Author: Irwin Collier

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Exam Questions Johns Hopkins Undergraduate

Johns Hopkins. Undergraduate economics course exams, 1923

 

The archival collection of examinations in economics at Johns Hopkins University is extensive, if not complete. This post provides transcriptions for all the available copies of undergraduate examinations (along with course descriptions and staffing information) for the 1922-23 academic year. The Elements of Economics course was taught in three sections, the first of which (a) was designated as “academic” and the second (b?) was designated as “engineering”. It is not clear what the third section was except that it was taught by the lowest on the totem pole, the graduate student Robert C. Gillies, for whom a memorial from his Princeton Class of 1918 has been inserted into this post.

___________________

From the Princeton Alumni Weekly

ROBERT CARYLE GILLIES ‘18

In 1917, Bob Gillies left Princeton for war service. He rose to the rank of captain and served overseas with the 8th F.A. in WW I. Returning to the U.S. and Princeton, he graduated in 1920 and later earned a Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins. Bob became a research man in economics. He worked for the Assoc. of Railroad Executives and the Bell System.

About his subsequent life, during which we seldom saw or heard from him, we quote from a recent letter from his son Robert Gillies ’48:

“I am writing to tell you that my father died in West Berlin, Germany, on April 8. He was 86 years old. He moved to Washington in 1932 and worked for the government. In 1946 he went to Austria and Germany as an economist for the office of U.S. Military Government. He married while in Salzburg and had a daughter in 1950. His wife died in 1968. Shortly after this he retired and lived in West Berlin until his death.

“He returned to this country only once—when my wife and I were married in the University Chapel in 1947. However, his letters frequently referred to Princeton and his 1918 classmates.”

Source: Princeton Alumni Weekly, Volume 78 (September 26, 1977, p. 20).

___________________

Faculty and assistants providing undergraduate economics instruction in 1922-23

George Ernest Barnett, Ph.D., Professor of Statistics.
A. B., Randolph Macon College, 1891; Fellow, Johns Hopkins University, 1899-1900, and Ph.D., 1901.

William Oswald Weyforth, Ph.D., Associate Professor in Political Economy.
A.B., Johns Hopkins University, 1912, and Ph.D., 1915; Instructor, Western Reserve University, 1915-17.

Broadus Mitchell, Ph.D., Associate in Political Economy.
A.B., University of South Carolina, 1913; Fellow, Johns Hopkins University, 1916-17, and Ph.D., 1918.

Miss Theo Jacobs, Associate in Social Economics
A.B., Goucher College, 1901; Federated Charities of Baltimore (District Assistant, 1905-07, District Secretary, 1907-10, Assistant General Secretary, 1910-17, Acting General Secretary, 1917-1919.

Robert Carlyle Gillies, Graduate Student in Economics
A. B., Princeton University, 1920.

___________________

UNDERGRADUATE COURSES ANNOUNCED FOR 1922-23
(ex ante)

  1. Elements of Economics. Particular attention is given to the theory of distribution and its application to leading economic problems.
    Three hours weekly through the year. Associate Professor Weyforth and Dr. Mitchell.
  2. (a) Statistical Methods. After a preliminary study of the value and place of statistics as an instrument of investigation, attention is directed to the chief methods used in statistical inquiry.
    Three hours weekly, first half-year. Professor Barnett.
    (b) Money and Banking. The principles of monetary science are taught with reference to practical conditions in modern systems of currency, banking, and credit.
    Three hours weekly, second half-year. Associate Professor Weyforth.
  3. (a) Labor Legislation. The theory and practice of labor legislation are studied, with attention given to legal, economic and social considerations.Three hours weekly, first half-year. Dr. Mitchell.(b) Investments.Includes historical and analytical description of the more important forms of investments and theories of valuation and amortization.
    Three hours weekly, second half-year. Professor Barnett.
  4. (a) Labor Problems. The problems growing out of modern industrial employment will be studied. Three hours weekly, first half-year. Dr. Mitchell. (b) Corporation Finance. The theory and practice of corporation finance are considered, with particular reference to the problems presented in the United States.
    Three hours weekly, second half-year. Professor Barnett.[Course 4 will not be given in 1922-23.]
  5. (a) Foreign Trade and Exchange. The economic principles of international commerce, the methods of conducting foreign trade, and the theory and practice of foreign exchange will be studied.
    Three hours weekly, first half-year. Associate Professor Weyforth.
    (b) Economic History of the United States. This course deals with the economic development of the country and with the way in which the economic motive has influenced our history.Three hours weekly, second half-year. Dr. Mitchell.
  6. (a) Applied Statistics. The applications of statistics to business and economic problems, such as price levels, cost of living, wage adjustments, business cycles, and business forecasting, are considered.
    Three hours weekly, first half-year. Associate Professor Weyforth.
    (b) Public Finance. The theory and practice of finance are considered, with particular reference to the problems of taxation presented in the experience of the United States.
    Three hours weekly, second half-year. Dr. Mitchell.[Course 6 will not be given in 1922-23.]
    Note—Course 2 is open only to such students as have completed or are pursuing Course 1; Courses 3, 4, 5 and 6 only to students who have completed 1 and 2.

Source: The Johns Hopkins University Circular 1922 (Volume XLI, Whole Nos. 335-341), pp. 344-345.

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UNDERGRADUATE COURSES REPORTED FOR 1922-23
IN ANNUAL JHU PRESIDENT’S REPORT
(ex post)

Professor Barnett, Associate Professor Weyforth, Miss Jacobs, Dr. Mitchell, and Mr. Gillies conducted the following undergraduate courses:

Political Economy I. Three hours weekly, through the year. Particular attention was given to the theory of distribution and its application to leading economic problems. (Associate Professor Weyforth, Dr. Mitchell, Mr. Gillies.)

Political Economy II. Three hours weekly, through the year. In the first half-year a preliminary study of the value and place of statistics as an instrument of investigation was made; attention was directed to the chief methods used in statistical inquiry. In the second half-year the principles of monetary science were taught with reference .to ·practical conditions in modern systems of currency, banking and credit. (Mr. Gillies and Associate Professor Weyforth.)

Political Economy III. Three hours weekly, through the year. In the first half-year, the theory and practice of labor legislation were studied. In the second half-year, attention was given to the theory of investments. (Professor Barnett.)

Political Economy V. Three hours, weekly, through the year. In the first half-year, the economic principles of international commerce, the methods of conducting foreign trade, and the theory and practice of foreign exchange were studied. In the second half-year, the course was designed not only to show the structure of typical business entities, but their methods of formation and expansion. Common forms of securities were examined. Operation and administration of business units were studied in detail. (Associate Professor Weyforth and Mr. Gillies.)

Political Economy VII. Two hours weekly, through the year. The history and development of charitable and social agencies were traced. Causes and treatment of cases of dependency and delinquency were discussed. (Miss Jacobs.)

Political Economy VIII. Three hours weekly, through the year. The course was designed to furnish a background for the study of economic principles and special phases of economic activity. The particular purpose of the course was to show the relationship between economic fact and economic and political theory and practice. (Dr. Mitchell.)

Source: Johns Hopkins University. Annual Report of the President, 1922-1923. In The Johns Hopkins University Circular, New Series, 1923, No. 7 (November 1923), pp. 57-58.

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THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
POLITICAL ECONOMY I A
Friday, Feb. 2, 1923 – 2-4 p.m.

  1. Describe the main features of the manorial system and the guild system in England.
  2. Explain the following terms: goods, face goods, economic goods, capital utility, diminishing utility, marginal utility, value, price, supply, demand, elasticity of demand.
  3. What is meant by the division of labor? Explain its advantages. What is the roundabout or capitalistic method of production? What are the requirements for the formation of capital?
  4. What are the more important types of business organization? Explain their respective advantages and disadvantages.
  5. What is meant by the gold standard? By the bimetallic standard? What factors led to the demand for the bimetallic standard in the United States between 1875 and 1896?
  6. Explain how changes in the quantity of money and in bank deposits may cause changes in the general level of prices.
  7. Explain the principal functions and the importance of commercial banks in our economic system.
  8. Outline the organization of the Federal Reserve System. How does it remedy some of the principal defects of the old national banking system.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
POLITICAL ECONOMY I A (ACADEMIC)
May 28, 2-4 p.m.

  1. (a) What are the outstanding defects of the competitive system?
    (b) What did Marx say would result from competition?
  2. (a) What are the varieties of Socialism?
    (b) What is the difference between State Socialism and Guild Socialism?
  3. (a) Give reasons for the advance of labor unionism.
    (b) Why are unions justifiable?
    (c) Distinguish between craft and industrial unions, and comment upon the advantages of each.
  4. Should railroads in the Unites States be publicly owned? Give full reasons for your answer.
  5. What are the cardinal principles of taxation as stated by Adam Smith?
  6. What is the justification for the progressive income tax?

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
POLITICAL ECONOMY I B
Friday, Feb. 2, 1923 – 2-5 p.m.

  1. If you chose to pursue graduate work in political economy as a major subject, and were asked why you did not select history, political science, or psychology instead, what reasons would you give?
  2. What are the large divisions of the subject of political economy? Under which of the heads does the theory of rent fall?
  3. What is meant by the division of labor, when did it become a characteristic feature of our economic life, and what have been its chief consequences to workers? In what ways does the division of labor increase product?
  4. What do you think of the statement: “Value depends upon utility”? Explain fully.
  5. Arthur Young found the farmers in a part of England following inefficient methods of cultivation, and advised that the best remedy lay in a raising of the rents by landlords. hat do you think of his plan?
  6. What is the argument for the Single Tax?
  7. Were the Southern slaves capital?
  8. Name some items which are wealth in the individual sense but not in the social sense.
  9. Name some respects in which our present economic system is not competitive.
  10. Construct supply and demand schedules so as to show how a market price is determined.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
POLITICAL ECONOMY I (Engineering)
May 28, 1923.

  1. What is credit? Explain its importance in business operations. Distinguish between commercial and investment credit. Define and illustrate a promissory note and a bill of exchange.
  2. Explain the theory that each factor in production tends to receive a share of the product corresponding to its marginal productivity.
  3. What is the principle that determines what goods a country imports and what goods it exports? Why is a high tariff in the United States detrimental to the exporting interest in this country?
  4. What is capital? How does it come into existence? What principles determine the return received by it?
  5. What are some of the outstanding economic characteristics of railroad transportation? Explain their bearing upon the following: (a) practice of charging what the traffic will bear; (b) large variations in net earnings with small variations in traffic; (c) cut-throat nature of the competition that has at times developed.
  6. Explain the theory of rent.
  7. Describe the various types of labor organizations. What are the arguments for and against the boycott, and the closed shop?
  8. What is socialism, anarchism, syndicalism? Give briefly the arguments for and against socialism.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
POLITICAL ECONOMY I C
Friday, Feb. 2, 1923 – 2 p.m.

