Author: Irwin Collier

Categories
M.I.T. Suggested Reading Syllabus

M.I.T. Monetary economics, reading lists. Ando and Modigliani, 1960-61

 

 

Franco Modigliani first came to M.I.T. as a visiting professor in 1960-61 from the Carnegie Institute of Technology before returning in 1962 after only one year at Northwestern. His former Carnegie Tech student Albert K. Ando was already on the M.I.T. faculty and the partial reading lists for their jointly taught courses can be found in Modigliani’s papers at Duke’s Economists’ Papers Archive. 

Readings and final exam from the monetary theory course taught by Modigliani at Northwestern in 1961 have been posted earlier.

Note: I have inserted part of the reading list on monetary policy from Modigliani’s course at Carnegie Tech in the term immediately preceding his visiting professorship at M.I.T. This insertion is motivated by last sentence in the course description in the M.I.T. catalogue that includes the topic “the role of money in policy”.

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Monetary Economics course enrollments
1960-61

Fall 1960.  14.461 Monetary Economics, A. K. Ando. 14 students.

Spring 1961.  14.192 Economics Seminar—Monetary Economics. Ando/Modigliani. 7 students.

Source: M.I.T. Archives. Department of Economics, Records. Box 3, Folder “Teaching Responsibility”.

_____________________

Course Announcement
Fall, 1960

14.461 Monetary Economics

Prereq.: 14.451 [Theory of Income and Employment]
Year: G(1)

Review of theory of income determination, with explicit attention to monetary parts of the model. Examination of sources and determinants of supply of money with attention to role of commercial banks, Federal Reserve System, and the Treasury. Exploration of both theory and fact about demand for money for transactions and for speculative purposes. Discussion of general equilibrium theory of money, interest, prices and output, and role of money in policy.

Ando, Modigliani

Source:   Massachusetts Institute of Technology Bulletin, 1960-61, p. 243.

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Modigliani
Ando
Fall, 1960

Monetary Economics
14.461

We assume that students are familiar with the elementary price theory and income theory, i.e., that they have taken 14.121, 14.122, 14.451, and 14.452. We also assume that students have some material ordinarily covered in the elementary course in Money and Banking. Those who feel that they need to refresh their memory of the latter may consult:

Steiner, Shapiro, Solomon, Money and Banking, Parts I, II, and III.

Day and Beza, Money and Income, Parts I and III.

Hart, Money, Debt, and Economic Activity, 2nd edition, Part I.

Chandler, The Economics of Money and Banking, 3rd edition.

  1. The nature of money and the position of money in the balance sheet for the United States: An Introduction

Tobin, J., Manuscript, Chs. 1 and 2.

Robertson, D. H., Money, Chs. 1 to 3.

Meade, J. E., “The Amount of Money and the Banking System,” Readings in Monetary Theory.

The Federal Reserve System—Purposes and Functions, Chs. I to VIII and XIII.

Modigliani, F., Lecture Notes No. 1-3.

Federal Reserve Bulletin, August, 1959, “A Quarterly Presentation of Flow of Funds, Saving, and Investment.”

Roosa, R. V. Federal Reserve Operations with Money and Government Securities Market.

  1. Demand for Money

This year, we shall postpone the discussion of the demand for money arising from various forms of uncertainty until later in the course, and confine ourselves in this section to dealing with the demand for money due to the existence of the cost of transaction.

    1. Why is demand for money different from demands for consumption goods?

Samuelson, P. A., Foundations, pp. 117-124

Marschak, J., “The Rationale of the Demand for Money and of ‘Money Illusion’,” Metroeconomica, August, 1950, Sections 1 and 2.

    1. Classical theory (Equation of Exchange and Cambridge Equation).

Fisher, I., The Purchasing Power of Money, Chs. 1 to 6 and 8.

Robertson, D. H., Money, Chs. 4 to 6.

Marshall, A., Official Papers, pp. 32-54.

Keynes, J. M., A Treatise on Money, Chs. 9-19.

Wicksell, K., Interest and Prices, Chs. 3 and 5 to 8.

Gregory, T. E., The Gold Standard and Its Future, Chs. 1 and 2.

Hicks, J. R., “A Suggestion for Simplifying the Theory of Money,” Readings in Monetary Theory.

Keynes, J. M., The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, Ch. 15.

Pigou, A. C., “The Value of Money,” AEA Readings in Monetary Theory, pp. 162-185.

Friedman, M., “The Restatement of the Quantity Theory of Money,” in Studies in the Quantity Theory of Money.

    1. More modern theory of transaction demand for money.

Tobin, J., Manuscript, Chapter 4, Sections 1 and 2, Appendix to Chapter 4.

Tobin, J., “The Interest Elasticity of Transaction Demand for Cash,” Review of Economics and Statistics, August, 1956, pp. 241-47.

Baumol, W. J., “The Transaction Demand for Cash,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, November, 1952.

Lecture notes, 3-6, 9 and 10.

    1. Some empirical evidence.

Bresciani-Turroni, The Economics of Inflation, Chs. 2, 4, and 5 (see also J. Robinson’s review in Economic Journal, September, 1938).

League of Nations, The Course and Control of Inflation, Part I.

Cagan, P., “The Monetary Dynamics of Hyper-Inflation,” in Studies in the Quantity Theory of Money, (M. Friedman, ed.)

Kisselgoff, A., “Liquidity Preference of Large Manufacturing Corporations,” Econometrica, October, 1945.

Latane, H. A., “Cash Balances and the Interest Rate,” Review of Economics and Statistics, 1954, pp. 456-460.

Polak, J. and White, W. H., “The Effect of Income Expansion on the Quantity of Money,” in IMF Staff Papers, August, 1956.

Stedry, A.C., “A Note on Interest Rates and the Demand for Money,” RENS August, 1959.

Those who are not familiar with the elementary theory of inventory management should consult any one of the following:

Whitin, T., Theory of Inventory Management, Chapters 2 and 3.

Arrow, K. J., Karlin, and Scarf, Studies in the Mathematical Theory of Inventory and Production, Chapters 1 and 2.

Arrow, K. J., Harris, and Marschak, “Optimal Inventory Policy,” Econometrica, July 1951.

  1. Analysis of the place of money in the economy—general equilibrium theory of money, prices, and employment.
    1. Neo-classical theory: the case of flexible prices and perfect markets.

Marschak, J., “The Rationale of the Demand for Money and Money Illusion,” Metroeconomica, 1950, pp. 71-160.

Modigliani, F., Preliminary Notes on the Theory of Money and Interest, Part I, II, and III, Section A to D (2).

Patinkin, D., Money, Interest, and Prices, An Integration of Monetary and Value Theory.

Patinkin, D., “A Reconsideration of the General Equilibrium Theory of Money,” Review of Economic Studies, Vol. 18, 1950-51.

De Scitovsky, T., “Capital Accumulation, Employment, and Price Rigidity,” Review of Economic Studies, Vol. 8, pp. 69-88.

Pigou, A. C., “Economic Progress in a Stable Environment,” Readings in Monetary Theory.

Metzler, L., “Wealth, Saving, and the Rate of Interest,” JPE, April, 1951.

Archibald, G. C., and Lipsey, R.G., “Monetary and Value Theory: A Critique of Lange and Patinkin,” Review of Economic Studies, October, 1958.

    1. Keynesian theory: the effects of rigid prices.

Keynes, J. M., The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, Chs. 2, 6, 10, 11, 18, 19, 21 including appendix.

Hicks, J. R., “Mr. Keynes and the Classics,” Readings in the Theory of Income Distribution.

Modigliani, F., “Liquidity Preference and the Theory of Interest and Money,” Readings in Monetary Theory

Modigliani, Preliminary Notes, Part IV.

Pigou, A. C., Employment and Equilibrium.

Tobin, J., Manuscript, Chs. 5-6.

(To be continued)

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archives. Franco Modigliani Papers. Box T6, Folder “Economic Fluctuation and Growth, 1961”.

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From: Course outline and major references, GI-583—Advance Economics III (Monetary Theory and Macro-Economic Analysis), Carnegie Institute of Technology, Spring Term 1960.

[Applications of the model to Economic Analysis and Policy]

  1. a) The causes of unemployment

(i) “Monetary” causes

(ii) Effective demand and the limits of monetary policy—Fiscal policy.

