Author: Irwin Collier

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Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Graduate core economic theory exams and enrollments. Taussig, 1926-30

 

 

Examination questions spanning just over a half-century can be found in Frank Taussig’s personal scrapbook of cut-and-pasted semester examinations for his entire Harvard career. Up to the time when Schumpeter took over the core economic theory course from Taussig in 1935, Taussig’s course covering economic theory and its history was a part of almost every properly educated Harvard economist’s basic training. Taussig’s exam questions have been previously posted for the academic years 1886/87 through 1889/90 along with enrollment data for the course;  material for this course (including semesters when taught with/by other instructors) from 1890/91 through 1893/94; 1897-1900 ; 1904-1909 ; 1911-14 ; 1915-1917; 1918-1919 ; 1920-22 ; 1923-25 have been posted as well.  

This post begins with the printed course description from 1929-30 then adds the enrollment data and five years of semester final examinations for the years 1925-26 through 1929-30.

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 Course Description
1929-30

11. Economic Theory.

Mon. , Wed., Fri., at 2. Professor Taussig

Course 11 is intended to acquaint the student with the development of economic thought since the beginning of the nineteenth century, and at the same time to train him in the critical consideration of economic principles. The exercises are conducted mainly by the discussion of selected passages from the leading writers; and in this discussion the students are expected to take an active part. A careful examination is made of the writings of Ricardo and J. S. Mill, and of representative modern economists.

 

Source:  Division of History, Government, and Economics, 1929-30. Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XXVI, No. 36 (June 27, 1929), p. 71. Identical course description found in Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XXV, No. 29 (May 26, 1928), p. 70.

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1925-26

 

Course Enrollment: Economics 11
1925-26

[Economics] 11. Professor Taussig.—Economic Theory

Total 50: 36 Graduates, 5 Graduate Business, 2 Seniors, 6 Radcliffe, 1 Other.

 

Source: Harvard University. Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1925-26, p. 77.

 

 

 

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 11
Mid-year Final Exam
1925-26

Arrange your answers in the order of the questions

  1. “The ordinary bargain between labor and capital is that the wage-receiver gets command over commodities in a form ready for immediate consumption, and in exchange carries his employer’s goods a stage further towards being ready for immediate consumption. But while this is true of most employees, it is not true for those who finish the processes of production. For instance, those who put together and finish watches, give to their employers far more commodities in a form ready for immediate consumption, than they obtain as wages. And if we take one season of the year with another, so as to allow for seed and harvest time, we find that workmen as a whole hand over to their employers more finished commodities than they receive as wages.”
    Do you see anything to criticize in this?
  2. (a) “In estimating the exchangeable value of stockings, for example, we shall find that their value, comparatively with other things, depends on the total quantity of labour necessary to manufacture them and bring them to market. First, there is the labour necessary to cultivate the land on which the raw cotton is grown; secondly, the labour of conveying the cotton to the country where the stockings are to be manufactured, which includes a portion of the labour bestowed in building the ship in which it is conveyed, and which is charged in the freight of the goods; thirdly, the labour of the spinner and the weaver; fourthly, a portion of the labour of the engineer, smith, and carpenter, who erected the buildings and the machinery. . . . The aggregate sum of these various kinds of labour determines the quantity of other things for which these stockings will exchange.”
    (b) “Suppose one man employs one hundred men for a year in the construction of a machine, and another man employs the same number of men in cultivating corn. . . .
    Suppose that for the labour of each workman £50 per annum were paid, or that £5000 capital were employed and profits were 10 per cent, the value of the machine as well as of the corn, at the end of the first year, would be £5500. The second year the manufacturer and farmer will again employ £5000 each in the support of labour, and will therefore again sell their goods for £5500; but the man using the machine, to be on a par with the farmer, must not only obtain £5500 for the equal capital of £5000 employed on labour, but must obtain a further sum of £550 for the profit on £5500, which he has invested in machinery, and consequently his goods must sell for £6050. Here, then, are capitalists employing precisely the same quantity of labour annually on the production of their commodities, and yet the goods they produce differ in value on account of the different quantities of fixed capital, or accumulated labour, employed by each respectively.”Is Ricardo’s reasoning tenable, on his own premises, in both cases? Are the premises the same in both?
  3. “To popular apprehension it seems as if the profits of business depend on prices. A producer or dealer seems to obtain his profits by selling his commodity for more than it costs him. . . . Demand — customers — a market for the commodity, are the cause of the gain of the capitalist.” What would Mill say to this? Ricardo?
  4. The effective desire of accumulation; the rate of profits as dependent on the cost of labor; the tendency of profits to a minimum, — are the doctrines of Mill on these topics consistent with each other? With what Ricardo laid down?
  5. “The cost of production [of agricultural produce] on the margin of the profitable application of capital and labour is that to which the price of the whole produce tends, under the control of the general conditions of demand and supply; it does not govern price, but it focusses the causes which do govern price.” Explain what Marshall means. Does the doctrine differ from Mill’s on the same subject?
    Would Marshall’s conclusion be applicable to a manufactured commodity which is produced under the conditions usually indicated by cost-accountants’ data (a supply curve positively inclined)?
  6. Suppose a decrease in the demand for a commodity produced with much fixed capital: what consequences would you expect on the equilibrium of supply and demand, price, quasi-rent, cost. Consider both the short period and the long period effects.
  7. Wherein, if at all, is the conception of quasi-rent applicable to

“Capital sunk in the soil”;
Pullman, Saltaire, and the like cases;
The gains of pioneers settling in a new country.

  1. What is meant by a law of increasing return? Do you believe there is one as regards “external economies”? internal economies?

 

 

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 11
Year-end Final Exam
1925-26

Arrange your answers in the order of the questions

  1. Define, with the utmost brevity consistent with accuracy, producers’ surplus; consumers’ surplus; savers’ surplus. What writers do you associate with the concepts to which these terms refer?
  2. “When the artisan or professional man has once obtained the skill required for his work, a part of his earnings are for the future really a quasi-rent of the capital and labour invested in fitting him for his work, in obtaining his start in life, his business connections, and generally his opportunity for turning his faculties to good account; and only the remainder of his income is true earnings of effort. But this remainder is generally a large part of the whole. And here lies the contrast. For when a similar analysis is made of the profits of the business man, the proportions are found to be different: in his case the greater part is quasi-rent.”Is the greater part of the earnings of business men to be regarded as quasi-rent? Is only the remainder to be regarded as true earnings of effort? Are these propositions in accord with Walker’s doctrine concerning business profits?
  3. What sort of surplus, if any, arises from the operation of diminishing returns as regards (a) increasing output secured from land; (b) increasing output secured with the aid of additional instruments made by man?
  4. The resemblance or difference between Clark’s doctrine that “abstinence is confined to the genesis of new capital,” and the reasoning of later writers concerning the significance of the surplus accounts of corporations.
  5. “‘On the whole,’ says Marshall, ‘it happens that by far the greater number of the events with which economics deals affect in about equal proportions all the different classes of society; so that if the money measures of the happiness caused by two events are equal, there is not in general any very great difference between the amounts of the happiness in the two cases.’ This has been justly characterized as a cavalier dismissal of the effect of differences of wealth and differences in sensibility.”Why a cavalier dismissal? or why not? Consider whether the criticism holds good as regards Marshall’s reasoning on the effects of taxes and bounties.
  6. (a) “As the inquiry to which I wish to draw the reader’s attention relates to the effect of the variations in the relative value of commodities, and not in their absolute value, it will be of little importance to examine into the comparative degree of estimation in which the different kinds of human labour are held. We may fairly conclude that whatever inequality there might originally have been in them, whatever the ingenuity, skill, or time necessary for the acquirement of one species of manual dexterity more than another, it continues nearly the same from one generation to another; or at least that the variation is very inconsiderable from year to year, and therefore can have little effect, for short periods, on the relative value of commodities.”
    Is this a cavalier dismissal of the relation between differing rates of wages and the value of goods?(b) “Although general wages, whether high or low, do not affect values, yet if wages are higher in one employment than another, or if they rise and fall permanently in one employment without doing so in others, these inequalities do really operate upon values. . . . When the wages of an employment permanently exceed the average rate, the value of the thing produced will, in the same degree, exceed the standard determined by mere quantity of labour. Things, for example, which are made by skilled labour, exchange for the produce of a much greater quantity of unskilled labour; for no reason but because the labour is more highly paid.” Mill.What would Marshall say to this? Böhm-Bawerk? What is your own view?
  7. Is there essential difference between the doctrine that the general level of wages is determined by the discounted marginal product of labor, and Clark’s doctrine concerning the relation between wages and the product of labor?
  8. “It is not true that the spinning of yarn in a factory, after allowance has been made for the wear-and-tear of the machinery, is the product of the labour of the operatives. It is the product of their labour, together with that of the employer and subordinate managers, and of the capital employed; and that capital itself is the product of labour and waiting: and therefore the spinning is the product of labour of many kinds, and of waiting. If we admit that it is the product of labour alone, and not of labour and waiting, we can no doubt be compelled by inexorable logic to admit that there is no justification for Interest, the reward of waiting; for the conclusion is implied in the premiss.”(a) What would Böhm-Bawerk say to this? What is your own view?
    (b) What is the premiss which is implied in the conclusion?