  1. (a) Which do you consider most important in the study of economic science: credit toward a college degree; training for business; culture; or preparation for citizenship? Just how do you think your study will contribute toward that end?
    (b) Discuss the proposition: Good ethics, good art, or good politics on the part of the masses is well nigh impossible without sound economics.
  2. Robinson Crusoe on his island was able to work out an efficient personal economy because he knew what he needed most and what to do next. Are the American people at a disadvantage in this respect? Are strikes and depressions partly a manifestation of that disadvantage? If so, how would you as a practical economist seek to remedy this situation? Defend your remedy.
  3. A small savage tribe gradually develops into a great nation. What would be the accompanying evolution in economic practice?
  4. Discuss the following statement: “In 1770 Arthur Young reckoned the income of England to be £120,000,000; in 1901 the income may be roughly set down at £1,600,000,000. Making correct allowances for population and for prices, this growth of income would signify a large increase of commodities per head; but would it tell us that we are working and living better than our ancestors?”
  5. It is said that the spender is a greater asset to economic society than the saver, because he puts his money back into circulation. Discuss.
  6. (a) A new labor-saving device is put into operation, throwing a large class of skilled workmen out of employment. To what extent is this a hardship to labor, a benefit, or both? Explain.
    (b) Criticize the cost of production theory of value.
  7. Name a large industry in which there holds a condition of increasing expenses. How does introduction at successive intervals of labor-saving machinery and more scientific technique affect this condition? Draw what you consider a unit expense curve for this industry over several such intervals. Are monopolies likely to occur in a field of increasing expenses? Would the ratio of fixed to total expenses of the typical business unit be high or low in such a field?
  8. What is the fallacy of bi-metallism? Of fiat money? Connect the value of an elastic currency (from the standpoint of the nation’s business) with the quantity theory of money.

    *  *  *  *  *  *  *

EXAMINATION IN POLITICAL ECONOMY I C. MR. GILLIES
May 28, 1923

  1. (a) A small increase in the supply of a certain article results in a heavy decrease in price. Does this signify an elastic or an inelastic demand?
    (b) A reduction in price of an article from 12¢ to 10¢ results in increased sales of 10 per cent. What is the numerical measure of the elasticity of demand?
    (c) What is the difference in the usual methods of weighting commodity price index numbers and cost of living index numbers?
  2. Define (a) bill of exchange (b) long bill (c) purchasing power parity (d) doctrine of comparative costs.
    How are exchange rates kept approximately normal?
    Draw up a “balance sheet” for a year’s transactions between the United States and Europe, including the principal invisible exchanges.
  3. What is your view point concerning protection? Support and defend your position.
  4. How is the apportionment of the total product among the various factors of production determined?
  5. Why do we distinguish between the “intensive” and the “extensive” margins? To which factors of production do they apply? Are they usually found in conjunction? Give reasons.
    What are some of the conditions affecting the supply of labor? How is it affected by legislation enacted already? What is the philosophy of workmen’s compensation laws?
  6. What determines the rate of interest? What is meant by a “free production good”? Is the accumulation of capital a help or a menace to labor? Are waste, loss, destruction of property by fire, etc., a benefit to labor in the long run? In the short run? Explain.
  7. Why do we call the railway industry one of increasing returns? Of joint costs? Is the proportion of fixed capital high or low? What have these facts to do with rates?
    Roughly, how are railway revenues divided up among the four factors of production? Do you think physical valuation should determine railway profits? If so, would you take original cost or present value? Why?
  8. What has been the tendency of public expenditures in the last century as to (a) purposes (b) proportion of national income absorbed? Does an increase in this proportion indicate inefficiency or extravagance? Are there any dangers in such an increase? Explain.
    What policy do you favor for the disposal of our remaining public land?
    If a tax policy were founded upon the more nearly equal distribution of wealth, would it meet with your approval? Why? What forms of taxes do you think would be emphasized under this policy? Why?CAUTION. This examination will be used Friday, June 1, 1923 also. Do not, therefore, discuss or divulge its contents in any way.

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THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
EXAMINATION IN STATISTICS (POL. ECON. II)
Feb. 1, 1923, 9 a.m. – 12 m.

  1. (a) Under what circumstances is it best for the statistician to carry out his own primary investigations? Are there any disadvantages in this method?
    (b) You have an appropriation of $100,000 with which to investigate the degree of education attained by adults in a community. You decide to employ enumerators. Salaries and expenses of enumerators is estimated at $40,000 and printing the report of your inquiry will cost $10,000. Each question asked by the enumerators will cost $10,000 to tabulate. Draft a form for them to use, with such questions as you think suitable.

20 minutes

ARRAY OF LEAF-LENGTHS
(in millimetres)

Item

 Item Item Item Item Item Item Total
15 19 21 21 23 26 29

154

16

 19 21 21 23 26 29 155
16 19 21 21 23 26 29

155

16

 19 21 21 23 26 29 155
17 19 21 22 23 26 30

158

17

 20 21 22 24 26 30

160

17

 20 21 22 24 27 30 161
18 20 21 22 24 27 31

163

18

 20 21 22 24 27 31 163
18 20 21 22 24 27 32

164

18

 20 21 22 24 27 32 164
18 20 21 22 25 27 32

165

19

 20 21 22 25 28 33 168
19 20 21 23 25 28 33

169

19

 20 21 23 25 28 35

171

2425

a = 23.5

  1. The above is a tabular representation of an array of leaf lengths. Work up this information as a frequency table, both simple and cumulative, in seven classes.
    a. Cross check the given table and find if the value of a shown is correct. (This work may be done on the question paper, which should then be submitted at close of examination. Or, describe what you did on answer paper).
    b. The items in the given table are correct to the nearest millimeter. How many decimals would be justified as accurate in a? (Probable error equals possible error divided by the square root of n).
    30 minutes
  2. Plot the data in your frequency table as a histogram. Smooth and estimate the mode. How would you convert your data to plot as a percentage histogram? Plot as an ogive and smooth. Locate the median and quartiles.
    20 minutes
  3. What method would you use to locate the model class when poorly defined? What is the easiest way to locate the mode within a given class? Give formula.
    Find the coefficient of dispersion, using the average deviation from the mode. How would you modify procedure if using the median or the arithmetic average? Calculate the quartile coefficient of dispersion.
    20 minutes
  4. Compute the standard coefficient of dispersion. Give formula for the coefficient of skewness based upon this coefficient. Calculate the coefficient of skewness based upon the average deviation from the mode, also that based upon the quartiles.
    30 minutes
  5. Draw a grid to scale for a logarithmic historigram. How do you plot points for this historigram? Find the weighted index number of prices for the following group of commodities, using 1913 as a base:

COMMODITY PRICES

Article

 Production Unit 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920
Wheat 100 bushel $1.04 $1.09 $1.29 $1.47 $2.35 $2.31 $2.34

$2.65

Corn

 300 bushel .71 .79 .84 .93 1.78 1.84 1.77 1.67
Cotton 1.2 bale 64.00 55.50 50.50 72.00 117.50 158.50 161.50

173.00

Pig Iron

 3.2 tons 15.00 13.40 13.60 18.70 40.00 36.50 32.00 44.00
Copper 130 pounds .15 .13 .17 .27 .27 .25 .19

.17

Note: Production used is that for year 1919 (approximate) and is in tens of millions.
Plot the weighted index and apply Marshall’s method comparing the proportional rates of increase from 1913 to 1915 and from 1916 to 1920.

30 minutes

 

7. Compute Karl Pearson’s coefficient of short time correlation between supply and price in following table:

INDICES OF SUPPLY AND PRICE

Date

 Supply Price Date Supply Price
1880 80 146 1890 91

103

1881

 82 140 1891 94 94
1882 86 130 1892 100

75

1883

 91 117 1893 105 66
1884 83 133 1894 102

75

1885

 85 127 1895 96 91
1886 89 115 1896 98

87

1887

 96 95 1897 106 81
1888 93 100 1898 114

76

1889

 90 106 1899 112

82

Probable error = ?

Indicate your procedure in case concurrent deviations are used. Formula?
Show how you would find the ratio of variation for long time changes in this data by the Galton graph. Does the Galton graph apply wholly to historical variables ? Why is it necessary for this graph that both variables be reduced to index numbers?

30 minutes

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JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
[POLITICAL ECONOMY 2B]
MONEY AND BANKING
TUESDAY, MAY 29, 1923, 9-12 AM.

  1. What is standard money? State the requisites of:
    (a) A gold standard
    (b) A bimetallic standard
    (c) A paper standard.
    State the advantages and disadvantages of each.
  2. Outline the principal legislation in the monetary history of the United States.
  3. Explain the importance of credit in our present economic system. How does a bank judge of the credit standing of a borrower?
  4. Classify and describe the different kinds of loans made by commercial banks. What is the general type of loan that is most suitable for a commercial bank?
  5. Describe the operations of a commercial paper house. Explain the advantages and disadvantages of this method of financing.
  6. Explain the need for elasticity in currency and elasticity in credit. How did the Federal Reserve System remedy the defects of the old National Banking System in these respects?
  7. Describe the organization of the Federal Reserve System.
  8. What is the need for control of bank credit. How may this control be effected under the Federal Reserve System?

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
POLITICAL ECONOMY 3 [A. Labor Legislation]
Thursday – February 1, 1923

  1. What provisions in the Federal Constitution are important with respect to labor legislation, state and national?
  2. On what grounds were the two Federal child labor laws declared unconstitutional?
  3. How far may the states go in regulating hours of labor? Trace the constitutional history of such legislation.
  4. Discuss the economic arguments for and against immigration.
  5. When is a strike illegal?
  6. Distinguish the trade union “minimum” wage and the legal “minimum” wage.
  7. Discuss the economic considerations relating to a reduction of hours of adult laborers from nine to eight in a particular trade.
  8. Describe the Liverpool Dock Scheme. What economic result is effected? How fare is the scheme applicable to other industries?

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
POLITICAL ECONOMY 3 [B. Investments]
May 29th, 1923. 9—12 A.M.

  1. Distinguish capital, capital stock and capitalization.
  2. How much (roughly) is $1000 in 1930 worth now? How much is $1000 in 1940 worth now? Explain.
  3. Under what circumstances is a city justified in incurring a debt? Is the City of Baltimore justified in borrowing money to pay for school houses?
  4. Distinguish speculation from investment.
  5. What are the elements in an investment which the purchaser buys? Why are there no “absolutely” good investments?
  6. Appraise a savings bank deposit as an investment by breaking it up into its elements. A bond of the State of Maryland.
  7. To what extent are the obligations of the State of Maryland enforceable?
  8. Discuss the tests of “ability to pay” applicable respectively to states and private corporations.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

Dr. Weyforth.
POLITICAL ECONOMY V
FOREIGN TRADE AND EXCHANGE
Monday – January 29, 1923 – 9 a.m.

