Breach of Contract,” M.I.T. Working Paper.

*71.

 Diamond and Maskin, “Search Effort and Breach of Contract,” M.I.T. Working Paper.

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

Image Sources: Peter A. Diamond (Credit: Donna Coveny/MIT, 2003) in “An Interview with Peter Diamond” in Macroeconomic Dynamics (2007) p. 544. Eric S. Maskin (1980). From the MIT Museum Museum website’s Biographical/Subject Files Collection .