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1926-27

 

Course Enrollment: Economics 11
1926-27

[Economics] 11. Professor Taussig.—Economic Theory

Total 44: 38 Graduates, 3 Graduate Business, 2 Seniors, 1 Radcliffe.

 

Source: Harvard University. Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1926-27, p. 75.

 

 

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 11
Mid-year Examination
1926-27

[Arrange your questions in the order of the answers]

  1. The merits and defects of Walker’s treatment of distribution.
  2. The merits and defects of Ricardo’s treatment of value.
  3. The merits and defects of Mill’s treatment of profits.
  4. What is meant by “increase of demand” in the following passages: —
    (a) “The democratization of society and the aping of the ways of the well-to-do by the lower classes have greatly increased the demand for silk fabrics.”
    (b) “ The lower price of sugar after 1890, when sugar was admitted free of duty, at once caused an increase of demand.”
    (c) “The cheapening of a commodity may mean an increase of demand such that the total sum spent on it will be as great as before, even greater than before.”
  5. Describe the supply curves indicated by accountants’ figures for the costs of agricultural and of manufactured products; and explain wherein they confirm or fail to confirm traditional “laws of value” applicable to the two classes of goods.
  6. (a) “Were it not for this tendency [to diminishing returns] every farmer could save nearly the whole of his rent by giving up all but a small piece of his land, and bestowing all his labor and capital on that. If all the labor and capital which he would in that case apply to it gave as good a return in proportion as that he now applies to it, he would get from that plot as large a produce as he now gets from his whole farm; and he would make a net gain of all his rent save that of the little plot that he retained.”
    (b) “The return to additional labour and capital [applied to land] diminishes sooner or later; the return is here measured by the quantity of the produce, not by its value.”
    (c) “Ricardo, and the economists of his time generally were too hasty in deducing this inference [tendency to increased pressure] from the law of diminishing return; and they did not allow enough for the increase of strength that comes from organization. But in fact every farmer is aided by the presence of neighbours, whether agriculturists or townspeople. . . . If the neighbouring market town expands into a large industrial centre, all his produce is worth more; some things which he used to throw away fetch a good price. He finds new openings in dairy farming and market gardening, and with a larger range of produce he makes use of rotations that keep his land always active without denuding it of any one of the elements that are necessary for its fertility.”
    Have you any criticisms or qualifications to suggest on these passages from Marshall?
  7. “For periods which are long in comparison with the time needed to make improvements of any kind, and bring them into full operation, the net incomes derived from them are but the price required to be paid for the efforts and sacrifices of those who make them; the expenses of making them thus directly enter into marginal expenses of production, and take a direct part in governing long-period supply price. But in short periods, that is, in periods short relatively to the time required to make and bring into full bearing improvements of the class in question, no such direct influence on supply price is exercised by the necessity that such improvements should in the long run yield net incomes sufficient to give normal profits on their cost. And therefore when we are dealing with such periods, these incomes may be regarded as quasi-rents which depend on the price of the produce.”
    Precisely what is meant by “these incomes”?

 

 

 

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 11
Year-end Final Examination
1926-27

Arrange your answers in the order of the questions

  1. What is the difference, if any, between

supply prices and expenses of production;
successive costs and contemporaneous costs;
demand curves and utility curves?

  1. Would you reckon economic rent among the expenses of production of a commodity? business profits?
    Would you reckon them among the costs of production?
  2. “‘Rent is not an element in price’ — such is the classical statement on the subject. . . . But if one defines rent as product imputable to a concrete agent, the impossibility of maintaining such a claim becomes apparent. Even if one were to restrict the term rent to the product created by land, the claim that it is not an element in adjusting market values would be absurd; for it would amount to saying that a certain part of the output of every kind of goods has no effect on their market value. The ‘price’ referred to in the formula is, of course, the market value expressed in units of currency.” What do you say?
  3. “That capital is productive has often been questioned, but no one would deny that tools and other materials of production are useful; yet these two propositions mean exactly the same when correctly understood. Capital consists primarily of tools and other materials of production, and such things are useful only in so far as they add something to the product of the community. Find out how much can be produced without any particular tool or machine, and then how much can be produced with it, and in the difference you have the measure of its productiveness.”
    What would Böhm-Bawerk say to this? J. B. Clark? What is your own view?
  4. Böhm-Bawerk remarks that the theory which he has put forward bears “a certain resemblance” to the wages fund theory of the older English School, but differs from it in various ways, one of which is “the most important.” What are the points of resemblance? and what is this “most important” difference?

Questions 6 and 7 may be treated as one, if you prefer; and questions 8 and 9 may also be so treated.

  1. “It may well be asked whether a method [of measuring utility] that needs so much guarding and explaining is worth adopting at all. The answer is that the principle of the declining marginal significance is fundamental. The doctrine of surplus value in the thing bought, over and above the value of the price paid, is an inevitable deduction from it.” Do you agree?
  2. Adventitious utility, conspicuous waste, consumer’s surplus, organic welfare. How are these related? or not related?
  3. Ricardo’s theory of cost of production is so expressed as almost to invite misunderstanding. In consequence there is a widely spread belief that it has needed to be reconstructed by the present generation of economists. . . . On the contrary the foundations of the theory as they were left by Ricardo remain intact; much has been added to them and very much has been built upon them, but little has been taken from them. He knew that demand played an essential part in governing value, but he regarded its action as less obscure than that of cost of production, and therefore passed it lightly over in the notes which he made for the use of his friends, and himself; for he never essayed to write a formal treatise: he regarded cost of production as dependent — not, as Marx asserted him to have done, on the mere quantity of labor used up in production, but — on the quality as well as quantity of that labor; together with the amount of stored up capital needed to aid labor, and the length of time during which such aid was invoked.” Do you agree?
  4. “The incomes which are being earned by all agents of production, human as well as material, and those which appear likely to be earned by them in the future, exercise a ceaseless influence on those persons by whose action the future supplies of these agents are determined. There is a constant tendency towards a position of normal equilibrium, in which the supply of each of these agents shall stand in such a relation to the demand for its services, as to give to those who have provided the supply a sufficient reward for their efforts and sacrifices. If the economic conditions of the country remained stationary sufficiently long, this tendency would realize itself in such an adjustment of supply to demand, that both machines and human beings would earn generally an amount that corresponded fairly with their cost of rearing and training, conventional necessaries as well as those things which are strictly necessary being reckoned for.”
    Is this in accord with Ricardo’s view? with Mill’s view? with Cairnes’s? What is your own opinion?

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1927-28

Course Enrollment: Economics 11
1927-28

[Economics] 11. Professor Taussig.—Economic Theory

Total 56: 43 Graduates, 2 Graduate Business, 6 Seniors, 1 Junior, 4 Radcliffe.

 

Source: Harvard University. Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1927-28, p. 75.