  1. How do you account for England’s unfavorable balance of trade prior to the war and the favorable balance of the United States? What is likely to be the future of the balance of trade of the United States?
  2. What selling policies are open to a manufacturer contemplating foreign business? Explain their respective advantages and disadvantages.
  3. In quoting terms of sale the seller may require any of the following: (a) advance payment by importer; (b) payment by importer upon delivery of goods; (c) deferred payment by importer. What methods of international payment can be used for carrying out these various terms?
  4. Describe the operation of an import credit on New York from the beginning to the end of the transaction.
  5. What are the factors determining the actual rates of exchange between a gold standard country and a paper standard country?
  6. Explain the operations involved in drawing a sterling draft on South America.
  7. What factors contributed to the preeminence of sterling exchange as an international medium of exchange?
  8. What is the importance of a wide discount market in maintaining and extending the use of dollar exchange?

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

POLITICAL ECONOMY 5.
Business Organization
June 1, 1923

  1. Have you completed the assigned reading including the supplementary forms in Stockder? If not, indicate the extent of completion.
  2. Define (a) business establishment, (b) entrepreneur, (c) circulating capital, (d) securitization, (e) common law, (f) treasury stock, (g) municipal corporation, (h) voting trust, (i) court of equity, (j) underwriter, (k) scientific management.
  3. Compare the individual proprietorship, the partnership, the joint stock company and the corporation as to
    (a) place in the development of the capital concept;
    (b) extent of present day use;
    (c) suitability for various types of business;
    (d) legal status and requirements;
    (e) control, and liability of the component members.
  4. (a) What is the participation association and how did it originate?
    (b) What types of partners may bind the firm? Which types have limited liability?
    (c) and (d) Describe the operating structure of the corporation.
  5. (a) Describe the characteristics of the business trust that distinguish it from the forms of business organization already mentioned.
    (b) Distinguish associations from federations and illustrate by examples.
  6. (a) How do control companies control their subsidiaries? Does this form of business organization lend itself more readily to vertical or to horizontal combination? What purposes do finance and assumption companies serve?
    (b) Name some abuses of “big business” and show how the law has attempted to curb them.
  7.  -8. You are the organizer, and, later, the general administrator of a large manufacturing plant, employment both men and women. (a) Whom would you bring in to assist the promotion? (b) How would you determine the location of your plant? (c) How would you lay it out? (d) How would your buildings be designed? What type of construction would you use, and how would you give your contracts for them? (e) How would you organize the shop forces? (f) What plans of wage payments would you use in the various departments? (g) What welfare work would you institute? (h) How would you organize your selling department? (i) What accounting systems would you use?

Re-examination in Business Organization
A. L. Tuvin

  1. Discuss the joint stock company. Point out the similarities between it and the partnership; and also between it and the corporation.
  2. Discuss the conditions which are conducive to successful combination.
  3. What is meant by fair competition? Give an illustration of unfair competition.
  4. Describe the agencies in the U. S. which are designed to secure fair competition.
  5. What is a holding Company? Give its advantages and disadvantages. Discuss briefly the various forms.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
January 29, 1923, 9 A.M.—12 M.
[POLITICAL ECONOMY (12?)]
Economic History

  1. What is the importance of economic history, and why do we place more emphasis upon English than upon American economic history?
  2. What was the significance of Doomsday Book? What were the differences that distinguished the problems of the Norman kings from those of the Saxon kings?
  3. How did serfdom originate and how did it disappear in England? Give a full answer.
  4. How did the economic practices of the gilds differ from those of industry nowadays? Distinguish briefly between the domestic system, the factor system, and the factory system.
  5. What were the results of inflation following the Black Death?
  6. What is the fallacy of mercantilism? What economic writer gave chief opposition to the mercantilist philosophy?
  7.  Name as many books as you can, that you have read, which, although not in the field of economic history proper, yet contain information of interest to the student of this subject? The books may concern either English or American conditions.

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

Image Source: Webpage “Gilman Hall circa 1920” in the Hopkins Perspective, 1876-Today collection.

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Business School Columbia Economists Harvard

Harvard. Economics Ph.D. (1923) alumnus and Columbia Business School Dean, J. E. Orchard Memo on Galbraith, 1946.

 

John Ewing Orchard (b. 19 July 1893 in Exeter, Nebraska; d. 28 January 1962 in Charlottesville, Virginia) wrote the following summary of a telephone conversation with his former boss, Edward R. Stettinius, Jr. (who supervised the work of John Kenneth Galbraith at the Lend Lease Administration during WWII) and incidentally went on to serve as the Secretary of State). From this memo it is clear that Galbraith’s name came up for consideration for the Deanship of the Columbia School of Business. Orchard, a Harvard economics Ph.D. (1923), might have had ulterior motives in entering this document into the record — it can be found in the papers of then chairman of the economics department, Robert Haig, that have been deposited in the Central Files of the Columbia University administration. We see below that Orchard himself was later appointed to the Deanship of the business school…coincidence?

In any event, in case there might be any doubt in somebody’s mind, John Kenneth Galbraith had done nothing in government service that would have enhanced his prospects to become an academic Dean. His comparative advantage was to be found in other endeavors. Whether John Kenneth Galbraith indeed had “poison in his soul” as noted by Stettinius is left to his legions of admirers and detractors to determine. However, given Galbraith’s life motto “Modesty is a most overrated virtue”, I presume Stettinius had confused poison with an ego of legendary proportion.

____________________

Kenneth Galbraith

Stettinius on Galbraith

Telephone conversation with Edward R. Stettinius, Jr., concerning Galbraith, October 23, 1946.

Galbraith worked with Stettinius on the National Defense Council in 1940. Stettinius stated that there was no question but that Galbraith was a brilliant economist, but he was a difficult person to work with. He seemed always to be taking a belligerent left wing position and never was in the middle of the road. I gathered that there was little give and take as far as Galbraith was concerned. Stettinius also said he seemed to have “poison in his soul”.

After Galbraith left OPA, Stettinius, as a result of considerable pressure, took him into the Lend Lease Administration. His experience with him there was not satisfactory, for after Stettinius had assigned him to a responsible position, Galbraith did not establish friendly working relations with his associates. He did not seem to be interested in the work or in the organization and after a couple of months he quit. Stettinius stated that he did not believe that Galbraith would make a good dean.

John E. Orchard

Source:  Columbia University.  Central Files. Box 386, Folder 7/7 “Haig, Robert Murray”.

____________________

John Ewing Orchard,
Harvard economics Ph.D. 1923

John Ewing Orchard, A. B. (Swarthmore Coll.) 1916, A.M. (Harvard Univ.) 1920.

Subject, Economics. Special Field, Economic Resources. Thesis, “The World’s Coal Resources and some of their Influences on National Economy.” Instructor in Economic Geography, Columbia University.

Source:  Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1922-1923, p. 52.

____________________

Guggenheim Fellowship, 1931

JOHN E. ORCHARD
Fellow: Awarded 1931
Field of Study: Economic History
Competition: US & Canada

As published in the Foundation’s Report for 1931–32:

ORCHARD, JOHN EWING:  Appointed to study the transition that is occurring in China from agriculture and from household industries to modern manufacturing, investigations to be carried on chiefly in China; tenure, eight months from June 20, 1931.

Born July 19, 1893, at Exeter, Nebraska. Education:  Swarthmore college, A.B., 1916; Harvard University, M.A., 1920, Ph.D., 1923; University of Pennsylvania, 1917–18; University of Chicago, Summer, 1920.

Assistant in Geography and Industry, 1917–18, University of Pennsylvania; Assistant Mine Economist, United States Bureau of Mines, 1918–19; Instructor in Economic Geography, 1920–24, Assistant Professor, 1924–29, Associate Professor, 1929—, Columbia University.

Publications: Japan’s Economic Position: The Progress of Industrialization, 1920; chapter on Marine Insurance in Influence of the Great War on Shipping, by J. Russell Smith, 1919; chapter on Gold in Political and Commercial Geology, edited by J. E. Spurr, 1920. Articles in Quarterly Journal of Economics, Geographical Review, Journal of Geography, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.

 

Source:  John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Website. Fellow page: John E. Orchard.

____________________

Dr. Orchard New Business School Dean
[Columbia Daily Spectator, 9 January 1947]

Dr. John E. Orchard, professor of economic geography at Columbia and one of the country’s outstanding authorities on the Far East, will replace Dean Robert D. Calkins as director of the School of Business, it was announced yesterday by Dr. Frank D. Fackenthal, acting president of the University.

Dean Calkins, who has been the head of the Business School since 1941, resigned in order to accept an appointment as vice president and director of the General Education Board in New York City.

Professor Orchard, a graduate of Swathmore and Harvard Universities, has been a member of the teaching staff of the School of Business since 1920.

Active In Government

From May 1941 until January 1946, he served as a member of several important government agencies in Washington D. C. He was senior assistant administrator to Edward Stettinius when the latter was Lend-Lease Administrator. Later Dr. Orchard was appointed special assistant to Mr. Stettinius when he was Under Secretary of State. Dean Orchard served as special assistant to William Clayton, who was the Assistant Secretary of State for Economic, Affairs. His last Washington assignment was as senior consultant to the Foreign Liquidation Commissioner, Thomas B. McCabe. He spent the years of 1926-27, 1931-32, and 1938-39 in Asia and in 1930 published a book entitled “Japan’s Economic Problem”.

Source:  Columbia Daily Spectator, Volume LXIX, Number 34, 9 January 1947.

Image Source: John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Website. Fellow page: John E. Orchard.

Categories
Chicago Exam Questions Problem Sets

Chicago. Problems and exam. Income and Employment Theory. Friedman, 1966-67

 

In an earlier post we saw that Milton Friedman resisted the move to relabel the Chicago courses in (aggregate) income and employment theory “macroeconomics”. Below we have the take-home problem sets for 1966 and 1967 together with the final examination questions for the 1966 version of the course transcribed from copies in Friedman’s papers at the Hoover Institution Archives.

Pro-tip: Incomplete transcripts of his taped lectures for the course are filed at the Hoover Archives along with the material posted here. These await the caring editorial hand of some (other) historian of economics.

_______________

ECONOMICS 332
Winter, 1966
Problems for Reading Period

(Due at Final Exam, Monday, March 14, 1966, 1:30 P.M.)