(iii) Real wage rigidity, market structures and the limits of monetary and fiscal policy

b) Creeping inflation and its causes—Cost push and demand pull

c) Implications for economic policy

Modigliani, Preliminary notes, Part IV section A.6 and C.6

Hart, A. G., Money, Debt and Economic Activity, Part V

Timlin, P., A MODEL OF THE CURRENT INFLATION—B.A. Thesis, Swarthmore College (Mimeographed) Ch. I

Joint Economic Committee, U.S. Congress—THE RELATIONSHIP OF PRICES TO ECONOMIC STABILITY AND GROWTH—COMPENDIUM March, 1958

(See especially: A. P. Lerner, “Inflationary Depression and the Regulation of Administered prices”) and G. Ackley, “A Third Approach to the Analysis and Control of Inflation”)

Selden, R., Cost Push versus Demand Pull, JPE Feb. 1959

WAGES, PRICES, PROFITS AND PRODUCTIVITY—The American Assembly, Columbia University

Schultze, C. THE RECENT INFLATION IN THE UNITED STATES. Joint Economic Committee, 1959

 

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archives. Franco Modigliani Papers. Box T6, Folder “Economic Fluctuation and Growth, 1961”.

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List of Suggested Books
for Review in 14.461

Pigou, A. C., Employment and Equilibrium

Friedman, M., A Program for Monetary Stability

Hansen, B., Theory of Inflation

Hansen, B., Economic Theory of Fiscal Policy

Gurley, J. G., and Shaw, E., Money in a Theory of Finance

Faxen, K. O., Monetary and Fiscal Policy under Uncertainty

Botha, D. J., A Study in the Theory of Monetary Equilibrium

Hall, C. A., Fiscal Policy for Stable Growth

Buchanan, J. M., Public Principles of Public Debt

Musgrave, R. A., The Theory of Public Finance

Patinkin, D., Money, Interest, and Prices

Robinson, J., Accumulation of Capital

Sraffa, P., Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archives. Franco Modigliani Papers. Box T6, Folder “Economic Fluctuation and Growth, 1961”.

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Course Announcement

14.192 Economics Seminar

Prereq.: 14.121 [Economic Analysis (first term)]
Year: G(1)

Special social problems or economic problems of particular industries. (Open to graduate students only.)

Source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Bulletin, 1960-61,  p. 242.

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Spring Term, 1961
Franco Modigliani
Albert Ando

14.192
Monetary Economics

  1. Preliminary Discussion of the Theory of Decision Making Under Uncertainty

Friedman, M., “Choice, Chance, and Personal Distribution of Income,” Journal of Political Economy, 1953, pp. 277-290.

Friedman, M., and Savage, L. J., “The Utility Analysis of Choices involving Risk,” JPE, 1948, pp. 279-304, reprinted in AEA Readings in Price Theory.

Dreze, J., and Modigliani, F., Consumer’s Behavior under Uncertaintydittoed notes.

Tobin, J., “Liquidity Preference as Behavior Toward Risk,” The Review of Economic Studies, February, 1958

Tobin, J., Manuscript, Ch. 3

Markowitz, H. M., Portfolio Selection

Hirschleifer—“Risk, the Discount Rate and Investment Decisions”—AER, Vol LI, No. 2 May 1961, pp. 112-120

Those who are not familiar with the standard theory of decision making under uncertainty should consult the following:

Luce, R. D., and Raiffa, H., Games and Decisions: Introduction and Critical Survey, Chs. 2, 13, and 14

Raiffa, H., and Schlaifer, R. O.,Applied Statistical Decision Theory, Preface and Introduction, Ch. 1.

 

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archives. Franco Modigliani Papers. Box T6, Folder “Economic Fluctuation and Growth, 1961”.

Image Source: Albert K. Ando from the MIT Museum, People Records. Franco Modigliani from Gonçalo L. Fonseca’s History of Economic Thought website.

 

Categories
Exam Questions History of Economics M.I.T. Suggested Reading Syllabus

M.I.T. History of Economic Thought. Misc. Readings and exams. Samuelson, 1973-78

 

Scattered across several folders in the Paul Samuelson Papers at Duke are course materials from the graduate history of economic course regularly offered by Samuelson in the 1970s. Not included below are a few class lecture handouts and class lists also in the folders. Instead I have just transcribed the suggested reading lists or Dewey library course reserve lists and two final exams found in the folders. 

I did not take this course, once having sat in on a Marxian economics lecture that consisted of Paul Samuelson commenting on his textbook’s appendix “Rudiments of Marxian Economics”. Perhaps the arrogance of my youth got the better of me, but I thought there were other courses that were going to teach me something that I had not already learned so I am now condemned to trying to reconstruct his course content from such scraps as these we find in his archival record. Maybe a visitor to this page of Economics in the Rear-view Mirror has saved notes from the course?

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14.132 FALL 1973
HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT
P. SAMUELSON

SUGGESTED READINGS

1. FOR BACKGROUND

T. Kuhn
THE STRUCTURE OF SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION

and parts or all of any sample of secondary sources, such as those by Roll, Gray, Gide-Rist, brief Schumpeter (1912), Heilbroner.

FOR BIOGRAPHY

Keynes
ESSAYS IN BIOGRAPHY

Schumpeter
TEN ECONOMISTS

H. Spiegel
GREAT ECONOMISTS ON GREAT ECONOMISTS

2. BASIC BACKGROUND REFERENCE

Perhaps the basic background reference is the posthumous, uneven classic:
J. S. Schumpeter
HISTORY OF ECONOMIC ANALYSIS

A valuable, MIT-graduate-school kind of reference is
Marc Blaug
ECONOMIC THEORY IN RETROSPECT

3. ON RICARDO, you should at least sample

Sraffa edition
PRINCIPLES

Useful readings are:

Blaug

Baumol
ch 2 in ECONOMIC DYNAMICS

Stigler in
HISTORY OF ECONOMICS

Sraffa
his introduction to the PRINCIPLES

Kaldor
his brief section in 1954 RES “Alternative Theories of Distribution”

Models of Ricardo-like systems

Pasinetti
Samuelson
Edelberg

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Paul Samuelson Papers, Box 33, Folder “14.132 Fall 1973”.

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14.132 FALL 1974
HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT
P. SAMUELSON E 52-394

SUGGESTED READINGS

1. FOR BACKGROUND

T. Kuhn
THE STRUCTURE OF SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION

and parts or all of any sample of secondary sources, such as those by Roll, Gray, Gide-Rist, brief Schumpeter (1912), Heilbroner, Cannan, Recktenwald’s POLITICAL ECONOMY: A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

FOR BIOGRAPHY

Keynes
ESSAYS IN BIOGRAPHY

Schumpeter
TEN ECONOMISTS

H. Spiegel
GREAT ECONOMISTS ON GREAT ECONOMISTS

2. BASIC BACKGROUND REFERENCE

Perhaps the basic background reference is the posthumous, uneven classic:
J. S. Schumpeter
HISTORY OF ECONOMIC ANALYSIS

A valuable, MIT-graduate-school kind of reference is
Marc Blaug
ECONOMIC THEORY IN RETROSPECT

3. First Topic of land and the interest rate: Turgot, Böhm-Bawerk and Keynes-Modigliani

Böhm-Bawerk, Vol I, Ch. 4
„Land and the Rate of Interest“: also Samuelson (1958, 1968, 1974)
Modigliani (1954, 1974)
Diamond (1965)

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Paul Samuelson Papers, Box 33, Folder “14.132 Fall 1973”.

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14.132 Fall 1975
STORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT
P. A. SAMUELSON E52-394
FRIDAY 1:30-3:30

SUGGESTED READINGS

1. FOR BACKGROUND

Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolution
and parts or all of any sample of secondary sources, such as those by Roll, Gray, Gide-Rist, brief Schupeter (1912), Heilbroner, Cannan’s Review of Economic Theory, Recktenwald’s Political Economy: A Historical Perspective.