 

 

 

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 11
Mid-year Final Examination
1927-28

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions

  1. Wherein is there resemblance, wherein difference, between Walker’s long-run theory of wages and Cairnes’s?
  2. “Ricardo’s theory of cost of production is so expressed as almost to invite misunderstanding. In consequence there is a widely spread belief that it has needed to be reconstructed by the present generation of economists….On the contrary the foundations of the theory as they were left by Ricardo remain intact; much has been added to them and very much has been built upon them, but little has been taken from them. He knew that demand played an essential part in governing value, but he regarded its action as less obscure than that of cost of production, and therefore passed it lightly over in the notes which he made for the use of his friends, and himself; for he never essayed to write a formal treatise: he regarded cost of production as dependent—not, as Marx asserted him to have done, on the mere quantity of labor used up in production, but—on the quality as well as quantity of that labor; together with the amount of stored up capital needed to aid labor, and the length of time during which such aid was invoked.”
    Do you agree?
  3. What is the short period view, what the long period view (1) of Mill as regards the level of wages; (2) of Marshall as regards differences of wages in different occupations?
  4. Does Marshall conclude that money costs of production measure real costs of production? that value is ultimately determined by a constant supply price?
  5. “An increase in the aggregate volume of production will generally increase the size, and therefore the internal economies possessed by a representative firm; it will always increase the external economies to which the firm has access; and then will enable it to manufacture at a less proportionate cost of labour and sacrifice than before.”
    Why? or why not?
  6. Explain the criticisms or objections to the notion of consumer’s surplus which have been urged on the ground of (a) inequalities of income, (b) “esteem value” or “adventitious value,” (c) identity in the yield of satisfaction from each constituent of a given stock. Which among these objections if any, tell strongly against Marshall’s suggestion regarding the use of taxes and bounties?
  7. “The extra income derived from rare natural abilities bears a closer analogy to the surplus produce from the holding of a settler who has made an exceptionally lucky selection, than to the rent of land in an old country.”
    Why? or why not?
  8. (a) “The deepest and most important line of cleavage in economic theory” is “the distinction between the quasi-rents which do not, and the profits which do, directly enter into the normal supply prices of produce for periods of moderate length.” Marshall.
    (b) A critic has remarked: “In that which is most characteristic, original and positive in his work, Professor Marshall has left the old concept of rent far behind. The logical consequence of his treatment is that all the division fences between the different sorts of material wealth have been leveled; and that rent is the income of an material agent….”
    What have you to say?

 

 

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 11
Year-end Final Examination
1927-28

 

  1. Explain in the briefest terms

Expenses of Production.
Opportunity Cost.
“Cost” as used by Cairnes.
“Cost” as used by Marshall.
“Cost” as used by Böhm-Bawerk.

  1. What do you conceive to be meant by “pure profits”? and what is the place of pure profits in the theory of cost and value?
  2. “‘Rent is not an element in price’ — such is the classical statement on the subject. It even expresses a view that is now prevalent. The expression itself however, is vague. It seems to mean that the fact of rent plays no part in the adjustment of values, and that things would exchange for one another in exactly the ratios in which they now do, if there were no such thing as rent. But if one defines rent as product imputable to a concrete agent, the impossibility of maintaining such a claim becomes apparent. Even if one were to restrict the term rent to the product created by land, the claim that it is not an element in adjusting market values would be absurd; for it would amount to saying that a certain part of the output of every kind of goods has no effect on their market value. The ‘price’ referred to in the formula is, of course, the market value expressed in units of currency.”
    What do you say?
  3. Resemblances and differences between the “discounted marginal product” theory of wages and the specific product theory.
  4. “Interest under Socialism” as discussed by Böhm-Bawerk.
  5. What are “fair wages,” in Marshall’s view? Clark’s? Böhm-Bawerk’s? Your own?

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1928-29

Course Enrollment: Economics 11
1928-29

 

[Economics] 11. Professor Taussig.—Economic Theory

Total 39: 28 Graduates, 1 Graduate Business, 1 Senior, 1 Junior, 8 Radcliffe.

 

Source: Harvard University. Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1928-29, p. 72.

 

 

 

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 11
Mid-year Final Examination
1928-29

Answer the questions in the order in which they are put; and answer them all, distributing your time accordingly.

  1. It had been maintained by Adam Smith and others that:
    (1) profits are lowered by the mutual competition of merchants;
    (2) taxes on necessaries cause money wages to rise;
    (3) a rise in money wages means a rise in all prices;
    (4) taxes on wages lessen farmer’s profits, and thus lower rent.
    What would Ricardo say under each head?
  2. It has been said by German writers that there is a certain degree of truth in the wages fund doctrine, in that the capital of employers is the immediate source from which wages come; but the ultimate source is in the incomes of consumers. What would Ricardo say to this? Walker? your own view?
  3. In the familiar diagram representing conditions of increasing costs for an agricultural commodity, does the supply curve indicate expenses of production or “real costs” of production?
    In a similar diagram for a manufactured commodity, based on accountants’ figures of costs, does the supply curve indicate expenses or “real costs”?
    Are the two curves different in meaning, or do they indicate essentially the same situation?
  4. “We have next to study the conditions of business management; and in so doing we must have in view a problem that will occupy our attention as we go on. It arises from the fact that, though in manufacturing at least every individual business, so long as it is well managed, tends to become stronger the larger it has grown; and though prima facie we might therefore expect to see large firms driving their smaller rivals completely out of many branches of industry, yet they do not in fact do so.”
    What is Marshall’s solution of the problem thus stated by him?
  5. “That part of a man’s income which he owes to the possession of extraordinary natural abilities is a free boon to him; and from an abstract point of view bears some resemblance to the rent of other free gifts of nature, such as the inherent properties in land. But in reference to normal prices, it is to be classed rather with the profits derived by free settlers from the cultivation of new land, or again with the find of the pearl-fisher.”
    On what grounds does Marshall rest this conclusion? What would Walker say to it?
  6. How, if at all, did Mill modify Adam Smith’s conclusions on the causes of the differences of wages in different employments? Cairnes modify Mill’s? Marshall modify Cairnes’s?
  7. “It might be supposed at first thought that . . . the area above the horizontal line (in the usual diagram) represents consumers’ surplus. This is not exactly true, however, and that for two reasons. In the first place, the satisfaction of additional wants which a lower price makes possible may make the more important wants less intense. A man might be willing to give ten dollars for a cord of wood in order that at least one room in his house could be heated during the winter. He might also be willing to give seven dollars a cord for two cords, so as to heat two rooms, but the heating of the second room might render the heating of the first room less important to him. He might not be willing, for example, to give ten dollars plus seven dollars in order to have the two rooms heated. In the second place, utility itself is to a large extent affected by price. So far as our purchases satisfy what has been called the desire for distinction, or represent what Thorstein Veblen has termed ‘conspicuous consumption,’ a lowering of the price of a commodity would lessen its utility to us.”
    Give your opinion on these objections; and consider which of them, if either, would necessarily tell against Marshall’s suggestion concerning bounties and taxes.

 

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 11
Year-end Final Examination
1928-29

 

Arrange your answers in the order of the questions.
Two questions may be omitted.