  1. In an economy using fiduciary money, it costs nothing to create additional cash balances. Hence, it is desirable to encourage wealth-holders to hold additional cash balances so long as they get any additional non-pecuniary return from them. One way to do so is through a deliberate policy of announced deflation.
  2. For individuals, additions to cash balances are a substitute for real saving in the form of direct investment or loans to finance direct investment; hence, the larger the additions to cash balances, the lower will tend to be the volume of real capital formation. Since economic growth depends on the volume of real capital formation, it is desirable to discourage the hoarding of cash. One way to do so is through a deliberate policy of announced inflation.
    Both statements offer plausible, yet they lead to precisely opposite policy conclusions. Can you reconcile them? If not, which, in your opinion, is in error? What is the source of the mistake?

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Milton Friedman

ECONOMICS 332
Final Examination. Winter, 1966
March 14, 1966

[25 Points]

  1. Indicate in each box whether the change in the indicated variable would, under the specified conditions, tend to be an increase (+), decrease (-), no change (0), or is uncertain (?). In each case, of course, assume other relevant variables unchanged.
    Make usual assumptions about behavior functions.

Assumed change

Underemployment
Rigid Wages

 Full Employment
Flexible Wages
Employ-
ment		 Interest
rate		 Real
stock
of
money		 Con-sump-tion Price level Interest rate Real stock of money

Consump-tion
(1) Rise in tariff
(2) Increase in government taxes, no change in government expenditures
(3) Reduction in legal reserve requirements of member banks
(4) Discovery of vast oilfields
(5) Substitution of tax on land values for tax on wages, no change in revenue
(6) Emergence of widespread fear of civil disturbances

 

[30 Points]

  1. An earthquake destroys half the physical capital in a country but miraculously there is negligible loss of life. The earthquake was most unusual, was unexpected and no one expects a repetition.
    1. Show graphically the effect on (1) the stock demand and supply for capital; (2) the flow demand and supply curves.
    2. Assuming flexible prices and full employment throughout, what, if anything, can you say about the initial effects on (1) rental rate on capital goods; (2) sales price of capital goods; (3) interest rate [i.e., ratio of (1) to (2)]; (4) real wage rate; (5) fraction of income consumed; (6) absolute level of investment.
    3. What about ultimate effects on these variables?
    4. Assuming initially rigid wages and underemployment, what, if anything, can you say about initial effects on items listed in (b)?

[15 Points]

  1. “The relation between the volume of economic activity and the price level is not simple. As a first approximation, the classical law of supply and demand leads one to expect that the change in the price level will depend mainly on the size of the gap between capacity and actual output” 1966 Annual Report, Council of Economic Advisers, pp. 63-64.
    “Money prices, as opposed to relative prices, can never be governed by the conditions of the commodity market itself (or of the production of goods)” K. Wicksell, Interest and Prices (1898), p. 24.
    In your opinion, does this shift in economic theory over the past 68 years reflect progress or retrogression? Justify your answer.

[15 Points]

  1. Consider a hypothetical economy in which initially, government expenditures (G) are 100, private investment (I) is 50, and private consumption (C) is 350, so that national product (Y) is 100 + 50 + 350 = 500, and tax receipts (T) are 90. Assume that G and T are both reduced by 10 to 90 and 80 respectively, and that wage rates are rigid.
    1. If you neglect any effects on the rate of interest, what would be the resulting values of C, I, and Y? Prove your answer in general by a simple algebraic analysis.
    2. Would you expect any effects on the interest rate if nominal quantity of money is constant? If so, what effect? How would this in turn affect I, C, and Y? Give hypothetical numbers that might correspond to final outcome.
      Again, prove your answer.
    3. What additional complications, if any, are relevant in generalizing these effects of a balanced budget change to actual circumstances?

[15 Points]

  1. Discuss the “real balance effect,” indicating what you think to be its meaning, and what role it has played in discussions of the possibility of under-employment equilibrium. In the course of your answer indicate what economists have been the main contributors to the discussion and what their specific contributions have been.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Milton Friedman
Spring Quarter, 1967
Economics 332

ECONOMICS 332
Problem for Reading Period
Due at Final Exam, Wed., June 7, 1967
(Maximum length = 1,000 words)

MONETARY vs. FISCAL POLICY

Define fiscal policy as deliberate changes in the government tax structure or expenditure structure for a given behavior of the quantity of money; monetary policy as a change in the rate of change of the quantity of money for a given tax and expenditure structure.

  1. Using the standard income-expenditure model, and assuming prices are rigid, analyze the effect on real income and interest rates of an increase in taxes which would raise the full-employment surplus (or lower the full-employment deficit) by X billion dollars. Specify the parameters on which the result depends and indicate limiting cases.
  2. Using the same model, indicate how to determine the change in monetary policy that would have the same effect on real income. How would other effects of the two policies differ?
  3. The standard model is in terms of comparative statics, so (1) and (2) would be analyzed in terms of a comparison of two alternative positions at a single date. In addition, the only stock variable in the standard model is the quantity of money. Modify the analysis in (1) in both respects. That is, indicate the time path of adjustment you might expect and why, taking into account any effects on such stock variables as total holdings of government and private securities.
  4. Similarly, analyze the time path of the effect of a decline in the rate of monetary growth by, say, X percentage points, again allowing for effect on stocks.

Source: The Hoover Institution Archives. Papers of Milton Friedman, Box 77, Folder “University of Chicago, Econ. 331 [sic]”.

Image Source: Milton Friedman at Pepperdine University in 1977.

 

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

M.I.T. Reading list and final exam for core graduate growth and capital theory. Solow, 1973

 

Core macroeconomic theory was taught in a sequence of four half-semester courses at M.I.T. In this post we have material from the final course of the sequence (typically taken in the fall term of the second year of residency) that was dedicated to growth and capital theory and taught by Robert Solow in 1973.

The course syllabus and final examination for the third course in the sequence on Macroeconometric Models taught by Franco Modigliani were transcribed for the previous post.

Economics in the Rear-view Mirror thanks Juan C. A. Acosta who copied the course syllabus and final examination that are found in the Franco Modigliani Papers (Box T7) at the Duke University Economists’ Papers Project and has graciously shared them for transcription here. 

___________

14.454
MACRO THEORY IV
Fall 1973 2nd half

  1. Growth Theory

background, if necessary: Solow, GROWTH THEORY, Ch. 1,2
Burmeister and Dobell: MATHEMATICAL THEORIES OF ECONOMIC GROWTH, Ch. 1-4
and/or
Wan: ECONOMIC GROWTH, Ch. 1, 2, 4 (sec. 3)
Kahn: “Exercise in the Analysis of Growth,” OXFORD ECONOMIC PAPERS, New Series, Vol. 11, 1959, pp. 143-156 (reprinted in GROWTH ECONOMICS, ed. A. K. Sen, Penguin)
Wan: Ch. 4, sec. 4

  1. Optimal Growth

background, if necessary: Solow, GROWTH THEORY, Ch. 5
Burmeister and Dobell: Ch. 11
and/or
Wan: Ch. 9, 10
Koopmans: “Objectives, Constraints and Outcomes in Optimal Growth Models” ECONOMETRICA, Vol. 35, 1967, pp. 1-15 (reprinted in Koopmans, SCIENTIFIC PAPERS, pp. 548-560)

  1. Capital Theory

Malinvaud: LECTURES ON MICROECONOMIC THEORY, Ch. 10
Hirschleifer: INVESTMENT, INTEREST AND CAPITAL, Ch. 2, 3, 4, 6
Dougherty: “On the Rate of Return and the Rate of Profit” ECONOMIC JOURNAL, December 1972, pp. 1324-1349
Burmeister and Dobell: Ch. 8, 9
Weizsäcker: STEADY-STATE CAPITAL THEORY, pp. 1-22, 32-47, and passim

Source:  Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Papers of Robert M. Solow, Box 68. Also in Franco Modigliani Papers, Box T7.

 

14.454 FINAL EXAM
19 Dec 1973
R. M. Solow

ANSWER TWO QUESTIONS, total time 1 ½ hours

  1. Suppose an economy with effectively unlimited supply of labor in the sense that any amount of labor is available (from an agricultural pools, say) at an institutionally determined real wage \bar{w}. In other respects the economy is like the standard one-sector model.
    1. Analyze the growth of such an economy if saving and investment are proportional to output. What might correspond to the “full employment, full utilization” assumption?
    2. What if saving and investment are proportional to profits?
    3. How does a once-for-all change in \bar{w} affect the growth path, and the share of wages in total output?
  2. Sketch an analysis of an optimal-capital-accumulation problem in which the criterion function values the capital stock (per worker) as well as consumption, for prestige or power reasons, say, so that instantaneous utility is written u(c,k). In particular, is it true, as we would expect, that such a society should save more than it would if it valued consumption only?
  3. Criticize the “neoclassical” theory of growth and capital; but do not be vague – where you have a complaint you should be prepared to suggest a better way.

 

Source:  Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Franco Modigliani Papers, Box T7.

Image Source:  Robert Solow pictures at the MIT Museum Website.

 

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

M.I.T. Macroeconometric models. Reading list and final exam. Modigliani, 1973

 

Core macroeconomic theory was taught in a sequence of four half-semester courses at M.I.T. In this post we encounter the third course of the sequence (typically taken in the fall term of the second year of residency) that was dedicated to Keynesian macroeconometric models and taught by Franco Modigliani in 1973.

In the same folder is a qualifying exam for 14.454, Macro IV which would be a waiver examination given before the term begins. There is no year indicated on this exam, but the content of the questions clearly matches that of the empirical macro course 14.453 offered in 1973. In the fall term of 1973, the quantitative macro and the dynamic macro switched their order which is probably the reason for the confusion about the course number at the start of the term.

Economics in the Rear-view Mirror thanks Juan C. A. Acosta who copied the course syllabus and final examination that are found in the Franco Modigliani Papers (Box T7) at the Duke University Economists’ Papers Project and has graciously shared them for transcription here. 

___________

14.453 MACRO THEORY III
Fall 1973, 2nd Half

I – ECONOMETRIC MODELS

Tinbergen, J. Statistical Testing of Business Cycles, Theory II. Business Cycles in the U.S.A.
Klein, L. R. & A. S. Goldberger. An Econometric Model of the United States, 1955; Impact Multipliers & Dynamic Properties of the K-G Model, 1959.
Suits, D. B. “Forecasting and Analysis with an Econometric Model”, AER, March, 1962. Reprinted in Readings in Business Cycles.
Hymans, S. H. & H. T. Shapiro. The Michigan Quarterly Econometric Model of the U.S. Economy, 1973.
_____________, Revision as of June, 1973 – Mimeo
Green, G. R., M. Liebenberg, A. A. Hirsh. “Short and Long Term Simulations with the OBE Econometric Model” in Econometric Models of Cyclical Behavior, Studies in Income and Wealth, Vol. 36.
Fair, R. C. A Short Run Forecasting Model of the United States Economy, 1971.
Adams, G. F. & David M. Rowe, “Forecasts and Simulations from the Wharton Econometric Model”, Multilith.