FOR BIOGRAPHY

Keynes, Essays in Biography

Schumpeter, Ten Economists

H. Spiegel, Great Economists on Great Economists [not in Dewey Library]

2. BASIC BACKGROUND REFERENCE

Perhaps the basic background reference is the posthumous, uneven classic:
J. A. Schumpeter, History of Economic Analysis

A valuable, MIT-graduate-school kind of reference is
Mark Blaug, Economic Theory in Retrospect

For fruits of Marx’s hours in the British Museum, see
K. Marx, Theories of Surplus Value (many volumes, and sometimes called Vol. IV of Das Kapital)

Readable and scholarly essays are collected in
G. J. Stigler, Essays in the History of Economics

3. First topic of Quesnay’s Tableau Economique:

Any text like Gray, Peter Newman, Roll, Schumpeter;
Meek on Physiocracy, and edited volume;
A. Phillips, QJE, 1955;
S. Maital, QJE, 1972.

4. Topic of land and the interest rate: Turgot, Böhm-Bawerk and Keynes-Modigliani

Böhm-Bawerk, Vol I, Ch. 4, “Land and the Rate of Interest,” also,
Samuelson (1958, 1968, 1974)
Modigliani (1954, 1974)
Diamond (1965)

5. Modern model of Ricardo

6. Transformation problem of Marx

7. Smith, Adam

8. ….

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Paul Samuelson Papers, Box 33, Folder “14.132 Fall 1975”.

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Samuelson
To be placed on reserve for 14.132

Mass. Inst. Tech.
FEB 14 1977
DEWEY RESERVE

McLellan. Karl Marx: His Life and Thought

Luxemburg. Accumulation of Capital

Sweezy. Theory of Capitalist Development

Robinson. An Essay on Marxian Economics

Dobbs. History of Theories of Distribution [sic, Theories of Value and Distribution since Adam Smith: Ideology and Economic Theory]

Morishima. On Marxian Economics [sic, Marx’s Economics]

Schumpeter. History of Economic Analysis

Roll. History of Economic Thought 

Alexander Gray. The Development of Economic Doctrine

[Metzler Lloyd] Festschrift. (Trade, Stability and Macroeconomics) edited by G. Horowitz and P. Samuelson.

Reprints

Samuelson

Samuelson’s “Reply on Marxian Matters”

Insight and Detour in the Theory of Exploitation: A Reply to Baumol

Understanding the Marxian Notion of Exploitation: A Summary of the So-Called Transformation Problem Between Marxian Values and Competitive Prices

Marx as a Mathematical Economist

 

Journals

Review of Economic Studies, Vol. 2, 1934-35

American Economic Review, March 1938.

 

[Appendix: Rudiments of Marxian Economics (from Samuelson Economics, pp. 858-)]

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Paul Samuelson Papers, Box 33, Folder “14.132 Spring 1977”.

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14.132 Final Exam
History of Economic Thought
P. A. Samuelson
May 20, 1977

ANSWER (1) OR (2) QUESTIONS.

  1. Describe any aspects of the classical economists’ system that primarily interests you.
  2. Describe the doctrines of some one historical economist or school in which you have an interest.
  3. Analyze any aspects of Marxian economics that you think are of relevance to economic history and policy.

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Paul Samuelson Papers, Box 33, Folder “14.132 Spring 1977”.

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Reserve List, MIT Libraries
14.132 History of Economic Thought
Spring 1978

D. L. Thomson, Adam Smith’s Daughters, Exposition Press, 1973.

L. Robbins. An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science. Macmillan, 1935 and 1962.

M. Blaug, Economic Theory in Retrospect. Richard D. Irwin, 1962.

I. H. Rima. Development of Economic Analysis. Irwin, 1972.

H. W. Spiegel,The Growth of Economic Thought. Prentice-Hall, 1971.

Alexander Gray, Development of Economic Doctrines. Longman, Green and Co. 1934.

T. W. Hutchinson, A Review of Economic Doctrines, 1870-1929. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1953.

Thomas Sowell, Classical Economics Reconsidered, Princeton U. Press, 1974.

Eric Roll, A History of Economic Thought. Faber and Faber, 1973.

Eric Roll, The World After Keynes, Praeger, 1968.

J. A. Schumpeter, History of Economic Analysis. Oxford U. Press, 1954.

G. L. S. Shackle. The Nature of Economic Thought. Cambridge U Press, 1966.

J. A. Schumpeter, Ten Great Economists. Oxford, 1965.

R. L. Meek. Precursors of Adam Smith. Dear (London), 1973.

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Paul Samuelson Papers, Box 33, Folder “14.132 Spring 1978”.

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14.132 Take-Home Exam
Spring 1978

Answer any one of these questions or any two or all three.

  1. Describe some topic covered in this course that you find to be of interest. Discuss its broad significance; or concentrate in depth on any aspect of the problem that you believe to be worth exploring. Do not hesitate to let your imagination soar.
  2. Describe some aspect or aspects of what we call neoclassical economics. If you wish, compare and contrast it with earlier classical economics; or with later Keynesian economics; or with the Marx-inspired economics that developed around the same time.
  3. Thomas Kuhn attempted to throw light on how the natural sciences tend to develop. If any part of his paradigms seems to you useful in any part of the history of economic thought, describe the use. If you have criticisms to make of the Kuhnian methodology, feel free to enlarge on them.

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Paul Samuelson Papers, Box 33, Folder “14.132 Spring 1977”.

Image Source:  Capture of the photos page from the Paul Samuelson memorial webpages at the MIT economics department (date of Wayback Machine capture May 22, 2011)

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Statistics Suggested Reading

Harvard. Final exam for course on national income accounting. Crum, 1938

 

William Leonard Crum (1894-1967) taught economic statistics at Harvard from 1923-1948 before finishing his career at the University of California, Berkeley. He taught an undergraduate one-semester course, “The National Income”, only twice. In the extensive but incomplete Harvard archival collection of course final examinations I have only been able to find the final for the second term of the 1937-38 academic year. Full course reading lists were not in the course syllabi and outlines collection, but the reading period assignments for both years could be found.

_________________

Course Enrollments,

1937-38

[Economics] 21b2 hf. Professor Crum — The National Income.

Total 7: 1 Graduate, 4 Seniors, 2 Juniors.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1937-38, p. 85.

 

1938-39

[Economics] 21b2 hf. Professor Crum — The National Income.

Total 3: 2 Graduates, 1 Senior.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1938-39, p. 98.

_________________

Reading Period

May 9- June 1, 1938

Economics 21b: Read either of the following:

Colin Clark, National Income and Outlay, Chs. I-V, and VII.
R. F. Martin, National Income and Its Elements (entire).

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1937-1938”.

 

May 8- May 31, 1939

Economics 21b: Choose one of the following:

National Industrial Conference Board, National Income in the United States, 1799-1938 (entire book).
Simon Kuznets, Commodity Flow and Capital Formation, National Bureau of Economic Research, 1938 (Part II and Part III).

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1938-1939”.

_________________

Final exam, 1938

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Economics 21b2

(Omit two of the first six questions, and omit one of the last two)

  1. (a) Outline the main items, listing as plus and minus, which must be covered in estimating national income by the net value product method.
    (b) Discuss the chief theoretical and practical points relating to the estimated allowance for depreciation.
  2. (a) Comment upon the main problems encountered in determining the net value product of “government”, considered as an “industry”.
    (b) Name two chief “transfer” items, and indicate – for each – how it should be treated in national income estimates, and why.
  3. (a) Discuss with care the way in which the accounting practice relative to inventory valuation affects estimates of national income.
    (b) Comment upon the place of “additions to business surplus” in the simple concepts of national income. Indicate whether this surplus-additional item can be estimated directly, or only indirectly.
  4. (a) What is meant by “entrepreneurial withdrawals”, and on what basis are they in general estimated? Give your view of the validity of such estimates, with reasons.
    (b) To what extent do the methods customarily employed in estimating the distribution of national income according to particular categories give a satisfactory appraisal of any oneof the four main types discussed in economic theory – wages, interest, rent, profits?
  5. (a) Discuss the place of capital gains in national income estimates.
    (b) What is meant by capital formation? What are the leading obstacles to a satisfactory measurement thereof?
  6. (a) Given an online account of the relation between size of income (of individuals) and the main sources from which income is derived. How, in general, does the business cycle affect these relationships?
    (b) What is meant by real income? Name and discuss two chief obstacles to the measurement thereof.
  7. (Clark) Name, and common briefly upon, the chief differences in method of estimating national income, as between Great Britain and the United States.
  8. (Martin) Four main types of entrepreneurs are distinguished – farmers, retail-store proprietors, service establishment owners, professional practitioners. Comment upon the data available for estimating incomes of these groups, and give your views as to the validity of such estimates.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Final examinations, 1853-2001. Box 3, Folder “Final examinations, 1937-1938”.