  1. Resemblances and differences between Ricardo and Boehm-Bawerk.
  2. The following have been suggested, by one writer or another, as the grounds on which the distinction between interest and rent turns:
    (1) Land is fixed in amount, instruments made by man are not.
    (2) Competition equalizes the return on instruments made by man but not that on land.
    (3) The returns on land and instruments alike depend on marginal productivity.
    Examine critically but briefly each statement; and give your own view.
  3. Would interest necessarily persist in a socialist state? The rent of land?
  4. “Quasi-rents are the net profits made in years of exceptionally good trade, or by business men of exceptional natural ability.”
    “Business profits are the net return secured in years of exceptionally good trade, or by business men of exceptional natural ability.”
    Do you agree in either case?
  5. (a) “The output of the least efficient producers forms part of the total output whose magnitude helps to determine price. But to argue from this that there is some special relation between price and the costs of the least efficient producers is a complete non sequitur.”
    (b) “‘ Rent is not an element in price’ — such is the classical statement on the subject. It even expresses a view that is now prevalent. The expression itself, however, is vague. It seems to mean that the fact of rent plays no part in the adjustment of values, and that things would exchange for one another in exactly the ratios in which they now do, if there were no such thing as rent. But if one defines rent as product imputable to a concrete agent, the impossibility of maintaining such a claim becomes apparent. Even if one were to restrict the term rent to the product created by land, the claim that it is not an element in adjusting market values would be absurd; for it would amount to saying that a certain part of the output of every kind of goods has no effect on their market value. The ‘price’ referred to in the formula is, of course, the market value expressed in units of currency.”
    What is your opinion?
  6. Are there important distinctions between these propositions:
    (a) Wages are determined by the specific product of labor;
    (b) Wages are determined by the imputed product of labor;
    (c) Wages are determined by the discounted marginal product of labor.
  7. “It is evident that, if the supply [of labor] is increased, whether the increase comes about through an addition to the number of workpeople or through an addition to their average capacity, the national dividend must be increased. Our problem is to ascertain the effect that will be produced upon the aggregate real income of labour. The analysis set out in the preceding section shows that the marginal net product of labour, in terms of things in general, and, therefore, its real earnings per unit, must be diminished. Whether its aggregate earnings will be increased depends, therefore, on whether the elasticity of the demand for labour in general is greater or less than unity. If this elasticity is greater than unity, labour in the aggregate will receive a larger absolute quantity of dividend than before; whereas, if the elasticity is less than unity, it will receive a smaller absolute quantity. It is, therefore, necessary to determine whether in fact the elasticity of demand is greater or less than unity.” Do you agree? and what is your conclusion on the elasticity of demand for labor?
  8. Compare Hobson’s analysis of “costless” savings with that of other recent writers.

____________________________________

1929-30

Course Enrollment: Economics 11
1929-30

[Economics] 11. Professor Taussig.—Economic Theory

Total 53: 44 Graduates, 3 Seniors, 5 Radcliffe, 1 Other.

 

Source: Harvard University. Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1929-30, p. 78.

 

 

 

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 11
Mid-year Final Examination
1929-30

Arrange your answers in the order of the questions. Answer ALL the questions.

  1. “The ordinary bargain between labour and capital is that the wage-receiver gets command over commodities in a form ready for immediate consumption, and in exchange carries his employer’s goods a stage further towards being ready for immediate consumption. But while this is true of most employees, it is not true for those who finish the process of production. For instance, those who put together and finish watches, give to their employers far more commodities in a form ready for immediate consumption, than they obtain as wages. And if we take one season of the year with another, so as to allow for seed and harvest time, we find that workmen as a whole hand over to their employers more finished commodities than they receive as wages.”
    What do you say to this? and what is its bearing on the questions raised by George and Walker?
  2. “This principle of the division of the produce of labour and capital between wages and profits, which I have attempted to establish, appears to me so certain, that excepting in the immediate effects, I should think it of little importance whether the profits of stock or the wages of labour, were taxed. . . . A tax on wages does not fall on the landlord, but it falls on the profits of stock: it does not ‘entitle and oblige the master manufacturer to charge it with a profit on the prices of his goods,’ for he will be unable to increase their price, and therefore he must himself wholly and without compensation pay such a tax.”
    What led Ricardo to the conclusions stated in this passage?
  3. (a) “As the inquiry to which I wish to draw the reader’s attention relates to the effect of the variations in the relative value of commodities, and not in their absolute value, it will be of little importance to examine into the comparative degree of estimation in which the different kinds of human labour are held. We may fairly conclude that whatever inequality there might originally have been in them, whatever the ingenuity, skill, or time necessary for the acquirement of one species of manual dexterity more than another, it continues nearly the same from one generation to another; or at least that the variation is very inconsiderable from year to year, and therefore can have little effect, for short periods, on the relative value of commodities.”
    (b) “Although general wages, whether high or low, do not affect values, yet if wages are higher in one employment than another, or if they rise and fall permanently in one employment without doing so in others, these inequalities do really operate upon values. . . . When the wages of an employment permanently exceed the average rate, the value of the thing produced will, in the same degree, exceed the standard determined by mere quantity of labour. Things, for example, which are made by skilled labour, exchange for the produce of a much greater quantity of unskilled labour; for no reason but because the labour is more highly paid.” Mill.
    What would Cairnes say about the proposition here laid down? What would Marshall say? What are your own opinions?
  4. Consider whether marginal cost determines price, or price determines marginal cost, in the following cases:
    (a) the short-period price of a manufactured commodity;
    (b) the short-period (seasonal) price of an agricultural commodity;
    (c) the long-period price of a manufactured commodity;
    (d) the long-period price of an agricultural commodity;
    (e) the long-period value of gold.
  5. Describe the supply curves (particular costs curves) which we have for agricultural products; indicate what they signify; and indicate also in what principles and in what manner such curves should be constructed in order to make them fit into the “orthodox” reasoning about the rent of land, or to serve as test or verification for that reasoning.
  6. (a) “The deepest and most important line of cleavage in economic theory” is “the distinction between the quasi-rents which do not, and the profits which do, directly enter into the normal supply prices of produce for periods of moderate length.”
    (b) A critic has remarked: “In that which is most characteristic, original and positive in his work, Professor Marshall has left the old concept of rent far behind. The logical consequence of his treatment is that all the division fences between the different sorts of material wealth have been levelled; and that rent is the income of any material agent. . . .”
    Why should Marshall consider the line of cleavage explained in (a) to be the most important? If he does, must he admit the “logical consequence” stated in (b)?
  7. “Curves of total satisfaction are purely abstract; that is to say, they represent the subjective value attached by a consumer to each increment of the commodity, or the amount he would purchase at any given price, apart from any consideration of the causes that might be supposed in actual experience to limit his supply or raise the price of the commodity, and apart from all reactions upon the price or other commodities. They are also isolated; that is to say, we cannot conceive of a system of such curves being so constructed as to be valid simultaneously. Nor can we sum their areas, taken successively, without omitting some values and counting others more than once. Nor can we read on them the effect of a rise or fall in the consumer’s income. Nevertheless their general form has a high theoretical significance. . . .
    It may well be asked whether a method that needs so much guarding and explaining is worth adopting at all. The answer is that the principle of declining marginal significances is absolutely fundamental. The doctrine of surplus value in the thing bought over and above the value of the price paid, is an inevitable deduction from it.”Explain, and give your own views.

 

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 11
[Year-end Final Examination]
1929-30

Arrange your answers in the order of the questions.

  1. Explain briefly,

Simple Competition
Monopolistic Competition
Bilateral Monopoly
Simple Monopoly
Discriminating Monopoly

  1. What is the elasticity of demand for labor, on the reasoning of the Wages Fund doctrine? on that of Böhm-Bawerk? on that of Pigou? What is your own view?
  2. What are “pure profits”? and what would be “impure” profits? Can you distinguish? If so, how and why?
  3. “That able but wrongheaded man, David Ricardo, shunted the car of Economic Science on to a wrong line, on which it was further urged toward confusion by his equally able and wrongheaded admirer John Stuart Mill.”
    “Ricardo’s theory of cost of production is so expressed as almost to invite misunderstanding. In consequence, there is a widely spread belief that it has needed to be reconstructed by the present generation of economists. . . . On the contrary the foundations of the theory as they were left by Ricardo remain intact; much has been added to them and very much has been built upon them, but little has been taken from them.” Marshall.
    What ground for either view?
  4. Give the rest of your time — at least one hour — to a discussion of The Universal Law of Diminishing Returns.

 

 

Source for examination questions: Harvard University Archives. Prof. F. W. Taussig, Examination Papers in Economics 1882-1935 (Scrapbook).

Image Source:  Harvard Class Album, 1934.