ECONOMETRIC FORECASTING SYSTEM

1 – DR1 Quarterly Model
2 – Operations Overview

Fromm, G. & L. R. Klein. “A Comparison of Eleven Econometric Models of the United States”, AER, Papers and Proceedings, May, 1973, pp. 385-393.
Fair, R. C. “Forecasts from the Fair Model and Comparison of the Recent Forecasting Record of Seven Forecasters – July, 1973”. Princeton University – Multilith. 
Tsurumi, H. “A Comparison of Econometric Macro Models in Three Countries”, AER, May 1973.
Moriguchi, C. “Forecasting and Simulation Analysis of the World Economy”, AER, May, 1973.

THE MPS MODEL

Equations in the MIT-Penn-SSRC Model of the United States, January, 1973.
Data Directory, January, 1973.
Ando & Modigliani, “Econometric Analysis of Stabilization Policy,” AER, May, 1969.
Ando, A. K. “Basic Structure of the MPS Model” –Multilith.
Modigliani, F. “The Channels of Monetary Policy in the FMP Econometric Model of the U. S.” – Multilith.

II – THE CONSUMPTION FUNCTION

Keynes, J. M. The General Theory of Employment, Interest & Money, Ch. 8 & 9.
Modigliani, F. Lecture Notes on Monetary Theory, Part IV, Section A&B, (especially A.4 to B.2)
Brady, D.S. & Friedman, R. D. “Savings and the Income Distribution”, Studies in Income and Wealth, Vol. X, pp. 247-265.
Duesenberry, J. S. Income, Saving and the Theory of Consumer Behavior.
Modigliani, F. “Fluctuations in the Saving Income Ratio: A Problem in Economic Forecasting”, in Studies in Income and Wealth, Vol. XI, National Bureau of Economic Research, 1949.
_____________, “The Life Cycle Hypothesis of Saving Twenty Years Later”, Multilith.
_____________ and Brumberg, F. “Utility Analysis and the Consumption Function: An Interpretation of Cross-Section Data”, in K. Kurihara, (ed.) Post-Keynesian Economics, New Brunswick, 1954.
_____________ and _____________, “Utility Analysis and Aggregate Consumption Functions: An Attempt at Integration”, unpublished.
Merton, R. C. “Optimum Consumption and Portfolio Rules in a Continuous-Time Model”, Journal of Economic Theory, December, 1971.
Dreze and Modigliani, “Consumption Decisions under Uncertainty”, Journal of Economic Theory 5, 1972.
Modigliani, F. “The Life Cycle Hypothesis of Saving, the Demand for Wealth and the Supply of Capital” Social Research, Summer 1966.
_____________, “The Life Cycle Hypothesis of Saving and Inter-country Differences in the Saving Ratio”, in Induction, Growth and Trade, Essays in Honor of Sir Roy Harrod, 1970.
Ando, A. and Modigliani, F. “The Life Cycle Hypothesis of Saving: Aggregate Implications and Tests,” American Economic Review, March, 1963.
Modigliani, F. “Monetary Policy and Consumption: Linkages via Interest Rate and Wealth Effects in the FMP Model”, in Consumer Spending and Monetary Policy: the Linkages, The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, 1971; and Appendix by Ando and Modigliani, “Consumption and Consumer Expenditure”.
Kaldor, N. Essays in Value and Distribution, London, 1960.
Tobin, J. “Life Cycle Saving and Balanced Growth”, in Ten Economic Essays in the Tradition of Irving Fisher, 1967.
_____________ and Dolde, W. C. “Wealth, Liquidity and Consumption”, in Consumer Spending and Monetary Policy: the Linkages, The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, 1971.
Mayer, T. Permanent Income, Wealth, and Consumption, 1972.

III – THE INVESTMENT FUNCTION

Keynes, J. M., General Theory, Chapters 11 and 12.
Jorgenson, D. W. “Econometric Studies of Investment Behavior”, Journal of Economic Literature, Dec. 1971.
_____________ and R. E. Hall, “Application of the Theory of Optimum Capital Allocation” in Tax Incentives and Capital Spending, (edited by Fromm).
Bischoff, C. W. “The Effects of Alternative Lag Distributions”, in Tax Incentives and Capital Spending, G. Fromm, ed., Brookings Institution, 1971.
Ando, Modigliani, Rasche & Turnovsky, “On the Role of Expectations of Price and Technological Change in an Investment Function”. Multilith.
Eisner, E., and M. I. Nadiri, “Investment Behavior and Neoclassical Theory.” Review of Economics and Statistics. Vol. 50, August 1968.
_____________, “Neoclassical Theory of Investment Behavior: A Comment.” Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 52, May 1970.
Bischoff, C. W., “Hypothesis Testing and the Demand for Capital Goods,” The Review of Economics and Statistics, August 1969.
_____________, “Business Investment in the 1970’s: A Comparison of Models”, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 1, 1971.
Nadiri, I. M. “An Alternative Model of Business Investment Spending”, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 3, 1972.
Kalchbrenner, J. H. “A Model of the Housing Sector”, Chapter 6, in Savings, Deposits, Mortgages and Housing, Studies for the Federal Reserve-MIT-Penn Economic Model, (eds. Gramlich and Jaffee), 1972.
Ando and Modigliani, “Consumption and Consumer Expenditure”, pages 9-17, (APPENDIX A), Multilith.

IV – FINANCIAL MARKETS

Tobin, J. “A General Equilibrium Approach to Monetary Theory”, JMCB, February, 1969.
Brainard, W. and J. Tobin. “Pitfalls in Financial Model Building”, AER, May, 1968.
Ando and Modigliani. “Some Reflections on Describing Structures of Financial Sectors”. Multilith.
Ando, A. K. “Some Comments on Brainard-Tobin Framework for Financial Analysis”. Multilith.
Modigliani, F., Rasche, R. and J. P. Cooper, “Central Bank Policy, the Money Supply, and the Short-Term Rate of Interest,” Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, 2, 1970.
Modigliani, F. and R. Shiller, “Inflation, Rational Expectations, and the Term Structure of Interest Rates,” Economica, February, 1973.
Jaffee, D. M., and F. Modigliani, “A Theory and Test of Credit Rationing”, American Economic Review, December, 1969.
_____________, Credit Rationing and the Commercial Loan Market, John Wiley and Sons, 1971.
Gramlich, & Jaffee, editors, Saving Deposits, Mortgages and Housing, Chapters 1 to 5, and 7.
Modigliani, F. “The Valuation of Corporate Stock”. Multilith.

V – WAGES, PRICES, EXPECTATIONS

Phillips, A. W. “The Relation between Unemployment and the Rate of Change of Money Wages in the U. K.” Economica, November 1958.
Lipsey, R. G. “The Relation between Unemployment and the Rate of Change of Money Wage Rate in the U. K.: A Further Analysis”, Economica, 1961.
Phelps et al. Macro Economic Foundations of Employment and Inflation Theory, See especially the two contributions of Holt.
The Econometrics of Price Determination Conference, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and SSRCs.

De Menil and Enzler, “Prices and Wages in the FR-MIT-Penn Econometric Model”.
Tobin, “The Wage-Price Mechanism: Overview of the Conference”.
Hyman, “Prices and Price Behavior in Three U.S. Econometric Models”.
Nordhaus, “Recent Developments in Price Dynamics”.
Lucas, “Econometric Testing of Natural Rate Hypothesis”.

Modigliani and Tarantelli, “A Generalization of the Phillips Curve for a Developing Country”, Review of Economic Studies, April, 1973.
Eckstein and Brinner, “The Inflation Process in the United States”, Joint Economic Committee, Congress of the U.S., 92 Congress, 2ndSession.
Modigliani, “New Developments on the Oligopoly Front”, Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 66, June 1958.
Lucas, R. “Some International Evidence on Output-Inflation Tradeoffs”, AER, June, 1973.
Sargent, T. J. “Rational Expectations, The Real Interest Rate and the ‘Natural’ Rate of Unemployment.” Multilith—forthcoming in Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 2, 1973.
Gordon, R. J. “The Welfare Cost of Higher Unemployment”, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 1, 1973.
Turnovsky, S. J. “Empirical Evidence on the Formation of Price Expectations”, J.A.S.A., December 1970.
de Menil and Bhalla, “Direct Measurement of Popular Price Expectations”—Princeton University Econometric Research Program, Memorandum No. 149.
de Menil, G. “Rationality in Popular Price Expectations”. Multilith.

______________________

QUALIFYING EXAM FOR 14.454 (sic)
MACRO IV (sic)

Time Period: Less than two hours
Answer at least 2 questions

  1. Tests carried out for a number of countries of the major alternative models purporting to explain aggregate consumption (Duesenberry-Modigliani, permanent income, life cycle, Kaldorian model) are typically found to fit the data quite well, and the difference in fit is generally not large.
    1. give a brief description of each of the above models
    2. what explanation, if any, can be advanced for the empirical finding that there are no substantial differences in the closeness of fit in the various models
    3. does the fact that the alternative models fit roughly as well imply that it makes little difference which of these equations is incorporated in an econometric model
      1. rom the point of view of forecasting
      2. from the point of view of predicting the effect of alternative monetary and fiscal policies
  2. Consider the coefficient estimates of the St. Louis “reduced form model”.
    1. what are possible and likely sources of biases in these coefficients? (Be sure to explain what you mean by bias in this context.)
    2. are these estimates consistent with the monetarist view of the working of the economy?
    3. with the view embodied in the standard econometric models of the U.S.?
    4. with the view embodied in the MPS model? (optional)
  3. The “multiplier” played an important role in early Keynesian thinking.
    1. review how this notion has developed since that time.
    2. in the light of (i), describe the kind of simulations you would perform in order to evaluate the “multiplier effect of an increase in government expenditure” implied by one of the major contemporary econometric models of the U.S.
    3. can an estimate of the above multiplier be inferred from the coefficients of the St. Louis “reduced form model”?

______________________

14.453 MACRO THEORY
FINAL EXAMINATION

Franco Modigliani
Wednesday, 12/19/73

1 ½ hours

Answer Question I and at least one other question

  1. Enclosed is a forecast for the U.S. economy generated by the MPS Model in October 1973, before the so-called oil crisis. Assume an exogenous reduction in oil imports of 3 million barrels per day (representing somewhat over 15% of the consumption of oil implicit in the above forecast) beginning in the fourth quarter of ’73, and becoming fully effective from the first quarter of ’74.
    1. analyze the likely effects of this event on the above projections of real and money GNP and its components, assuming no change in monetary and fiscal policy.
    2. what changes in economic policy, if any, would you recommend, and why?
    3. can the MPS model (or analogous macro-econometric models) be used without major modification, to simulate the effects of the reduction in oil supply? Explain.