Image source: Portrait of William Leonard Crum from the Harvard Class Album, 1946.

 

Categories
Economist Market Gender Harvard Statistics

Harvard. Placement suggestions Philip G. Wright or Anne C. Bezanson for Bryn Mawr, 1916

 

The archival artifact that begins this post is a straight-forward response to a letter requesting possible leads for a junior faculty appointment in statistics at Bryn Mawr. It was written by Harvard assistant professor of economics Edmund Ezra Day (who would later go on to be the president of Cornell University–see link below) to a historian colleague at Bryn Mawr who had likewise done his graduate work at Harvard.

Two persons were identified by Day as eligible candidates, the Radcliffe graduate Anne C. Bezanson (about whom more can be found in an earlier post dedicated to her remarkable career) and a 54 (!) year-old economics graduate student Philip Green Wright. It turns out that Wright (with some collaboration with his son, the statistical geneticist Sewall Wright) is the rightly celebrated discoverer of instrumental-variables estimation. Relevant links to the story of Philip Green Wright and instrumental variables, including those to presentation materials as well as videos from a Tufts University Celebration of the 150th anniversary of Philip Green Wright’s birth,  will be found below after Day’s letter.

There appears no expression of irony when Day writes “…if you are ready to appoint a woman, it will repay you to consider Miss Bezanson carefully”.  Bryn Mawr was after all one of the so-called “Seven Sisters” (the Ivy League of women’s colleges).

________________________

Copy of Reference Letter from E. E. Day (Harvard) to H. L. Gray (Bryn Mawr)
re: Philip Wright and Anne C. Bezanson

March 21, 1916

Dear Howard,

Your recent letter was most welcome despite its obviously professional intent and largely professional content! I am glad to learn that you find life bearable in Bryn Mawr. That will serve as a preliminary report; in time I expected more exciting and promising announcement!

Regarding candidates for the new position in prospect in your department, I find it difficult to write anything at all definite. [John Valentine] Van Sickle is hardly available yet; he is still a couple of years from his degree and will probably not go out until he can take his Ph.D. with him. Furthermore, there is every prospect that, when he is fully prepared, he will command substantially more than the $1200 you mention.

The two students who would seem to be eligible for the position you describe are Philip G. Wright, rather an instructor than a student, and (if you would consider a woman), Miss Annie C. Bezanson. Neither holds the doctor’s degree, but both are very thoroughly capable students. Both are entirely capable of giving the instruction in statistics. Wright is a man well along in years, who for twenty-odd years taught mathematics and economics at Lombard College, Illinois, and, despite that fact, retains his intellectual vitality remarkably. He is perhaps a bit lacking in aggressiveness in classrooms, but is none-the-less an effective instructor. (You would probably have to pay $2000 to get him)

Miss Bezanson is a Radcliffe student whom I have had in both the elementary theory and graduate statistics courses. In the latter, last year, she did “A” work. She comes this year for her “generals “and any recommendation would be conditional upon her passing the examination credibly; but the staff expects her to pass with a large margin. It seems to me that, if you are ready to appoint a woman, it will repay you to consider Miss Bezanson carefully. Prof. [Frank] Taussig will write further details regarding both Wright and Miss Bezanson if you are interested. [Edwin Francis] Gay, too, has seen a good deal of Miss Bezanson’s work.

Let me know if I can be of further assistance to you, Howard. Mrs. Day joins me in warm regards.

Cordially yours,

[copy unsigned, Edmund Ezra Day]

Professor Howard L. Gray

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics, Correspondence and Papers 1930-1961 and some earlier. Boxt 26, Williams–Young. Folder “Wright, Philip Green”.

 

______________________

Biographical sketch of Philip Green Wright

“At Lombard, Philip taught economics, mathematics (including calculus), astronomy, fiscal history, writing, literature and physical education; he also ran the college printing press. Philip had a passion for poetry and used the press to publish the first books of poems by a particularly promising student of his, Carl Sandburg….

“…In 1912, Philip and Sewall [Philip’s son, a statistical geneticist] moved to Massachusetts. Philip took a visiting position teaching at Williams College, and Sewall entered graduate school at Harvard. In 1913, Philip took a position at Harvard, first as an assistant to his former advisor, Professor Frank W. Taussig, then as an instructor. Taussig was subsequently appointed head of the U.S. Tariff Commission in Washington, D.C. In 1917, Philip left Harvard for a position at the Commission, then in 1922 took a research job at the Institute of Economics, part of what would shortly become the Brookings Institution….

“…While at Harvard, in addition to his 1915 review of Moore’s book, he wrote a number of articles in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, and while at Brookings, he wrote several books and published articles and reviews in the Journal of the American Statistical Association, the Journal of Political Economy and the American Economic Review. Some of his writings used algebra and calculus, typically following graphical expositions. Although Philip wrote on a wide range of topics, the identification problem was a recurrent theme in his work (P. G. Wright, 1915, 1929, 1930). In his later years, Philip was particularly concerned about tariffs, and he wrote passionately about the damage being done by recent tariff increases to international relations (P. G. Wright, 1933).

“…In our view, this evidence points toward Philip as being both the author of Appendix B and the man who first solved the identification problem, first showed the role of “extra factors” in that solution and first derived an explicit formula for the instrumental variable estimator. Yet, as historians of econometrics like Christ (1985) and Morgan (1990) point out, a greater mystery remains: Why was the breakthrough in Appendix B ignored by the econometricians of the day, only to be reinvented two decades later?”

Source: James H. Stock and Francesco Trebbi. “Who Invented Instrumental Variable Regression?” Journal of Economic Perspectives. Vol. 17, No. 3 (Summer, 2003), pp. 177-194.

______________________

Three Worthwhile Links

Philip G. Wright, The Tariff on Animal and Vegetable Oils, 1928.

Philip Green Wright’s c.v.

James Stock’s webpage: “The History of IV Regression”.

______________________

Philip Green Wright, Double Jumbo and Inventor of IV Regression
Sesquicentennial of the birth of Philip G. Wright
Tufts University Economics Department, October 3, 2011

Presentations

James Stock’s slides “Philip Green Wright, the Identification Problem in Econometrics, and its Solution“.

Joshua D. Angrist’s slides “Instrumental Variables in Action“.

Kerry Clark’s slides “Philip and Sewall Wright: The Invention of Instrumental Variables Regression“.

“Remembrances” by Philip Green Wright’s Grandchildren.

Video of the event
(Warning: poor audio)

Part 1:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INbip-UFluo

Opening remarks by Chairman of the Tufts economics department: Professor Enrico Spolaore
Welcome by the President of Tufts University. Anthony Monaco
James Stock begins at 8:20

Part2:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvcfNk7rBn0

James Stock continues up to 9:20
Kerry Clark (AB Economics, Harvard 2012) begins at 10:30 [Ms. Clark’s other Harvard activities: Women’s Varsity Lacrosse, Center for History and Economics, Quincy Grille Manager, and Harvard University Women in Business. According to Linked In, she works at Citi)

Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NWWCRaj4_Q

Kerry Clark continues to 5:20
Joshua Angrist begins at 7:30

Part 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp7g-L69MNU

Joshua Angrist continues for entire part 4

Part 5 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3BPifHzex4

Brief Q&A
Grandchildren remember from 7:45 to 22.30

Image: Portrait of Philip G. Wright from James Stock presentation

 

Categories
Economic History Economists Suggested Reading Syllabus Undergraduate Yale

Yale. Undergraduate European Economic History through the Industrial Revolution. Miskimin, 1971

 

Reflecting on my own academic upbringing, I am increasingly amazed at the sheer abundance of economic history courses still offered at Yale and MIT in the 1970s. My first taste of economic history came with Harry Miskimin’s course on the economic history of Europe up through the Industrial Revolution. I later took a graduate course he offered on French mercantilism. I remember well the sage advice he gave me to postpone work in economic history to first get trained in the analytic tools of economics, since he thought I apparently could handle the demands of economics graduate school. I believe he was the only professor I ever had who actually smoked (cigarettes) in class. 

From the Yale Daily News Archives I learned that Harry Miskimin later served as president of the Yale chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). There is a low-resolution picture of Miskimin in his mature years in the article linked.