Categories
Exam Questions Oxford

Oxford. Exams for Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE), 1931

During the winter of 1931-32 Wesley Clair Mitchell of Columbia University taught as Eastman Professor at Balliol College, Oxford. In Mitchell’s papers in the Columbia University archives is a complete collection of the examinations for the Honour School of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from Trinity term 1931 provided him by his  Oxford colleague Robert Hall. I have even transcribed the French/German/Italian texts for the “Unseen translation paper” (at least two of the three languages). Would be interested to know how a Google translation would have scored. I am following the ordering of the exams found in the Mitchell papers, reflecting Hall’s grouping of the examinations  (III, IV, VIII, IX required political economy topics; VII choice of one of three further topics in political economy; I, II, X, V, VI all the non-political-economy topics)

 

  1. HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY
  2. BRITISH CONSTITUTIONAL AND POLITICAL HISTORY
  3. POLITICAL ECONOMY
  4. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC ORGANIZATION
  5. PRESCRIBED BOOKS: POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
  6. UNSEEN TRANSLATION PAPER
  7. FURTHER SUBJECT IN POLITICAL ECONOMY

ADVANCED ECONOMIC THEORY
CURRENCY AND CREDIT
LABOUR MOVEMENTS SINCE 1815

 

  1. BRITISH SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY
  2. PRESCRIBED BOOKS: POLITICAL ECONOMY
  3. MORAL AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY

_____________________

“By 1930, however, the total number of PPE candidates had risen to 102, thus necessitating an additional examiner in economics. In 1931, the total number of candidates increased by one-third again, to 132. …Between 1931 and 1939, there were always two Oxford-based economists on the Committee [of examiners]. In 1931, Hall joined Hargreaves, and they both also served as examiners in 1932. “

Source:   W. Young and F. Lee, Oxford Economics and Oxford Economists, p. 82

______________________

Cover letter from Robert Hall to Wesley Clair Mitchell

Trinity College,
Oxford.

13.XI.31

Dear Mitchell,

Here are the papers set last year. I have divided them into three groups which will explain them: everyone takes ten papers of which seven are common to all.

I have seen practically everyone about the matter we discussed on Monday and they all feel that the course you suggested should be followed. Hargreaves has written to MacGregor inviting him to come next Tuesday.

If you have not already been invited to the Political Economy Club dinner on Saturday the 21st would you come with me? Harrod is speaking on the balance of trade between gold-standard countries.

Yours very sincerely,

Robert Hall

______________________

SECOND PUBLIC EXAMINATION
Honour School of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics

III
POLITICAL ECONOMY

  1. ‘To show that both under-population and over-population are possible is not the same thing as showing that either of these things exists now or has ever existed.’ Consider this statement.
  2. What importance do you attach to the distinction between long and short periods in an analysis of cost of production?
  3. What do you understand by the principle of charging ‘what the traffic will bear’? How far is it applicable outside the sphere of transport charges?
  4. Can the phenomenon of a rate of interest be adequately explained as the result of a preference for present over future income?
  5. ‘It is an illusion to suppose that the general level of wages can be appreciably and permanently raised by Trade Union action except in so far as it increases the efficiency of the workers, or incidentally stimulates the efficiency of the employers.’ Examine this assertion.
  6. What costs does the presence of risk and uncertainty entail? How is the burden of these costs actually borne and distributed?
  7. ‘Any formula which may be used to demonstrate that rent is a surplus may equally well be used to demonstrate that wages and interest are surpluses.’ Discuss this view.
  8. Is the aggregate volume of employment likely to be diminished by the introduction of new mechanical processes?
  9. What are the necessary conditions for the maintenance and effective operation of an international gold standard? Are these conditions realized to-day?
  10. What are the advantages and disadvantages of a policy of State control of foreign investment?
  11. What effects may different forms of protective tariffs be expected to produce upon the distribution of income within a community?
  12. In what different senses my the term ‘taxable capacity’ be used? How far is it possible to attach a precise meaning to the term in any of these uses?

[T.T. 1931.]

SECOND PUBLIC EXAMINATION
Honour School of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics

IV
POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC ORGANIZATION

[Questions should be attempted from each section]
A

  1. Discuss the view that to rely, for the preservation of peace, on the use of military and economic sanctions by the League of Nations, is to defeat the purpose of the League.
  2. Examine the effect of the separation of executive and legislative powers on American politics.
  3. ‘In spite of outward appearances the multi-party system of Germany and France provides more stable, more efficient, and more representative government than the English system.’ Discuss this statement.
  4. Discuss the merits of direct and indirect election as a means of choosing a second chamber.
  5. ‘No branch of government more immediately and more deeply affects the lives of ordinary citizens than the currency and banking policy of the State, and yet there is no branch of government which is less suitable for popular control.’ Do you see any solution to this difficulty?
  6. Discuss the view that substantial economies ought to be effected in this country by reducing the number of government servants.

B

  1. How far do you consider that control by the workers engaged in an industry is compatible with industrial efficiency.
  2. Discuss the effects of the increased burden of fixed interest charges caused by the recent fall in prices.
  3. ‘In view of the disparity between wholesale and retail prices, marketing rather than production is the most suitable sphere for state control.’ Examine this statement.
  4. Is the future development of British industry more likely to come from a revival of the exporting industries or from the expansion of new types of production?
  5. Discuss the view that expenditure on social services is a better investment for the community than the increase of private savings.
  6. Is the Stock Exchange necessary for the direction of capital into industry?

[T.T. 1931.]

SECOND PUBLIC EXAMINATION
Honour School of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics

VIII
BRITISH SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY

  1. ‘The agrarian Revolution took place earlier, and without its results the industrial Revolution would have been impossible’ (Brentano). Consider this judgment.
  2. Describe the changes which occurred in the localization of industries between 1760 and 1830.
  3. Did the British fiscal system during the first half of the nineteenth century seriously restrict industrial development?
  4. Examine the distribution and the effect of immigration into Great Britain.
  5. Describe and account for the changes in Trade Union policy between 1825 and 1870.
  6. ‘A more miserable history can hardly be found than that of the attempts of the Bank to keep a reserve and to manage a foreign drain between the year 1819 and the year 1857.’ Was Bagehot’s criticism of the policy of the Bank of England justified?
  7. What measures were taken to improve the living conditions of the working classes in the period 1836-90?
  8. ‘High farming the best substitute for Protection.’ How far were the methods and organization of British agriculture successfully adapted to the situation following upon the repeal of the Corn Laws?
  9. ‘The basis of taxation is extremely narrow (Goschen). To what extent was this true of the tax system in the period 1860-90?
  10. What changes did the University of Oxford undergo in the nineteenth century?
  11. What attempts has Parliament made to secure effective control over the development of mechanical transport?
  12. What part has the principle of the workhouse test played in the administration of the English poor law?

[T.T. 1931]

SECOND PUBLIC EXAMINATION
Honour School of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics

IX
PRESCRIBED BOOKS: POLITICAL ECONOMY

  1. ‘Every improvement in the circumstances of the society tends either directly or indirectly to raise the real rent of land.’ Discuss the manner in which Adam Smith reaches this conclusion.
  2. ‘The number of productive labourers can never be much increased but in consequence of an increase of capital.’ Does Adam Smith give a coherent account of the nature of capital?
  3. Can a clear account of the causes and effects of inflation be derived from Adam Smith and Ricardo?
  4. Compare the theories of Adam Smith and Ricardo on the mechanism of foreign trade.
  5. What is the importance of normal costs of production in Ricardo’s system?
  6. Can Ricardo’s views on the incidence of taxation be reconciled with modern theories on the subject?
  7. Is it fair to say that false hypotheses about the laws of population vitiate the accounts given by Ricardo and Marx of the relations between the profits of capital and the wages of labour?
  8. In what sense, if any, can commodities be said to contain ‘congealed labour-time’?
  9. ‘The starting-point of the development that gave rise to the wage labourer as well as to the capitalist was the servitude of the labourer.’ Discuss this statement.
  10. Discuss the views of the three writers on the place of competition in economic life.

[T. T. 1931]

_________________________________

Note by Hall:

“One of these 3. The best people do the first: the worst the last. (Economists only)”

SECOND PUBLIC EXAMINATION
Honour School of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics

VII
FURTHER SUBJECT IN POLITICAL ECONOMY
ADVANCED ECONOMIC THEORY

  1. ‘But if quantitative analysis can give us empirically valid demand curves…shall we not have a better theory of demand than qualitative analysis can supply?’ Discuss this view of economic method.
  2. Consider the problem of the attribution of portions of the product to units of productive factors.
  3. In what circumstances can it be said that a price is indeterminate?
  4. Consider the relation between enterprise and saving.
  5. Is it possible to construct a tax system on the principle of equal sacrifice?
  6. Discuss the problem of weighting in connexion with the construction of some type of index number.
  7. Consider the difficulties of economic forecasting.
  8. Give an account of the principal formulae connecting money and prices, with reference to the availability of statistical evidence.
  9. Can trade depressions be attributed either to under-consumption or to under-investment?
  10. How would you expect the price system of a Socialist economy to differ from that of a competitive one?