(Note: the monetary policy assumed in the projection is a growth of the money supply at 6% in ’73.4, at 6.5% in the first half of ‘74, and 7% thereafter.)

  1. The “multiplier” played an important role in early Keynesian thinking.
      1. review how this notion has developed since that time.
      2. in the light of (i.), describe the kind of simulations you would perform in order to evaluate the “multiplier effect of an increase in government expenditure” implied by one of the major contemporary econometric models of the U.S.
      3. can an estimate of the above multiplier be inferred from the coefficients of the St. Louis “reduced form model”?
  2. Formulate your model of the short and long run determinants of the price level. Use your theory to evaluate the often expressed view that fiscal policy should be used to control real output and monetary policy to control prices.
  3. Discuss the role of price expectations in macro-economic analysis, and review the present state of knowledge with respect to the modeling of price expectational variables in macro-econometric models.

1973_14453_exam_MPSoutputReduced

Source:   Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Franco Modigliani Papers, Box T7.

Image Source: Franco Modigliani picture from the MIT Museum Website.

Categories
Columbia Economics Programs

Columbia. Memo from economics chair to department members with three recommendations, 1945

October 30, 1945

To the Members of the Department of Economics:

            During the past two years the members of the Department have reviewed the contents of the various courses in the present curriculum, and have discussed problems of departmental organization. Certain of the issues raised in these discussions, and one or two related general problems, should be settled within the present year. Questions that were academic during the period of reduced registration are more pressing at the present time, and will be insistent under the heavy registration to be expected next year.

            The following are some of our present and pending problems:

  1. The numbers of students registered in certain courses are too large for effective instruction by the methods preferred by the instructors. This problem promises to become more serious.
  2. The heterogeneity of the student body with respect to training and experience makes it difficult to do justice to the well-prepared students while meeting the needs of the less well-prepared.
    Like problems arise from the mixture of part-time and full-time students, and from the mixture of students planning to become professional economists with students who have no serious professional interests. Standards of instruction suffer, as a result.
  3. Failure to week out weaker students lessens the effectiveness of the work we can do with capable advanced students.
  4. Under present arrangements for the preparation of dissertations it is difficult properly to supervise the research work of advanced graduate students, and to give them adequate training in research procedures.

            The following recommendations bear upon these and related problems. The considerations that prompt each recommendation will be familiar to members of the Department, and need not be expounded in detail.

  1. I propose that we set up a clear distinction between two classes of graduate students.
    1. Standard candidates, whose objective is the doctoral degree, with or without the M.A. as an intermediary degree.
      Standard candidates will be selected upon the basis of their own statements of intention, and after careful review of their educational records by the Office of Admissions and the Department of Economics. High standards will be enforced. Standard candidates must register each term for a minimum of 12 points (or for a smaller number if that number will complete residence requirements for the doctorate).
      Standard candidates may be designated at the time of admission to the Graduate School, or later.
      The status of all standard candidates will be reviewed by the Department at or before the close of their first full year of graduate study. This review may take the form of special written examinations. Only with explicit approval of the Department may standard candidates register for a second year of graduate work. The Department may subject standard candidates to review at later stages of their work, as well as at the close of the first year.
      Certain courses of instruction and certain seminars will be open only to standard candidates.
    1. Terminal M. A. candidates. These are students whose final objective in the graduate school is the Master’s degree. In general, the present rules for the M.A. degree will apply to this group.
      The one important modification proposed is that grades of B or better be required for the 21 points of examination credit that must be offered for the M.A. degree. This tightening of M.A. standards seems essential. With it we might, to advantage, enforce more rigorous standards for the M.A. thesis.
      The students placed in this class would include all those who contemplate no graduate work beyond the M.A., and those whose intentions regarding graduate work beyond the M.A. are uncertain.
      The accomplishments of students in this group would be subject to periodic review and those with definitely unsatisfactory records would not be allowed to continue their graduate work.

Unclassified graduate students, students provisionally admitted to the graduate school and students not candidates for a higher degree will be grouped with Terminal M.A. candidates in determining admissibility to graduate courses and seminars. Students desiring to work for the doctorate but whose educational records do not warrant immediate acceptance as standard candidates will also be grouped with terminal M.A. candidates. The Department may transfer such students to the standard category on the basis of demonstrated capacity.

Under this proposed classification, we shall set off for special attention legitimate candidates for professional training as economists, and for this group shall enforce standards of attendance and accomplishment more rigorous than those applied to other graduate students. If we are to preserve high standards of instruction and training for the doctorate there is only one alternative to the proposed segregation. That is the drastic curtailment of the size of the graduate group. Under present conditions this does not appear to be a feasible alternative.

            In determining what courses are to be restricted to standard candidates, account will be taken of the wishes of the instructors, the specified pre-requisites and the manner in which the instructors wish to handle their classes (e.g. lectures, or discussion), as well as subject matter.

            Some review of our curriculum will be called for, if this division is to be enforced. Small classes, with more emphasis on seminars and specialized research, will be appropriate in the programs of the standard candidates. Large lecture courses and courses of fairly wide scope will continue to be given for the terminal M.A. candidates and unclassified students. There will be, of course, a mixing of groups in some classes.

            There should be considerable flexibility in the framing of programs for the standard candidates, so that men who come to Columbia with a considerable background of work in economics will not be obliged to take certain of the general courses intended for men who come with a liberal arts background and little specialization in economics.

            2. I recommend that every doctoral candidate be required to devote a period equivalent to at least one semester, and preferably one year, to rigorous research training, under the supervision of the Department. In general this should mean a year in residence, or in an approved research position, following the oral examination on subjects. During this period the candidate’s dissertation should be substantially completed. An appropriate administrative rule, when formulated, will have to make some allowance for flexibility of application, but the objective should be clear. The writing of the doctoral dissertation is an integral part of the candidate’s professional training. It should be completed under the guidance of the Department, or under other conditions that will assure appropriate supervision and sound training in research techniques.

            3. I recommend that the Department approve, in principle, the organization of two specialized centers of economic research. Plans for these institutes, or research centers, will be submitted to the President. Financial support will be sought within and without the University. It is hoped that these institutes will provide members of the faculty with research funds and research facilities, and that they will strengthen the educational work of the Department by providing advanced graduate students with opportunities to assist in research projects during their period of graduate training.

            The centers now proposed are an Institute of Public Finance and an Institute of International Economics. Detailed memoranda on the organization of these institutes have been prepared.

            If the Department favors these three general recommendations consideration will have to be given to requisite curricular changes and, possibly, to admission procedures and minor administrative matters. Appropriate recommendations can be placed before the Department at a later time.

Frederick C. Mills

Source:  Columbia University Archives. Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Central Files 1890-.  Box 396. Folder: “1.1.288 1/1 Mills, Frederick Cecil.”

Categories
Economic History Harvard Regulations

Harvard. What to do about economic history, 1973

 

 

The December 1973 memo transcribed below can be viewed as a last stand in anticipation of the retirement of Alexander Gerschenkron to continue to require Harvard graduate students in economics demonstrate a modest acquaintance with some economic history from somewhere or other. The Committee writing the report consisted of two professors, Abram Bergson (Soviet economy and comparative economics) and Albert O. Hirschman (by this time dedicated to work in matters of intellectual history) along with two Harvard economics graduate students, Deborah G. Clay-Mendez (b. 1949, Harvard Ph.D., 1981) and William D. White (b. 1945, Harvard Ph.D., 1975).

Cf. Harvard’s current distribution requirement (from a screen capture dated November 13, 2018 at the Wayback Machine)

The distribution requirement is fulfilled by taking an approved field course in Economic History, Political Economy or Behavioral. The purpose of the requirement is to ensure that students are exposed to non-standard ways of thinking about issues central to economics. The course must be passed with a grade of B or better.

 

_______________

DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

January 9, 1974

To: Members of the Department of Economics
From: James S. Duesenberry, Chairman

NOTICE OF DEPARTMENT MEETING

There will be a meeting of the Department of Economics on Tuesday, January 15thin the Littauer Lounge from 4 to 6 p.m.

The main items on the Agenda will be a report of the Committee on Economic History Requirements and a discussion of theory requirements.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Course Offerings and Examinations in Economic History

As directed by the Chairman of the Economics department and the Chairman of the Graduate Instruction Committee, a Committee consisting of the undersigned has reviewed the graduate course offerings and examinations in economic history at Harvard. We have deliberated as a group a number of times, and have also solicited the opinions of persons not members of the committee, including graduate students in economics and faculty members offering courses in economic history and related fields. We focused on several related issues, and set forth below our recommendations on each in turn:

  1. Should there be an economic history requirement for graduate students in economics? We all agreed that there should be, and that the aim of such a requirement should be to assure that the student gains an understanding of processes of long-term economic change, and of the comparative role of economic and non-economic factors in such change. The requirement should also be a means by which the student becomes better acquainted with a variety of economic institutions other than our own contemporary ones.
  2. What sort of requirement is in order? In our view, normally the completion of work with an average grade of B+ or better in two semester courses in economic history or their equivalent. Should the student fail to achieve a grade of B+ or better in such courses, however, he may be allowed, on petition to the Committee on Economic History (see below), to complete the requirements by retaking the final examination in one or both of the courses in question. Alternatively, depending on the circumstances, the student might be asked to do under faculty guidance a research paper of suitable quality. As in the past, a creditable performance in an appropriate and suitably delimited oral examination should also signify completion of the requirement.
  3. In what specific fields of economic history may the requirement be completed? We agreed that the requirement should permit work in various fields of economic history relating to the experience of industrialized societies including among others those of Western Europe, the United States and Japan.
    To that end, the Department has an obligation to see that appropriate courses in diverse fields are in fact offered to the student. Additional courses might be made available in other departments and through cross registration at MIT, the Business School and the like.
    The Committee also considered whether work in economic development or comparative economic systems might be countered towards the requirement. It was agreed that one semester’s course work in one field or the other might be counted, but on the understanding that the courses in question must be substantially concerned with processes of long-term economic change and in a context in which substantial attention is given to the interplay between economic and non-economic factors, and between economic doctrines and developments.
  4. How should the requirement be administered? We agreed that a Committee should be appointed by the Department to oversee the economic history requirement. It should be responsible particularly for assuring that in one way or another suitable courses are available, and for determining just what courses should be eligible for meeting the economic history requirement. It should also consider petitions such as are referred to in item 2, above, and should have responsibility for setting standards for and delimiting oral examinations.

Respectfully submitted

Deborah Clay
William White
Albert Hirschman
Abram Bergson, Chairman

December 26, 1973

 

Source:  John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. John Kenneth Galbraith Papers. Series 5. Harvard University File, 1949-1990. Box 526, Folder: “Harvard University. Department of Economics: General Correspondence, 1967-1974 (1 of 8)”.