Below are the assigned readings for the European economic history course from the Fall Term, 1971-72.

_________________

Harry Miskimin
100% Yalie

Harry Alvin Miskimin, Jr. was born September 8, 1932 in Orange, New Jersey. He died October 24, 1995.

B.A. Yale, 1954; M.A. Yale, 1958; Ph.D. Yale, 1960. From instructor to professor history Yale University, New Haven, since 1960, associate professor, 1964-1971, professor history, since 1971, chairman department history, 1986-1989, Charles Seymour Professor of History, since 1991.

_________________

Harry Miskimin
Obituary Note

Post by Wendy Plotkin
H-Urban Co-Editor
14 January 1996

1995 saw the death of Harry A. Miskimin, the Charles Seymour Professor of History at Yale University in October. According to a press release received from H-Net Central in December, Professor Miskimin was

“An authority on the economic history of medieval and early modern Europe” and “the author of five books, including The Economy of Early Renaissance Europe, 1300-1460and The Economy of Later Renaissance Europe, 1460-1600both of which were translated in Spanish and Portuguese; Money and Power in Fifteenth Century France, Money, Prices and Foreign Exchange in Fourteenth Century Franceand Cash, Credit and Crisis in Europe, 1300-1600.”

Professor Miskimin was general editor of four volumes of the Cambridge University Press series “The Economic Civilization of Europe.”

Of special interest to H-Urban subscribers, Miskimin co-edited THE MEDIEVAL CITY with A. Udovitch and D. Herlihy (Yale University Press, 1977). This collection included:

    1. The Italian City

Herlihy, “Family and property in Renaissance Florence”
Krekic, B., “Four Florentine commercial companies in Dubrovnik (Ragusa) in the first half of the fourteenth century”
Lane, F. C. “The First Infidelities of the Venetian Lire”
Cipolla, C. M. “A Plague Doctor”
Kedar, B.Z. “The Genoese Notaries of 1382”
Hughes, D. O. “Kinsmen and neighbors in Medieval Genoa”
Peters, E. Pars, parte: “Dante and an Urban Contribution to Political Thought”

    1. The Eastern City

Udovitch, A. L. “A Tale of Two Cities”
Goitein, S. D. “A Mansion in Fustat”
Prawer, J. “Crusader Cities”
Teall, J. “Byzantine Urbanism in the Military Handbooks”

    1. The Northern City:

Miskimin, H. A. “The Legacies of London”
Munro, J. “Industrial Protectionism in Medieval Flanders”
Strayer, J.R. “The Costs and Profits of War”
Hoffmann, R. C. “Wroclaw Citizens as Rural Landholders”
Cohen, S. “The Earliest Scandinavian Towns”

Professor Miskimin was noted for his work on the “beginning of the transition from medieval to modern economies.” I am interested in reflections on this and other work of Professor Miskimin.

After obtaining his undergraduate and graduate education at Yale, he spent the rest of his career teaching at Yale College, serving as director of graduate studies for the Economic History Program after 1967.

On leave from Yale, Miskimin was for a period director of studies at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes in Paris. Although his intellectual work was on the medieval period, he participated in present day activities in his community, serving as a zoning commissioner for the Town of Woodbridge 1976-85, a member of the Woodbridge Democratic Town Committee and a board member of the Woodbridge Town Library.

Professor Miskimin was born in 1932 in East Orange, New Jersey, graduated from Phillips Andover Academy in 1950, and was in the U.S. Army from 1955-57.

Source: Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online

_________________

Yale University
History 51 a – Economics 80a
Mr. Miskimin
Fall Term 1971-72

The readings from this course will be in diverse sources but the student may find it convenient to purchase the books of Herbert Heaton (Economic History of Europe rev. ed., Harper & Bros., New York, 1948) and Henri Pirenne (Economic and Social History of Mediaeval Europe, Harvest Books, Harcourt, Brace, New York.)

Sept. 17

 First Class

20

 Heaton, Chapters 4, 5

22

 Heaton, Chapters 6, 7

24

 Pirenne, pp. 38-86

27

 Pirenne, pp. 87-140

29

 Pirenne, pp. 141-188

Oct. 1

 Heaton, Chapter 8

4

 Heaton Chapters 9, 10

6

 Cambridge Economic History of Europe, vol. 2, pp. 433-441, 456-92

8

 Pirenne, pp. 188-end
(Rec. Miskimin, The Economy of Early Renaissance Europe.)

11

 Heaton, Chapters 11, 12

13

 Hamilton, E. J., American Treasure and the Price Revolution in Spain, 1601-1650. Scan thoroughly

15

 Continue Hamilton

18

 Cambridge Economic History of Europe, vol. IV, pp. 1-95.

20

 Nef, J. U., Industry and Government in France and England, 1540-1640, Great Seal Books, Cornell University Ithaca, 1957. Also in Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society, vol. XV, 1940. First half.

22

 Finish Nef

25

 Green, R.W., ed., Protestantism and Capitalism—The Weber Thesis and its Critics, D.C. Heath & Co., Boston. First half.

27

 Finish Green

29

 Heaton, Chapters 13, 14

Nov. 1

 Heaton, Chapter 15

3

 Heaton, Chapter 16

5

 Viner, Jacob, Studies in the Theory of International Trade, Harper Brothers, New York. Chapter 1

8

 Viner, Chapter 2

10

 Cipolla, C. M., “The Decline of Italy,” Economic History Review, 1952, pp. 178-87. Hamilton, E. J., “The Decline of Spain,”Economic History Review, 1938, pp. 168-79

12

 Review Heaton, Chapters 13-16

15

 Hour Test (paper may be substituted)

17

 Wilson, C.H., “The Economic Decline of the Netherlands,” Economic History Review, 1939, pp. 111-127

19

 Heckscher, Eli, Mercantilism. Rev. ed., George Allen & Unwin, Ltd., London, 1955, Vol. I, pp. 78-109

22

 Heckscher, Vol. I, pp. 137-78

24

 Heckscher, Vol. I, pp. 178-220

26

 Helleiner, K.F., ed., Readings in European Economic History, University of Toronto Press, 1946. Section by R. H. Tawney, pp. 143-82

29

 Helleiner, Section by Tawney, pp. 183-223

Dec. 1

 Bowden, Karpovitch, and Usher, An Economic History of Europe since 1750, pp. 45-66; Cambridge Economic History, IV, chapter V, pp. 276-308

3

 Bowden, Karpovitch, and Usher, pp. 146-96

6

 Ashton, T.S., The Industrial Revolution, 1760-1830. First third.

8

 Ashton, Second third

10

 Finish Ashton

13

 Taylor, Philip, ed., The Industrial Revolution—Triumph or Disaster? D.C. Heath & Company, Boston.

15

 Rostow, W.W., The Stages of Economic Growth, a Non-Communist Manifesto, Cambridge University Press, 1960, pp. 1-35

17

 Rostow, W.W., The Stages of Economic Growth, a Non-Communist Manifesto, Cambridge University Press, 1960, pp. 36-72

 

Source: Personal copy of Irwin Collier.

Image Source: Harry Miskimin’s 1954 Yale yearbook portrait.

Categories
Chicago Third Party Funding

Chicago. Sources of private graduate fellowship funding, 1905-1923

 

To give a sense of the real magnitudes involved below, here the following table that provides estimates of annual expenses exclusive of tuition for thirty-six weeks of a student residing with the quadrangles in 1919.

Lowest

 Average

Liberal
Rent and care of room

$60.00

 $105.00

$225.00
Board

$162.00

 $193.00

$240.00
Laundry

$18.00

 $30.00

$45.00
Textbooks and stationery

$10.00

 $20.00

$50.00

Total

$250.00

 $353.00

$560.00

Source:  University of Chicago.  The Colleges and Graduate Schools. Circular of Information Vol. XIX, No. 4 (April 1919), p. 9.

______________________

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
STATEMENT OF THE
POLITICAL ECONOMY FELLOWSHIPS

In February, 1905, through the efforts of members of the Department of Political Economy, the sum of $1,000.00, in the form of ten gifts of $100.00 each from Chicago business men was received, to be used for Special Fellowships in the Department of Political Economy. This was the beginning of an interest which has continued year by year with gifts of varying amounts, and which gives promise at the present time of increasing, inasmuch as larger gifts from new sources have recently been received. As reported by the President to the Board of Trustees at the meeting held May 18, 1922, Marshall Field III, now of New York, proposes to give $1,000.00 annually until such time as he is able to provide the principal sum which will yield an annuity of that amount. His first payment of $1,000.00 was received on April 14, 1922.