[T.T. 1931]

SECOND PUBLIC EXAMINATION
Honour School of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics

VII
FURTHER SUBJECT IN POLITICAL ECONOMY
CURRENCY AND CREDIT

  1. ‘The equations of the Quantity Theory of Money are truisms which tell us nothing in themselves.’ Discuss this view.
  2. Can the purchasing power of money be satisfactorily expressed in terms of a ‘general level of prices’?
  3. What types of legal regulation prevail to-day with regard to the cash reserves of central banks? To what extent may these regulations be regarded as obsolete?
  4. What grounds are there for assuming that the world’s annual supplies of gold are likely to prove inadequate to future monetary requirements?
  5. How far can the control of credit be effectively secured through the purchase and sale of securities by a central bank?
  6. Describe the chief features of British monetary policy between 1914 and 1925.
  7. ‘Booms and slumps are simply the expression of the results of an oscillation of the terms of credit about their equilibrium position.’ Consider this statement.
  8. How would you proceed to measure the purchasing power parity between two currencies?
  9. How far does experience indicate the practicability of a discrimination on the part of bankers between the different purposes to which credit may be applied?
  10. What are the main considerations which should govern the policy of a super-national bank?
  11. Give an account of the operation of the Indian Gold Exchange Standard between 1898 and 1914.
  12. ‘Banks can only lend what the public has entrusted to them.’ Examine this view.

[T. T. 1931]

SECOND PUBLIC EXAMINATION
Honour School of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics

VII
FURTHER SUBJECT IN POLITICAL ECONOMY
LABOUR MOVEMENTS SINCE 1815

  1. What were the principles of Owenism, and what attempts were made to apply them?
  2. Describe and account for the attitude of the Chartists towards the movement for the repeal of the Corn Laws.
  3. ‘The creation of a normal working day is the product of a protracted civil war, more or less dissembled, between the capitalist class and the working class’ (Marx). Does the history of factory legislation support this view?
  4. What changes in the legal status of Trade Unions were effected by the legislation of the years 1868-76?
  5. To what extent were trade unionists influenced by the wage theories of orthodox political economists during the latter half of the nineteenth century?
  6. To what influences was the emergence of the New Unionism of 1889-90 due?
  7. What have been the causes of the success of the Consumers’ Co-operative Movement in Great Britain?
  8. Examine and compare the various educational experiments which have been associated with working-class movements in Great Britain.
  9. ‘Of real Syndicalism there is in England probably none.’ How far was this statement true of the period 1906-14?
  10. What attempts have been made to deal with the special problems connected with casual labour?
  11. Discuss the attitude of the British Labour leaders to the Second and Third Internationals.

[T.T. 1931]

_________________________________

Note by Hall:

“These are the non-economic papers taken—a paper in Kant can be substituted for No. V. (Prescribed Books) but this is the usual one.”

SECOND PUBLIC EXAMINATION
Honour School of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics

I
HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY

  1. Explain and criticize Descartes’ view of the method of mathematics.
  2. Does either Spinoza or Leibniz give a coherent account of the apparent multiplicity of objects in the world?
  3. What reasons led Leibniz to his conception of the monad?
  4. Is Locke’s account of the origination of ideas satisfactory?
  5. Give an account of Berkeley’s theory of perception.
  6. Examine the grounds for the distinction between primary and secondary qualities.
  7. Discuss Hume’s criticism of the notion of the self.
  8. What is meant by apperception?
  9. On what grounds can a distinction be drawn between understanding and reason?
  10. ‘Its religious character is an essential feature of English Idealism, and the guiding principle of its development.’ Discuss this statement in regard to any one British Idealist.
  11. Examine any modern account of the nature and origin of belief.
  12. Is any satisfactory account known to you of the place of evil in the world?
  13. Explain, and estimate the success of, the attempt of any one philosopher to refute materialism.
  14. What is the function of philosophy according to any one modern philosopher?
  15. Discuss the account given by any one modern philosopher of the relation between the human mind and its body.

[T.T. 1931]

SECOND PUBLIC EXAMINATION
Honour School of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics

II
BRITISH CONSTITUTIONAL AND POLITICAL HISTORY

[Candidates are expected to answer questions from both sections of the paper.]

A

  1. To what extent were Parliamentary elections in the boroughs under the control of the Crown and of private individuals at the beginning of the reign of George III?
  2. What different ideas in political thought are represented in the careers of Burke and Fox?
  3. Discuss the problems raised by cases involving the privileges of the House of Commons between 1760 and 1860.
  4. ‘The Commons were right in accusing him; the Lords were right in acquitting him.’ Discuss this verdict on the impeachment of Warren Hastings.
  5. Discuss the view that Britain has never been in greater danger than at the time of the Treaty of Tilsit.
  6. How far does the history of England between 1822 and 1830 prove that good government without representative government is not enough?
  7. What problems were left unsolved by the Union with Ireland in 1801?
  8. What truth is there in the view that the Whig governments in the decade after the Reform Bill proved themselves to be as incompetent in financial questions as they were competent in political questions?
  9. Compare the extent of the personal influence of the monarch under George III and under Queen Victoria.

B

  1. ‘But then you have been Prime Minister in a sense in which no other man has been it since Mr. Pitt’s time’ (Gladstone, 1846). Discuss this estimate of Peel as a Prime Minister.
  2. How far were any British interests served by the Crimean War?
  3. ‘The real struggle in nineteenth-century England was not between Conservatives and Liberals but between rationalists and romantics in politics.’ Discuss.
  4. Discuss the view that the pre-war system of rigidly organized parties really dates from 1868.
  5. Discuss the claims of Disraeli’s administration from 1874 to 1880 to be considered more truly democratic than the administration of Gladstone which precede it.
  6. How far is it true to say that the South African War was due to the alternation between a policy of authority and a policy of conciliation?
  7. Estimate the effect on the Conservative Party of the adhesion of Joseph Chamberlain.
  8. Discuss the chief conflicts between the Commons and the Lords between 1860 and 1911.
  9. ‘A party without a policy and without philosophy.’ How far do you agree with this dictum of The Times on the Liberal party in 1906?

[T. T. 1931.]

SECOND PUBLIC EXAMINATION
Honour School of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics

X
MORAL AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY

  1. Of what value is the distinction between means and ends in moral inquiry?
  2. Can I ever do what I do not want to do?
  3. Is determinism compatible with belief in real values?
  4. ‘To know all is to pardon all.’ Is this true?
  5. Criticize the view that the will is identical with practical reason.
  6. ‘I ought to do what I believe to be right, even though my belief may be false.’ Is this view tenable?
  7. Can adequate grounds be given for asserting either that it is always wrong or that it is nearly always wrong to lie?
  8. ‘Every one to count as one, and no one to count as more than one.’ Is this a moral axiom?
  9. What is meant by obedience?
  10. Is the state the guardian of morality?
  11. Does the doctrine of the General Will imply the existence of a Group Mind?
  12. On what principles should a man who owes allegiance to more than one association decide which he is to obey?
  13. On what grounds can democracy be defended?

[T. T.  1931.]