Image Source: Abram Bergson (From National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir written by Paul Samuelson); Albert O. Hirschman (From the Institute for Advanced Study Archives).

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading

Harvard. Exams and Reading Lists for Latin American Economies. Bradley, 1944/1948/1949

 

 

 

An earlier post provided the reading list for a course taught at Harvard by Philip Durgan Bradley, Jr., Economics 38b “Economic Problems of Latin America” in the Spring Term of 1944. In the meantime, I have found a copy of the exam that I have transcribed for this post.

A few years and a course number change later, Bradley taught a course with the title “The Economy of Latin America” (Econ 14b). The reading list provided for the course in the spring semesters of 1948 and 1949 were identical except for a single item and is provided below as are the final examination questions from 1948 and 1949.

____________________

Final Exam, June 1944

1943-44
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 38b

One hour

  1. “Variations in the international balance of payments are the principal factors determining the level of economic activity is the Latin American area.” What were the principal variations in the Latin American balance of payments during the period 1923-43? In what specific respects and by what means did these variations in the balance of payments affect the internal level of economic activity in the Latin American countries during this period? (Treat the area as a whole.) Do you agree that the above quotation is substantially correct?

Choose ONE question. 50 minutes

  1. The returns earned on United States Direct Investments guarantee two things for the future: (1) a substantial share of total private United States capital sent abroad in any year will go to Latin America and (2) every country and every major type of industry in Latin America will be assured of an adequate future flow of United States private capital. Discuss.
  2. “One essential difference between petroleum and mineral products on the one hand and the products of agriculture and industry on the other consists of the fact that the former products represent the exploitation of non-replaceable, wasting-assets while the latter do not. The domestic requirements for petroleum and mineral products in industrially backward countries are small, and these products are produced primarily for export purposes. The continued or increased exploitation of these wasting-assets for export purposes constitutes a drain upon the national wealth which must necessarily prevent the realization of higher levels of national income in such countries.” Discuss, including a statement of your agreement or disagreement with the foregoing conclusion.

Choose TWO. 35 minutes each

  1. “The high cost of living in Venezuela is a direct consequence of that nation’s petroleum policy.” Discuss.
  2. What were the principal objectives of the Brazilian coffee control programs? Of the Inter-American Coffee Agreement? Do you believe that an international approach to coffee control promises more hope of success than the methods used in the past? Explain your answer to this last question.
  3. Discuss what you consider to be the more important economic consequences of the land tenure system in Latin America.
  4. Write an essay on the principal topics discussed in your reading period selection.

 

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Final Examinations, 1853-2001. Box 9, Papers Printed for Final Examinations, History, History of Religions,…Economics,…, Military Science, Naval Science. June, 1944.

____________________

Enrollment 1948

[Economics] 14b. Assistant Professor Bradley.—The Economy of Latin America (Sp.)

Total 49: 1 Graduate, 24 Seniors, 16 Juniors, 6 Sophomores, 1 Business School, 2 Radcliffe.

 

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1947-48, p. 89.

 

Enrollment 1949

[Economics] 114 (formerly Economics 14b). Assistant Professor Bradley.—The Economy of Latin America (Sp.)

Total 58: 1 Graduate, 26 Seniors, 23 Juniors, 4 Sophomores, 1 Public Administration, 1 Business School, 2 Radcliffe.

 

Source:Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1948-49, p. 76.

 

____________________

“Short” Reading List

Economics 14b
Spring Term, 1949
[mimeographed copy]

Readings related to Latin American economic problems+

  1. Royal Institute for International Affairs, Republic of South America, Chs. 1 and 2.
  2. George Soule, Efron and Ness, Latin America in the Future World, Chs. 1-6.
  3. L. Schurz, Latin America, pp. 155-178.
  4. H. Barber, “Land Problems in Mexico,” Foreign Agriculture, Vol. III, pp. 99-120.
  5. M. McBride, Chile: Land and Society, Ch. 5.
  6. George Wythe*, Industry in Latin America, Part I, Part II—Choose one: Argentina, Brazil or Mexico, Part III.
  7. M. Phelps, Migration of Industry to South America, Chs. 2, 4, 7.
  8. T. Ellsworth*, Chile: An Economy in Transition.
  9. Triffin, R., “Central Banking,” Ch. 4 in Economic Problems of Latin America, ed. By S. E. Harris.
  10. Robert Triffin, Money and Banking in Colombia, pp. 1-33.
  11. C. Wallich, “Cuba: Sugar and Currency,” Ch. 14 in Economic Problems of Latin America.
  12. Central Bank of Argentina, Annual Reports(from 1935).
  13. Spiegel, H. W., The Brazilian Economy.

* To be purchased

+ Other readings of a more general nature may be assigned later.

[Note: the “short” reading list for 1948 was identical except for the last item by H. W. Spiegel that was not included.]

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003. Box 4, Folder “Economics, 1948-1949 (1 of 2).

____________________

“Long” reading list

Economics 14b
Spring Term, 1948
[carbon copy]

  1. Royal Institute for International Affairs, Republic of South America. [Chs. 1 and 2]
  2. M. McBride, Chile: Land and Society.
  3. L. Schurz, Latin America.
  4. George Soule, Efron and Ness, Latin America in the Future World. [Chs. 1-6]
  5. Foreign Agriculture, Vols. II, III.
  6. D. Wickizer, The World Coffee Economy.
  7. George Wythe, Industry in Latin America.
  8. Lloyd D. Hughlett, Industrialization of Latin America.
  9. W. Cooke, Brazil on the March.
  10. M. Phelps, Migration of Industry to South America.
  11. T. Ellsworth, Chile: An Economy in Transition.
  12. Economic Problems of Latin America, edited by S. E. Harris.
  13. N. Simpson, The Ejido.
  14. J. Brown, Industrialization and Trade.
  15. Olson and Hickman, Pan American Economics.
  16. Robert Triffin, Money and Banking in Colombia.
  17. Central Bank of Argentina, Annual Reports(from 1935).
  18. S. Tariff Commission, Foreign Trade of Latin America.
  19. American Advisory Economic Mission to Venezuela, Report to the Minister of Finance.
  20. G. Hanson, Utopia in Uruguay.
  21. Ernesto Galarza, Labor Trends and Social Welfare in Latin America.
  22. Virgil Salera, Exchange Control and the Argentine Market.
  23. S. Buchanan and Fred A. Lutz, Rebuilding the World Economy.
  24. L. Phelps, International Economic Position of Latin America.
  25. H. Williams, Argentine International Trade under Inconvertible Paper.
  26. Feuerlein and E. Hannan, Dollars in Latin America.
  27. M. Phelps, Economic Relations with Latin America.
  28. Cleona Lewis, America’s Stake in International Investment.
  29. F. Bain and T. T. Read, Ores and Industry in South America.
  30. Edgar Turlington, Mexico and Her Foreign Creditors.
  31. F. Rippy, Latin America and the Industrial Age.
  32. Fortune, March, 1933; December, 1935; January, 1942.
  33. Enke and V. Salera, International Economics.
  34. Triffin, Monetary and Banking Reform in Paraguay.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003. Box 4, Folder “Economics, 1947-1948 (1 of 2).

____________________

Final exam, May 1948

1947-48
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 14b

Part I

Answer BOTH questions. One hour each.

  1. Develop the evolution of Argentine monetary policy in response to the course of the trade cycle in the period from 1936 to 1945. Evaluate the success or failure achieved through the execution of monetary policy and provide an explanation for the results attained.
  2. Write an essay on “the determinants of economic progress in Venezuela.” Extract from your discussion and state in summary fashion those economic principles which you believe constitute conditions of economic progress in all nations.

Part II

Choose TWO. 30 minutes each.

  1. Would you as the manager of a firm incorporated in the United States build a branch plant in Argentina, Brazil, or Chile? Base your answer upon an analysis of our experience with branch plants in that area. (Do notselect this question if you are a citizen of a Latin American country.)
  2. Would you as a citizen of Argentina, Brazil, or Chile favor or oppose the construction of additional branch plants owned by firms incorporated in the United States of America? Base your answer upon an analysis of the experience of those countries with branch plants. (Do notanswer this question unlessyou are a citizen of a Latin American nation.)
  3. Describe the problems encountered and the policies pursued in the Argentine securities market in the period 1936-1944.
  4. Analyze, as an economist, the objectives of Chilean Development (Fomentao) Corporation and the powers granted to the Corporation for the realization of those objectives.
  5. Explain in the most fundamental terms possible the economic significance of imports to any Latin American country now endeavoring to promote economic development.

 

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Final Examinations, 1853-2001. Box 15, Papers Printed for Final Examinations, History, History of Religions,…Economics,…, Military Science, Naval Science. May, 1948.

____________________

Final Exam, June 1949

1948-49
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 114b

(Three hours)

I.

Write on BOTH the following questions. One hour each.

  1. Compare the economic experiences and policies of two of the following countries in the period 1929-1934: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Colombia. Was recovery in any one of these nations to be imputed to the economic policies adopted? Include in your discussion a description of the forces which generated economic events during this period.
  2. Explain as fully as you can the causes of the difference between the rates of economic development in the United States and in any one major Latin American nation.

II.

Write on TWO of the following topics. Thirty minutes each.

  1. The justification for policies of monetary autonomy in Latin America. Choose one country for illustrative purposes.
  2. The present economic situation in Argentina is to be explained in terms of international factors.
  3. Government deficit finance as a method for increasing living standards in Latin America.
  4. The considerations that would guide you as a United States business man in deciding whether or not to do business in Latin America. Which country is the most attractive from this standpoint?

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Final Examinations, 1853-2001. Box 16, Papers Printed for Final Examinations, History, History of Religions,…Economics,…, Military Science, Naval Science. June, 1949.

Categories
Curriculum Harvard Teaching Undergraduate

Harvard. Economics teaching responsibilities according to David Landes, 1955

Landes_David.jpg Prof. David Landes 7437 #36 11/1193 Photographer: Jane Reed

 

In the archived Columbia University graduate economics department papers one finds an extended discussion about a university administration initiative in 1955-56 to adjust teaching loads to meet a fiscal crisis. The economics chairman, Carl S. Shoup, asked the young economic historian on the faculty, David Landes, to brief him on the teaching situation at Harvard. The following “note to self” by Shoup offers an obiter dictum or two that one would not be able to glean from published Harvard catalogues alone, e.g., “This system is also well suited to a coeducational program.”