Since 1905 to date, a total of $12,190.00 has been contributed by the following:

 

Hart, Schaffner & Marx $4,640. A. C. Bartlett $ 100.
Marshall Field I 100. Ira N. Morris 100.
Marshall Field III 1,000. Victor Moravitz 100.
George M. Reynolds 300. Stuyvesant Fish 100.
C. R. Crane 1,100. Santa Fe Railway Co. 100.
Frank O. Lowden 850. H. H. Swift 2,000.
Samuel Insull 800. P. Wasburg 100.
Byron L. Smith 375. From friends, through J. L. Laughlin 425.

During the period, a total of $9,668.94 has been used for fellowships, leaving a balance of $2,521.06 unused. Only three fellowships are being used at the present time, but plans are under way for extensive work under these fellowships for the year 1923-24.

The contributions and expense of the fellowships by years are as follows:

Year Gifts Expended for Fellowships
1904-05 $1,000.00
1905-06 600.00 $1,600.00
1906-07 720.00 640.00
1907-08 670.00
1908-09 325.00 650.00
1909-10 720.00 386.65
1910-11 820.00 347.21
1911-12 820.00 1,011.09
1912-13 645.00 1,136.53
1913-14 325.00 463.19
1914-15 645.00 249.97
1915-16 620.00 792.77
1916-17 172.22
1917-18 320.00
1918-19 11.11
1919-20 320.00 88.88
1920-21 320.00 541.66
1921-22 2,320.00 300.00
1922-23 (part) 1,000.00 1,277.66
$12,190.00 $9,668.94
Balance                   2,521.06
$12,190.00 $12,190.00

Respectfully submitted,
[Signed]
N. C. Plimpton

March 31, 1923

 

Source: University of Chicago Archives. Office of the President. Harper, Judson and Burton Administrations. Records. Box 43.   Folder “Fellowships, 1896-1924”.

 

Categories
Economists Gender Harvard Radcliffe Vassar

Harvard/Radcliffe. Economics Ph.D. alumna, Ethelwynn Rice Beckwith, 1925

 

Economics in the Rear-view Mirror is conceived as a long-term project. I am seeking artifacts and information about the curriculum that has shaped young economists as well as the about the “products” of the curriculum, i.e. the undergraduate economics majors and Ph.D. graduates.

Yesterday I randomly went into the annual report of the President of Radcliffe College to begin to follow another career of a woman Ph.D. in economics. And so the post for today was born. Who was Ethelwynn Rice Beckwith, Radcliffe Ph.D. 1925?

The first item below is  all that is easy to know about her biography and career. From that point it takes some digging into genealogical archives (www.ancestry.com) and luck. Her vital dates: b. January 7, 1879 in Hartford, Connecticut; d. August 31, 1955 in Manitawoc, Wisconsin. She was married right out of college to William Erastus Beckwith [b. October 17, 1870 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts; d. June 26, 1904 in Wailuku, Hawaii] on July 2, 1900 in Lorain County Ohio. The couple moved to Hawaii where William was a “clerk at Custom House” at least as early as 1898. In 1905 she was living alone as a teacher at the Emma Willard School in Troy, N.Y. In the U.S. Census of 1910 she was recorded as a widow, living in Cleveland, Ohio as a boarder (April 16, 1910). To make things more complicated I have found a ship manifest that indicates Ethelwynn Beckwith was a cabin passenger, designated as “married”, on a ship from Yokohama (!) that arrived in Honolulu September 16, 1910 (with her ultimate destination given as San Francisco). We can go on to follow the young woman mathematician moving from Bryn Mawr to Western Reserve University to Göttingen in Germany and to Vassar before going for her graduate work at Radcliffe. From mathematics to economics, but then back to mathematics and astronomy at the Milwaukee women’s Downer College. 

So why didn’t Ethelwynn do mathematics at Radcliffe? I’ll leave that to a historian of U.S. mathematics. Feel free to leave a comment below.

The maternal genealogy of William Erastus Beckwith (p. 80) is covered back to 1635. The best I can determine through the ancestry.com, William Erastus Beckwith was no close relation to Holmes Beckwith (Columbia Ph.D., 1913).

___________________

Radcliffe Ph.D., 1925

Ethelwynn Rice Beckwith, A.M.

Subject, Economics. Special Field, Statistics. Dissertation, “Inequalities in the Distribution of Income, their Meaning and Measurement.”

Source: Radcliffe College. Report of the President of Radcliffe College 1924-25, p. 26.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Dissertation included in the bibliography of Arthur Lyon Bowley (ed.) Studies in the National Income, 1924-1938,  (Cambridge UK, 1942), p. 218.

___________________

C.V. through 1925

Ethelwynn R. Beckwith, A.B., M.A. Assistant Professor of Mathematics

A.B., Oberlin, 1900; [Ph.B.]
M.A., Western Reserve University, 1909;
Principal of Wauluku, Hawaiian Islands, 1902-03
Teacher of Mathematics, Emma Willard School, 1905-07 [Troy, New York]
Graduate Student, Bryn Mawr, 1907-08
Graduate Student, Western Reserve University, 1908-09
Graduate Student, University of Göttingen, 1912-13
Instructor, Western Reserve University, 1913-17; Assistant Professor, 1917-20
Acting Assistant Professor of Mathematics, Vassar, 1921-.
Member Mathematic Association of America.

Source: Vassar College Yearbook, The 1922 Vassarion, vol. 34. p. 25.

Note:  In the Poughkeepsie City Directory of 1925, Ethelwynn R. Beckwith was still listed as assistant professor at Vassar.

___________________

Downer College (Milwaukee, Wisconsin)
Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy
1925-1947

Lawrence University (Appleton, Wisconsin) Archives

Milwaukee-Downer College People Files, 1850-1964. Series 1: A-L
Folder 15: Beckwith, Ethelwynn Rice, professor of Mathematics 1925-1947.

Finding aid on line.

___________________

Died as a result of an automobile accident

From a Sheboygan Press (Wisconsin) article published Saturday, August 27, 1955.

Mrs. Ethelwynn R. Beckwith, 77, of 2827 N. Farwell Ave., Milwaukee…was reported still in critical condition this morning at Holy Family Hospital in Manitowoc.

A retired professor of mathematics and astronomy at Milwaukee-Downer College, Mrs. Beckwith was still unconscious 28 hours after the accident. She sustained a skull fracture.

Driver of the other car, Louis Leischow, 66, of Forestville, died several hours after the accident. The coroner attributed death to a crushed chest.

Killed outright in the two-car collision was Miss Elizabeth Rossberg, 67, of 2512 E. Harford Ave., Milwaukee…

…The accident occurred shortly before 9 a.m. Friday [August 26] when cars driven by Leischow and Mrs. Beckwith collided head on on Highway 141, 1 1/2 miles south of Newton.

Sheriff deputies said the crash occurred when Mrs. Beckwith’s northbound car veered across the center line into the path of an auto driven by Leischow.

Miss Rossberg, professor of German at Milwaukee-Downer since 1912 and chairman of the curricula committee of the women’s college, was a passenger in the Beckwith auto.

She and Mrs. Beckwith had left Milwaukee early Friday morning to spend a week with friends near Ellison Bay in Door County, according to officials of the college….

___________________

Image Source: Two faculty portraits of Ethelwynn Rice Beckwith from the Yearbook for Wilwaukee-Downer College, Cumtux (1930, 1931).

Categories
Exam Questions Johns Hopkins

Johns Hopkins. Mid-year and end-year exams for undergraduate money and banking. Weyforth, 1930-31

 

William Oswald Weyforth, Jr.  (b. September 1, 1889; d. March 10, 1983) was the author of The Federal Reserve Board. A Study of Federal Reserve Structure and Credit Control. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1933. The book was reviewed by F.A. Bradford in the March, 1934 AER and by C. S. Tippetts in the June, 1934 JPE.

Research for an earlier monograph (The Organizability of Labor [1917] was begun while Weyforth was a member of the Economic Seminary at Johns Hopkins. 

Weyforth’s A.B. (1912) and Ph.D. (1915) were both from Johns Hopkins University. Before returning to the Johns Hopkins department of political economy he was an instructor at Western Reserve University, 1915-17.