SECOND PUBLIC EXAMINATION
Honour School of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics

V
PRESCRIBED BOOKS: POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY

  1. Discuss the view that Burke’s advocacy of the claims of expediency rather than right in dealing with the American colonies was a shallow and temporizing approach to a fundamental problem of politics.
  2. ‘But nothing in progression can rest on its original plan.’ How far did Burke apply this doctrine consistently in his political thinking?
  3. How far was Durham’s recommendation of union for Canada influenced by economic considerations?
  4. ‘We have not succeeded in making education practical.’ Do you consider that this statement in the India Report uncovers the main cause of discontent, and at the same time points to the most important remedy?
  5. How far are Mill’s proposed limitations of universal suffrage consistent with his general political principles?
  6. Comment on the view that Mill’s observations on Second Chambers are more sensible than those of Esmein and more profound than those of Bryce.
  7. Examine Bryce’s view of the special defects and dangers in the political systems of Australia and New Zealand.
  8. Assuming that the presumption of argument is in favour of the accurate representations of opinion, in what situations would you hold Proportional Representation to be undesirable?
  9. To what extent does Bryce’s treatise on democracy suffer from the omission of the United Kingdom from the countries he presents for examination?
  10. ‘Ce qui constitue en droit une nation, c’est l’existence, dans cette société d’hommes, d’une autorité supérieure aux volontés individuelles.’ Is it necessary for the preservation of this authority to formulate a theory of sovereignty in such terms as Esmein uses?
  11. ‘Dicey’s vindication of the rule of law holds good with regard to personal liberty but not with regard to security of property.’ Discuss this view.
  12. How far would you agree with the statement that the conventions of a constitution may become more rigid than its laws?

[T. T. 1931.]

SECOND PUBLIC EXAMINATION
Honour School of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics

VI
UNSEEN TRANSLATION PAPER

[Candidates are required to complete at least ONE of the following passages from each of two languages]

Translate into English:—

(a) De ce chef, la question prend une ampleur angoissante. L’utilisation de l’aviation dans la vie contemporaine est déjà telle, les perspectives qu’ouvre son développement ultérieur certain sont si larges, les services qu’elle doit rendre s’annoncent comme si étendus, qu’on voit mal comment l’humanité pourrait y renoncer. L’aviation est entrée dans notre existence quotidienne, et la part qu’elle  prendra dans la vie internationale, spécialement dans la vie économique, ne peut que grandir: le monde des affaire n’abandonnerait pas volontiers les possibilités énormes que lui donne dès aujourd’hui l’aviation, les espérances plus grandes encore qu’elle lui fait concevoir pour demain. On en revient à la fable d’Ésope: l’aviation, comme la langue, est la meilleure et la pire des choses. Puissant facteur du développement des relations internationales dans tous les domaines, elle est en même temps—ou elle peut être, suivant les intentions de ceux qui l’emploient, — un puissant facteur de destruction internationale. N’est-ce pas, dira-t-on, la rançon de tout ce qui représente un progrès matériel? Les chemins de fer, l’automobile, ne participent-ils pas aussi à la fois du bien de du mal? Les transports par voie ferrée ou par camions routiers n’ont-ils pas joué un rôle considérable dans les opérations de la guerre mondiale? C’est vrai. Mais l’aviation représente un danger d’un ordre particulier.

(b) Mais les gens qui vivaient alors, qui étaient attachés au gouvernement républicain par tradition et par souvenir, qui se rappelaient les grandes choses qu’il avait faites, qui lui devaient leurs dignités, leur position et leur renommée, pouvaient-ils penser comme nous et prendre aussi facilement leur parti de sa chute? D’abord ce gouvernement existait. On était familiarisé avec ses défauts depuis si longtemps qu’on vivait avec eux. On en souffrait moins par l’habitude qu’on avait de les supporter. Au contraire on ne savait pas ce que serait ce pouvoir nouveau qui voulait remplacer la république. La royauté inspirait une répugnance instinctive aux Romains, surtout depuis qu’ils avaient conquis l’Orient. Ils avaient trouvé là, sous ce nom, le plus odieux des régimes, l’asservissement le plus complet au milieu de la civilisation la plus raffinée, tous les plaisirs du luxe et des arts, le plus bel épanouissement de l’intelligence avec la tyrannie la plus lourde et la plus basse, des princes accoutumés à se jouer de la fortune, de l’honneur, de la vie des hommes, sortes d’enfants gâtés cruels comme on n’en rencontre plus que dans les déserts de l’Afrique. Ce tableau n’était pas fait pour les séduire, et quelques inconvénients qu’eût la république, ils se demandaient s’il valait la peine de les échanger contre ceux que pouvait avoir la royauté.

(c) Kants Vater war ein Mann von offenem, geradem Verstande, der Arbeitsamkeit und Ehrlichkeit als höchste Tugenden ansah, zu denen er auch seine Kinder erzog. Tieferen Einfluß auf den Sohn hatte die Mutter, die er schildert al seine Frau von großem natürlichen Verstand, einem edlen Herzen und einer echten, durchaus nicht schwärmerischen Religiosität. Sie ging oft mit dem Jungen ins Freie, machte ihn auf Gegenstände und Vorgänge in der Natur aufmerksam, lehrte ihn nützliche Kräuter kennen, erzählte ihm vom Bau des Himmels und pries ihm die Allmacht, Weisheit und Güte Gottes. Noch als Greis gestand Kant: ‚Ich werde meine Mutte [sic] nie vergessen; denn sie pflanzte und nährte den ersten Keim des Guten in mir, sie öffnete mein Herz den Eindrücken der Natur; sie weckte und erweiterte meine Begriffe, und ihre Lehren haben einen immerwährenden heilsamen Einfluß auf mein Leben gehabt.’ Er war auch der Meinung, seine Gesichtszüge und seine körperliche Konstitution, bis auf die eingebogene Brust, habe er von der Mutter geerbt. Tief hat er es stets bedauert, daß er sie bereits als Dreizehnjähriger verlor. Am Bette einer an typhösen Fieber enkrankten [sic] Freundin holte sie sich dieselbe Krankheit und starb in ihrem vierzigsten Lebensjahr bereits 1737. Fünf Jahre vorher war Kant als Achtjähriger in die beste Schule seiner Vaterstadt, das Collegium Fridericianum (ein heute noch bestehendes Gymnasium), aufgenommen worden.

(d) Es geht bei der Philosophie fast wie bei der Politik. Wenn hier auch nicht jeder des Aristoteles acht Bücher vom Staate, Spinozas Tractatus theologico-politicus oder Montesquieus ‘Geist der Gesetze’ liest, so halt er doch seine Zeitung, sucht sich die Geschehnisse zurecht zu legen und bekennt sich zu gewissen Prinzipien und Parteien. Ähnlich in der Philosophie. Gar manchen, der wenig von all den Systemen weiß, die, seit Thales die Welt aus dem Wasser entstehen ließ, aus den wogenden Gedanken hervorragender Geister auftauchten, haben doch die philosophischen Probleme nicht ganz unberührt gelassen. Auch ihn haben die großen Rätsel des Menschenlebens und Weltzusammenhangs beunruhigt gelassen. Auch ihn haben die großen Rätsel des Menschenlebens und Weltzusammenhangs beunruhigt und, nach der Lösung suchend, hat er sich Meinungen gebildet, die dann lange Zeit gehegt, vielleicht auch von anderen in seiner Umgebung geteilt, sich schließlich für ihn mit der ganzen Macht der Gewohnheit und des Gefühls umkleideten und wie etwas selbstverständlich Evidentes in seinem Kopfe festgesetzt haben. Was ist denn nun aber die Philosophie, für die sich so viele interessieren, wenn sie auch ihre Schwierigkeit und das Erfordernis sorgsamer Vorbereitung nicht immer genügend würdigen? Wir sprachen eben davon, wie auf diesem Gebiete fast jeder leichthin und kühnlich zu urteilen wage. Seltsam darum, wenigstens für den Augenblick, daß doch die scheinbar einfache und elementare Frage, was die Philosophie sei, die Leute gemeiniglich in eine nicht geringe Verlegenheit bringt. Wenden wir uns aber damit statt an die philosophischen Dilettanten an die Berufsphilosophen, so hat von diesen zwar gewiß jeder eine Antwort bereit, aber fast jeder eine andere.