_________________

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
Interdepartment Memorandum

Date: February 18, 1955
Carl S. Shoup

Memorandum for Files
Record of Conversation with David Landes on Harvard
Technique of Handling Graduate and Undergraduate Classes

Landes tells me that at Harvard in economics, there are three kinds of courses. First is an elementary course for undergraduates in which there is one lecture a week before a class that may range from 50 to 300 students or perhaps even more. Another two hours a week is taken up with section work handled by graduate students who are somewhat below our instructors in terms of the amount of their responsibilities (I understand from Hart that in some of these elementary courses one lecture will be given by one professor, another professor will come along the following week and so on). This professor is a senior man whose chief interest is in the graduate field. Nevertheless, there seems to be considerable competition among the senior professors for the privilege of giving these big lectures. Not all senior professors give such lectures and not all are competitors for the task.

Then there are mixed courses containing 20 or 30 students or so, some of the students being undergraduate and some graduate.

Finally, there are the graduate seminars attended only by graduate students.

In no case does the graduate professor have to take care of the mechanics of grading undergraduate examination papers, taking attendance, etc. All these chores are handled by the young assistant.

As a result, there is no well-defined undergraduate faculty in economics as there is in Columbia. Landes thinks this system is undoubtedly the most economical, but it has the drawback that the undergraduate student who reads the catalogue and thinks he is going to get some big name to teach him in his beginning course finds that he does so only to the extent of sitting in a large group and listening to the professor without ever getting any personal contact with him.

This system is also well suited to a coeducational program.

 

Source:  Columbia University Libraries, Manuscript Collections, Columbiana. Department of Economic Collection, Box 5, Folder “Budget Meeting—1955-1956”.

Image Source:  The Harvard Gazette  August 30, 2013 photo of David S. Landes.

Categories
Funny Business M.I.T.

M.I.T. Economics faculty M*A*S*H theme skit. Robert Solow, 1977

 

Dating an undated skit script or assigning skit characters to actual faculty members requires textual analysis skills not taught in economics graduate school. But puzzle solving is, so let’s see what we can do with the following skit written by Robert Solow.

Current events and transitory cohorts of graduate students are our main clues to work with.

  • The TV-series M*A*S*H began its run of many years in September 1972.
  • Andrew Abel, Jeff Frankel and Dick Startz, mentioned in the script, all entered the M.I.T. graduate economics program in September 1974, so the earliest they could have been mentioned would have been in the January 1975 show.
  • David Lilien belonged to the previous year’s cohort so he would have been around in 1975-1977.
  • I was in that cohort with Messrs. Abel, Frankel, and Startz, and I am honestly surprised that I do not remember this faculty skit at all. However I do remember well that the faculty, as well as our cohort, wrote and performed independent Wizard of Oz skits in 1976. So it appears that either 1975 or 1977 were likely years for the following skit.
  • Rudiger Dornbusch taught at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business 1974-75 before coming to M.I.T. in 1975.

Solow’s authorship is firmly established in the prologue to the 1986 faculty skit, where it is written:

“…we were tempted to re-run some of the great Solow skits of the past. There was the 1974 Watergate Skit, in which Paul Colson Joskow testifies to Senator Sam Peltzman that he would run over his grandmother to get a t-statistic above two. There was the 1978 Star Wars skit [a coming attraction here at Economics in the Rear-View Mirror], in which Milton Vader and his minions capture the wookie Jerrybaca and hold him captive in the Chicago Money Workshop. And in the incredible 1973 [sic] MASH skit [below], Hawkeye Hall and Trapper Jerry Hausman find Radar Diamond and Hot Lips Friedlaender cavorting in the Chairman’s office…”

We can see how memory plays tricks even on professors, since there is really no way except in a perfect foresight world that in 1973 Robert Solow would have alluded to members of the cohort of 1974-75. 

The Synopsis below was printed on an unattached page and while it clearly leads into the M*A*S*H skit, I somewhat doubt that it was actually recited in performance. The idea of a faculty skit of graduate students trying to write a skit seems undeveloped. Still this synopsis’ characterization of our cohort’s skits as “a series of separate episodes in which they make fun of the idiosyncrasies of the faculty” fits the data well. Thus if forced to choose a single date for the following skit, I would probably go with 1977. 

_____________

Synopsis

It is Friday afternoon and the tenth year class still hasn’t thought of a good idea for a skit. A group including Able Andrew [Andrew Abel], Jacob Frankel [Jeffrey Frankel], “Skinny” Lilien [David Lilien], Dick Stops [Dick Startz]…, are meeting in desperation. Finally they decide that the best they can do is to have a series of separate episodes in which they make fun of the idiosyncrasies of the faculty.

  1. Marty Weitzman (Jeff Harris can do this perfectly. He will write his part).
  2. Jerry Hausman. Lecture to be given very fast. Stop after each point and grin.
  3. Frank Fisher. Obvious.
  4. Bob Hall. This character lectures with one toe on top of the other and his arms folded. Then he hops around the room in that position.
  5. Rudi Dornbusch. This depends on being able to do the accent.

And so on. At the end, someone says this isn’t a very good idea after all and a second skit, based on “mash” is tried.

_____________

Announcer: We are about to tell you a heartwarming story that almost nobody knows. It is the story of a devoted, selfless, kind, hardworking people who are yet charming, humorous, sexy, brilliant and lighthearted even while they tend the youthful victims of a heartless bloody War, the famous WOE or War on Error, perhaps more accurately called the War on Other People’s Error or WOOPE. The warm, sympathetic, lovable heroes of this story are the Doctors of the Massachusetts Economics Students Hospital or M.E.S.H.

As the scene opens, we observe the crusty but kindly commanding officer of MESH, Col. Brown [E. Cary Brown], looking at latest casualty lists.

BROWN: (broad smile, laughing, etc.) Able Andrew [Andrew Abel], flunked; Dick Stops [Dick Startz], flunked; Ray Hartman [Raymond S. Hartman], Ray Hartman, flunked, flunked. This is awful, hohoho. Here’s one who lost his Fellowship. Here’s one who lost both his Fellowships. War is hell.

(PAD [Peter Diamond?] comes in and puts sheet of paper on desk)

BROWN: (shouts) Radar.

PAD: Yessir.

BROWN: Where is that new duty roster for next month?

PAD: Just gave it to you, sir.

BROWN: Hmmm, I see Major Samuelson is doing the history of surgical thought. How far does he go?

PAD: Up to Marx’s transplantation problem.

BROWN: I suppose someone’s assigned to each ward: yes, someone for G-1, and for G-2, G-3, M-2, M-3—say how come nobody’s assigned to M-1?

PAD: Demand for M-1 has dropped off a lot lately.

BROWN: Oh, yes, another outbreak of Goldfeld’s Syndrome. How well I remember the first case I ever saw, back at old Fort Sam Brookings in the old days. Why, boy, they had real cash balances in the Regular Army.

(Enter Hawkeye Hall [Robert Hall] and Trapper Jerry [Jerry Hausman].)

PAD: Hi Hawk, Hi Trapper. What’s up?

HH: Up, down, what difference does it make. It’s all a random walk anyway. I’ve got kids out there dying of underconsumption and all I can tell them is that their consumption is way below trend, but there’s no reason to expect it ever to get back to trend. Properly discounted, they’re already dead.

BROWN: Couldn’t you just amputate a bit of the life cycle—maybe they’re just suffering from Modigliani’s Disease—you know the symptoms, compulsive talking, recurrent forecasting errors, complete absence of bequests—why I remember back at old Fort Sam Brookings…

HH: Modigliani’s Disease? There’s no such thing. That stuff all went out with, with, with econometrics. Nowadays it’s all up down up down. Well, maybe a totally unexpected amputation might work. But only once. No, it’s hard telling those innocent soldiers that everything they were taught up until yesterday, even by me, is all wrong.

TJ: I think the smart ones realize that tomorrow it will appear that what we’re telling them today is wrong too. That’s rational expectations for you. Once you get on it’s hard to get off. I hear that over at the Illinois Economics Graduates Hospital or IEGH the surgeons have stopped doing econometric operations altogether. They’d rather let everybody die at the natural rate. One of our enlisted men, Olivier Lawrence [Olivier Blanchard?], is supposed to have suggested that at least time was an exogenous variable, so maybe you could do a few econometric operations. But Major Lucas [Robert Lucas], the executive surgeon at IECH, told him that only the deviations of time from trend can possibly matter and that’s…

PAD: Up down up down….

TJ: Thanks, Radar. According to Lucas’s method of surgery, all coefficients are either zero or one—dealer’s choice.

(Enter HotLips [Anne Friedlander] and Major Frank [Frank Fisher])

HL: Colonel, I’d like to have this crumb courtmartialed. He almost killed one of our students by disconnecting the MPS transfusion from the main computer. He said that if anyone ever put the peripheral equipment and the main-frame in the same market, he’d never be able to go near Yorktown Heights again. Hark! Do I hear a chopper?

PAD: No, Major HotLips it’s just one of the students with Modigliani’s disease.

HL: Radar, just stay in the supply room and out of the women’s shower.

HH and TJ: Up down up down.

HL: Colonel you’ve got to do something about these clods. And as for Frank here, when I think…what did I ever see in him?

F: Well, I’m a little hard not to see. But I’ll get even with you all. I got out of econometric surgery while there were still exogenous variables. Anti-anti-trust is where the money is now. You’ll regret your temper, HotLips. When these creeps are starving and broke, unemployed econometric surgeons, doing illegal surprise amputations for peanuts, I will be dancing in Yorktown Heights, testifying in the fifty-third year of the IBM case, on one side or the other. Colonel, if you can’t have some discipline in this MESH, I’m going to file a complaint with Judge Edelstein.

BROWN: I think I’ll apply for reassignment to old Fort Sam Brookings.

(Enter Corporal Klingenbusch, dressed in his usual.)

TJ: Gorgeous outfit you’ve got there Klingenbusch [Rudiger Dornbusch?].

K: Victory at last. I’ll be in old Fort Sam Brookings before you. It worked. At last I get to leave this nut house. I’ve been discharged. I’m going home to Japan.

HH: How did you work it Klingenbusch?

K: Easy. I didn’t satisfy the transvestality condition.

ANNOUNCER: And so we leave the dedicated Doctors of MESH. Perhaps you are wondering why none of the beloved students, for whom MESH lives and breathes, actually appeared in this story. The reason is simple and typical, not to say rationally expected. There was no space.

[Handwritten note at the end of the typed text:]

J. Harris (appears): My name is Jeff Harris. I am a chest-cutter by profession. This is the most ridiculous hospital I have ever seen. It makes the University of Pennsylvania look like heaven. I wouldn’t trust these people to do veterinary surgery although, in fact, I think some of them may be veterinarians, at best.

 

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Economists’ Papers Archive. Papers of Robert M. Solow, Box 83.

Image Source: Robert Solow in his office, MIT Museum Website.