____________________

Course Announcement and Description
3B. Money and Banking. Associate Professor Weyforth.

Three hours weekly through the year.(Mon., Tues., 9.30; Fri., 10.30.) Gilman Hall 313.

In the first part of this course the principles of money, credit and banking will be considered, with special reference to the operation of the American banking system. A study will be made of the functions of the modern commercial bank and of the relationship between the commercial bank and the business man. A large part of the course will be devoted to a consideration of the factors leading to the passage of the Federal Reserve Act, the changes in our banking system under that Act and problems in the management of the Federal Reserve System.

In the second part of the course the principles of international trade and exchange will be studies. Particular attention will be given to foreign exchange, foreign credits, foreign investments and in general to the problems of international finance.

Prerequisite: Political Economy 1C.

Source: Johns Hopkins University. The College of Arts and Sciences of the Johns Hopkins University, 1930-31, p. 33.

____________________

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Mid-Year Examination
POLITICAL ECONOMY 3
January 29, 1931

  1. What is meant by the monetary standard? Explain the following types of standards: gold standard, bimetallic standard, paper standard. What are the reasons for adhering to a gold standard?
  2. Explain carefully the quantity theory of money, showing the various limitations upon the theory. Does the fact that at times increases in prices may precede changes in the quantity of money nullify the theory. Explain.
  3. Describe briefly the various types of financial institutions that may function in meeting the financial requirements of corporations and explain the fundamental nature of the operations of each type.
  4. Describe an underwriting operation by a syndicate in the flotation of an issue of corporation bonds.
  5. Enumerate and describe the more important types of investment credit instruments. What are the fundamental commercial credit instruments? Explain their nature and use. What is the nature and importance of negotiability?
  6. What is the essential nature of a “demand deposit”? How do such deposits come into existence? How does the receipt of a cash deposit of $100,000 affect the lending power of an individual bank? How does it affect the lending power of the system as a whole? Explain fully.
  7. Why is it necessary for a commercial bank to maintain a cash reserve? What determines its amount? What is the importance of capital and surplus to a bank? How does a commercial bank invest its fund? What is the importance of liquidity in its investments? How is liquidity secured?

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Final Examination
POLITICAL ECONOMY 3
Wednesday, May 27, 1931 — 9 a.m.

  1. Give a brief survey of banking conditions in the United States leading to the organization of the National Banking System. Explain the defects that developed in that system and the history of the reform movement that eventually led to the establishment of the Federal Reserve System.
  2. In what way can the banking system of a country contribute to stability or instability of business conditions?
  3. Explain the manner in which the Federal Reserve System can affect the general level of prices. Discuss the limitations upon the powers of the Federal Reserve System in this respect.
  4. What is the nature of the business of commercial paper houses? Explain the financial services that they perform. How are installment sales financed? Describe the operations of the institutions that perform this type of financing.
  5. Describe the organization and operations (a) of the Federal Farm Loan System, (b) of the Federal Intermediate Credit Banks.
  6. Explain the manner in which international payments are effected by means of foreign exchange operations. Show how, through these operations, exports pay for imports. What is the basis of the contention that the United States ought to reduce its tariff rates if it expects the allied nations to pay their debts to us?
  7. What is meant by “department store” banking? What factors have been responsible for the consolidation of banks in recent years? What are the arguments for and against branch banking?

Source: Johns Hopkins University.Sheridan Libraries, Ferdinand Hamburger, Jr. Archives. Department of Political Economy Curricular Materials, Series 6, Box 2, Folder “Exams 1930-1935”.

Image Source: William Oswald Weyforth (ca. 36 years of age). Johns Hopkins University graphic and pictorial collection, Sheridan Libraries.

Categories
Chicago Exam Questions Fields

Chicago. Industrial Organization Prelim. 1977

 

The following five questions come from what appears to be a draft of the prelim exam in industrial organization for the Spring of 1977 that is found in the George Stigler papers at the University of Chicago. The draft clearly has the title “Industrial Organization Prelim” but the date is a handwritten addition. Also there is no explicit “University of Chicago”  to be found, though given the location in George Stigler’s papers, this identification seems rather certain.

___________________

[handwritten note:  5-2-77]

Industrial Organization Prelim

Answer all questions:

  1. It is sometimes alleged that periods of economic depression are more conducive to the growth of economic regulation than prosperity. Develop a theory which elaborates the link between the level of economic activity and the propensity to regulate. Include a discussion of whether the goals of regulatory agencies (old as well as new) are likely to differ with the level of economic activity.
  2. Sales of some firms are occurring at prices below average variable cost. Suppose there were no legal restrictions on merger. Under what conditions, if any, would the firms in the industry prefer merger as a means of reducing industry output?
  3. A recent treatise on antitrust law lists the following as among the factors favorable to collusion in an industry.
    1. No fringe of small buyers.
    2. Inelastic demand at competitive price.
    3. Entry takes a long time.
    4. Many customers.
    5. A standardized product.
    6. High ratio of fixed to variable costs.

Discuss for each factor the effect, if any, it has on probability of collusion.

  1. What problems for profit maximizing collusion among the firms in the book publishing industry would arise because of each of the following conditions:
    1. There are two classes of books, fiction and nonfiction. Publishers generally publish both types although some publishers specialize in nonfiction.
    2. Sales and profits from n fictional books behave like n independent random variables drawn from the same distribution. Sales of a given fictional book in a given year are independent of the sales in the previous year. There is a positive probability of sales coming to a halt in a given year and remaining zero thereafter.
    3. Nonfiction is of two types, textbooks and “how-to-do-it” books. The expected number of years of positive sales for a nonfiction book is greater than for a fiction book.
    4. Retail outlets and mail order sales are the only channels of distribution to the final users of books.
    5. The cost function of a book publisher is proportional to the number of titles and the quantity printed of each title.
    6. Every title has the protection of a copyright. Assume that the Xerox machine and similar devices do not exist.
    7. Anyone can arrange to have a book printed by a printing company and can arrange for its distribution.
  2. How do you explain the following empirical findings for manufacturing industries?

Let

Nit= number of companies in the 4-digit industry i in year t
Cit= 4-firm concentration ratio, industry i, year t.
Qit= index of real output industry i, year t
Rit= measured rate of return of all firms in industry i, year t.

    1. For each t, holing log Nitconstant, Ritis an increasing function of Cit.
    2. For each t, holding Citconstant, Ritis an increasing function of log Nit.
    3. For each t, Cit and log Nitare negatively correlated.
    4. Between 1947 and 1967 the correlation between the change in Citand the change in log Nitis 0.55.
    5. Between 1947 and 1967 the correlation between the change in Citand the change in log Nitis zero. The correlation is also zero between the change in log Qitand the change in Cit.
    6. There has recently been renewed interest in the social optimality of various devices for the public regulation of pollution. Among popular proposals to deal with the problem: emission taxes, subsidies for pollution control, transferable rights to emit pollutants, maximum limits on pollution discharges from each source. Assume that the optimality conditions for public regulation have been met. Evaluate the relative efficiency of these four devices and any others you wish to add to the list.

Source: University of Chicago Archives. George Stigler Papers, Addenda. Box 33, Folder “Exams & Prelim Questions”.

Image Source:  George Stigler page at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business website.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Socialism

Harvard. Exams on European labor movement and history of socialism. Rappard, 1912-13.

 

William Emmanuel Rappard (b. April 22, 1883; d. April 29, 1958) was the co-founder and director of the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva. At the 1947 inaugural meeting of the Mont Pèlerin Society, Rappard gave the opening address.  

You can see below from the excerpt from the 2000 article by Richard M. Ebeling about Rappard that he taught at Harvard during the 1911/12 and 1912/13 academic years. Besides a course “Economic Resources and Commercial Policy of the Chief European States” for students of business, William Rappard also taught courses on the European labor movement and the history of socialism in the economics department. Rappard left Harvard to accept a professorship at the University of Geneva following the death of d’Eugène de Girard.

This post provides course enrollments, descriptions and the final exams for these last two courses. From the examination questions it is clear that one important text for the courses was the published University of Chicago economics doctoral dissertation of Oscar D. Skelton, Socialism: A Critical Analysis (1911). [bibliography posted here at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror].

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Brief  Pre-war Biography

“…William Emmanuel Rappard was born in New York City on April 22, 1883, of Swiss parents, his father working in the United States as a representative of various Swiss industries. William Rappard did his graduate studies in economics at Harvard University from 1906 to 1908. During the academic year 1908-1909 he did additional study at the University of Vienna in Austria-Hungary, attending the seminars of Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk and Eugen Philippovich von Philippsberg, two of the leading figures of the Austrian school of economics before the First World War. And from 1911 to 1913, he was an adjunct professor [sic. Rappard’s first year was at the rank of instructor and his second year at the rank of assistant professor] of political economy at Harvard.

“In 1913 he was appointed professor of economic history and public finance at the University of Geneva in Switzerland. He also served as rector of the University of Geneva during 1926-1928 and 1936-1938. From 1917 to 1919, Rappard was a member of various Swiss diplomatic missions to Washington, D. C., London, and Paris, including service with the Swiss delegation to the peace conference in France that ended the First World War. He made a strong impression on President Woodrow Wilson and was highly influential in persuading him to choose Geneva as headquarters of the League of Nations beginning in 1920.

“From 1920 to 1925 he was the director of the Mandates Division of the League for overseeing the administration of colonial territories lost by the Central Powers at the end of the war, and was a member of the Permanent Mandates Commission of the League from 1925 to 1939. From 1928 to 1939 he also served as a member of the Swiss delegation to the annual meetings of the League’s General Assembly….”

*  *  *  *  *  *

The [above] brief summary of Rappard’s professional life draws from Albert Picot, Portrait de William Rappard(Paris: Editions de la Baconnière, 1963) and Victor Monnier, William E. Rappard: Défenseur des Libertés, Serviteur de Son Pays et de la Communauté Internationale (Geneva: Edition Slatkine, 1995).

Source: Richard M. Ebeling. “William E. Rappard: An International Man in an Age of Nationalism,” article posted at the Foundation for Economic Education Website (January 1, 2000).

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THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN EUROPE

ECONOMICS 6b
Course Description
1912-13

[Economics] 6b 2hf. Dr. Rappard. The Labor Movement in Europe. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 10.

After an introductory sketch of the Industrial Revolution and of its social consequences, a summary review will be made of the thought of the leading social reformers and Utopian socialists before 1848. The attitude of the chief European states towards the new problems of industrial life and the beginnings of factory legislation will be briefly examined. The Communist Manifesto will then be made the basis for a study of the aims and policies of the national and international socialist movement. The positive political and institutional achievements of the social movement of the nineteenth century will be summed up in conclusion.

Source: Harvard University. Division of History, Government, and Economics, Courses of Instruction, 1912–13, p. 62

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Economics 6b.
Course Enrollment
Spring term 1912-13

Economics 6b 2hf. The Labor Movement in Europe. Asst. Professor Rappard.

Total 30: 5 Graduates, 12 Seniors, 9 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 3 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1912-13, p. 57.

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Final Exam 1912-13
ECONOMICS 6b

Arrange answers in order of questions. Students who wrote theses will omit the first three questions.

  1. Enumerate five of the effects which Engels says the Industrial Revolution had on the manufacturing population of England. What were Engel’s chief sources of information?
  2. How does Sombart distinguish between (a) Rational Socialism (Utopian Socialism and Anarchism) and (b) Historical Socialism?
  3. What effect, according to Marx, does machinery have
    1. Upon real wages?
    2. Upon nominal wages?
    3. Upon “relative surplus-value”?
    4. Upon “absolute surplus-value”?
  4. Why is it customary to mention the English enclosure movement in dealing with the history of labor in Europe in the 19th century?
  5. What were the historical relations between the doctrines of Godwin, Malthus and Darwin?
  6. What was Chartism? Saint-Simonism? Which was more radical? More socialistic? Give reasons.
  7. Write a biography of Marx (300 to 500 words).
  8. Compare the views of Marx and Vaudervelde on “Capitalist Concentration.”
  9. Give chapter headings of a thesis on “The Socialist Movement in Germany, 1860-1890” in six or more chapters.
  10. Distinguish between (a) Socialism (b) Anarchism (c) Syndicalism.
  11. “From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs … To every laborer the entire product of his labor … At first sight, these two formulas are absolutely contradictory. We believe, however, that it is possible and necessary to reconcile them and to complete each by the other.” — Vaudewelde.
    How does the author do this? What practical suggestions does he make for arranging distribution in the socialist state?
  12. What difficulties does Skelton think a socialist state would encounter
    1. In administering the government?
    2. In determining what commodities should be produced?
    3. In distributing wealth?

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. Cambridge, MA., pp. 45-46.

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THE HISTORY OF MODERN SOCIALISM

Course Description
Economics 16. The History of Modern Socialism

This course will be divided into three parts. First, the works of Marx and Engels will be minutely analyzed and discussed. Then their sources will be studied with a view to ascertaining the historical origin of the different elements of scientific socialism. Finally the various recent interpretations, restatements, and criticisms of the Marxian doctrine will be examined.
The course will be conducted by means of reports and informal discussions. It will involve reading in German and French as well as in English.

Source: From the Division of History, Government, and Economics 1912-13. Official Register of Harvard University, p. 64.

Course Enrollment
Spring term, 1913

Economics 16. The History of Modern Socialism. Asst. Professor Rappard.

Total 4: 4 Graduates.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1912-13, p. 58.

Mid-year Exam 1912-13
ECONOMICS 16

  1. (a) When and where was Marx born? Where did he spend his childhood? Where did he receive his secondary school training?
    (b) What do you know of his ancestry? of his immediate family surroundings? of his relations to the Westphalens?
    (c) What were his first strong intellectual interests? Where and how were they aroused and stimulated?
    Discuss briefly the influence of these various factors on his later social philosophy.
  2. Give a chronological bibliography of Marx’s and Engels’s works down to 1870.

Answer any 4 of the following 6 questions.

  1. Is there any part of the Communist Manifesto which may with certainty be exclusively attributed to Marx? to Engels? State your reasons.
  2. When and how was Marx’s attention first called to economic matters? How do we know it?
  3. In which of Marx’s works would you look for the following passages?
    (a) “If the value of a commodity is determined by the quantity of labor required to produce it, it naturally follows that the value of labor, or wages, must be equally determined by the quantity of labor which is necessary to produce the wages.”
    (b) “In order to take place, revolutions must have a passive element a material basis. Theory is never realized in a people, except in sofar as it is the realization of the wants of the people.
    State your reasons.
  4. Where, in Marx’s works, do we find the first clear statement of the class struggle theory? Do you recall any case or cases in which he attempted to apply it to the actual interpretation of history? Did these attempts in any particular modify the doctrine as he first expounded it?
  5. How does Marx explain:—
    (a) the value: of unimproved land? of diamonds? of commodities produced by highly skilled labor?
    (b) the relation between higher prices and more abundant money, consequent upon the increased production of gold in the sixteenth century?
  6. To which work or works of Marx would you refer a student who, having a week at his disposal for the task, wished to become acquainted with his fundamental doctrines? State your reasons.

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

Final Exam 1912-13
ECONOMICS 16
June, 1913

  1. Fill out the blanks in the following table according to the Marxian phraseology and theory.
Con-
stant capital		 Vari-
able capital		 Rate of surplus value Capital con-sumed Indi-vidual rate of profit Value of commo-dities pro-duced Cost price of commodities produced Average rate of profit Price of com-modities Deviation of price from value
90 10 50% 20
80 20 50% 10
70 30 50% —
  1. “The theory of value which Marx presents is a variation of the familiar labor-value doctrine.” Discuss.
  2. State the Marxian theory of rent.
  3. What is meant by the Bernstein-Kautsky controversy? State three of the principal points involved, with the arguments advanced on both sides.
  4. What, according to Skelton, are the distinctive features of Utopianism? How does Skelton classify the Utopian doctrines?
  5. What, according to Skelton, are the two “quite distinct interpretations” of which the Marxian materialist conception of history is susceptible?
  6. “In spite of himself, Marx was the last of the classical economists.” How does Skelton justify this assertion?
  7. “Had the third volume of ‘Capital’ appeared at the same time as the first, little would have been heard about ‘exploitation’ from socialist platforms.” Why not, according to Skelton?

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. Cambridge, MA., pp. 54-5.

Image Source: William Emmanuel Rappard in the Harvard Class Album, 1912.