(e) La ricchezza e la prosperità inglese aumentavano dunque in questo tempo, ma tendevano ancora ad un timido piede di casa, e trovando nell’agricoltura larghe possibilità di investimento, cercavano di ripiegarsi su di essa, come nell’impiego più sicuro, ed era questo un fenomeno che non solo riguardava l’aristocrazia campagnola e gli affittuari di terre, ma anche i borghesi manifatturieri di città che consideravano le loro industrie come un mezzo di far denaro, considerando l’agricoltura un mezzo per impiegarlo. Quindi il capitale inglese, rapidamente crescente, aveva la pacifica tendenza a ripiegarsi sui più sicuri impieghi terrieri o, tutt’ al più, sulle industrie cittadine largamente protette; certo nella sua gran massa, se si eccettuano gli avventurosi armatori di navi corsare come quelle di Drake o i monopolisti del commercio internazionale, mal volentieri si avventurava ad imprese marinare e si investiva in navi, anzi sentiva così poco la necessità economica di una florida marina mercantile che perfino rifiutava di contribuire alla creazione di una marina reale che lo proteggesse e alla difesa della costa e dei porti sui quali neppur mancavano le incursioni barbaresche e lasciava affittare agli olandesi per un misero canone la pesca sulle sue coste.

(f) Nasce da questo una disputa: ‘S’egli è meglio essere amato che temuto, o temuto che amato.’ Rispondesi, che si vorrebbe essere l’uno e l’altro; ma perché gli è difficile che gli stiano insieme, è molto più securo l’esser temuto che amato, quando s’abbi a mancare dell’un de’duoi. Perchè degli uomini si può dir questo generalmente, che sieno ingrati, volubili, simulatori, fuggitori de’pericoli, cupidi di guadagno: e mentre fai lor bene, sono tutti tuoi, ti offeriscono il sangue, la roba, la vita, ed i figli, come di sopra dissi, quando il bisogno è discosto; ma quando ti si appressa, si rivoltano. E quel principe che si è tutto fondato in su le parole loro, trovandosi nudo d’altri preparamenti, rovina: perchè l’amicizie che si acquistano con il prezzo, e non con grandezza e nobiltà d’animo, si meritano, ma le non s’hanno, ed a’tempi non si possono spendere. E gli uomini hanno men rispetto d’offendere uno che si facci amare, che uno che si facci temere: perché l’amore è tenuto da un vinculo d’obbligo, il quale, per esser gli uomini tristi, da ogni occasione di propria utilità è rotto; ma il timore è tenuto da una paura di pena, che non abbandona mai.

[T. T. 1931.]

Source:  Columbia University Libraries Manuscript Collections. Mitchell, W. C. Collection, Box 10, Folder “Hall Robert, 13 Nov 1931”.

Image Source:  Robert Lowell Hall  .

Categories
Business School Economists Harvard

Harvard. Economics Ph.D. Alumnus and Harvard Business School Professor, Copeland, 1910

 

Another obituary for the series: Meet a Ph.D. Economist! Copeland apparently was the first to organize a collection of case studies that were later to became a hallmark of the Harvard Business School. Of particular value is the link I found to his history of the Harvard Business School that was published in 1958.

_______________________________________

Examination for the Degree of Ph.D.
Division of History and Political Science

Melvin Thomas Copeland.

Special Examination in Economics, Friday, December 14, 1909.
General Examination passed May 13, 1908.
Committee: Professors Ripley (chairman), Hart, Carver, Sprague, and Munro.
Academic History: Bowdoin College, 1902-06; Harvard Graduate School, 1906-09; A.B. (Bowdoin), 1906; A. M. (Harvard) 1907. Austin Teaching Fellow (Harvard), 1908-09; Instructor, 1909-10.
Special Subject: Economic History of the United States.
Thesis Subject: “The Organization of the Cotton Manufacturing Industry in the United States.” (With Professors Taussig and Gay.)
Committee on Thesis: Professors Gay, Ripley, and Sprague.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examinations for the Ph.D. (HUC 7000.70), Folder “Examinations for the Ph.D., 1909-10”.

_______________________________________

 

Source: Harvard Business School Yearbook, 1930-31.

_______________________________________

From the Report of the President of Harvard College, 1975-75

Melvin Thomas Copeland, George Fisher Baker Professor of Administration, Emeritus, died March 27, 1975 in his 91st year. Although not a member of the Business faculty until 1912 when the School was four years old, “Doc” Copeland justly ranks with its founders because of his organization of the first collection of business cases for study. A 1906 graduate of Bowdoin College, Copeland came to Harvard to earn his A.M. (1907) and Ph.D. (1910) degrees. His doctoral dissertation, Cotton Manufacturing Industry of the U.S.,  won the Wells Prize and was published in 1912. While still a graduate student, he served as an Assistant in Economics and later as Instructor in Economic Resources. He then spent a year teaching on the faculty of New York University, returning to Harvard in 1912 to teach a course in business statistics at the fledgling Business School, thus beginning a career which continued until his retirement in 1953. Copeland became an Instructor in Marketing in 1914, Professor of Marketing in 1919, and was Director of the Bureau of Business Research twice (from 1916 to 1920 and from 1942 to 1953). He worked on the organization of business cases and on project research for faculty members in this latter job. He was named George Fisher Baker Professor in 1950. Over the years he earned a reputation as a distinguished editor and writer on business topics; before his retirement he produced six books, and afterwards was asked to write the Business School’s history, And Mark an Era, which appeared in 1958. His volume about the Gloucester, Massachusetts area where he lived, The Saga of Cape Ann (1960), also appeared after his retirement. In 1973, in his eighty-ninth year, Copeland received from the Business School its Distinguished Service Award.

 

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College and reports of departments, 1974-75, pp. 32-3.

Image Source: Harvard Album, 1920.

 

 

Categories
Courses Gender Radcliffe

Radcliffe. Economics Course Offerings, 1894-1900

 

Besides documenting the course offerings available to Radcliffe students at the end of the 19th century, the post today offers us relatively thick course descriptions of what were essentially identical to Harvard economics courses that I have not found for that period. Pre-Radliffe economics course offerings and the first actual Radcliffe courses for  1893-94 have been posted earlier.

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1894-95
ECONOMICS.

(Primarily for Undergraduates.)

PROFESSOR CUMMINGS. — Outlines of Economics. — Mill’s Principles of Political Economy. — Lectures on Economic Development, Distribution, Social Questions, and Financial Legislation. This course gave a general introduction to Economic study, and a general view of Economics for those who had not further time to give to the subject. It was designed also to give argumentative training by the careful discussion of principles and reasoning. The instruction was given by question and discussion. J. S. Mill’s Principles of Political Economy formed the basis of the work. At intervals lectures were given which served to illustrate and supplement the class-room instruction. In connexion with the lectures, a course of reading was prescribed. The work of students was tested from time to time by examinations and other written work. — 13 students.

PROFESSOR ASHLEY. — The Elements of Economic History from the Middle Ages to Modern Times. The object of this course was to give a general view of the economic development of society from the Middle Ages to the present time. It dealt, among others, with the following topics: the manorial system and serfdom; the merchant gilds and mediaeval trade; the craft gilds and mediaeval industry; the commercial supremacy of the Italian and Hanseatic merchants; trade centres, and trade routes; the merchant adventurers and the great trading companies; the agrarian changes of the sixteenth century; domestic industry; the struggle of England with Holland and France for commercial supremacy; the beginning of modern finance; the progress of farming; the great inventions and the factory system. Attention was devoted chiefly to England, but that country was treated as illustrating the broader features of the economic evolution of the whole of western Europe. Arrived at the 17th century, it was shown how English conditions were modified by transference to America. The opportunity was taken, throughout the course, to introduce the students to the use of the original sources. — 6 students.

 

(For Graduates and Undergraduates.)

PROFESSOR ASHLEY. — Aristotle to Ricardo. — Economic Theory. This course traced the development of economic theory from its beginnings to Ricardo. It was treated partly by lectures and partly by the discussion of selections from leading writers. The more important chapters of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations, of Malthus’s Essays on Population, and Ricardo’s Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, were read by students, and discussed in the class-room; and an attempt was made to show the relation of the “classical economists ” to more recent economic speculation. — 8 students.

PROFESSOR CUMMINGS. — The Principles of Sociology. — Development of Modern State, and of its Social Functions. An introductory course in sociology, intended to give a comprehensive view of the structure and development of society in relation to some of the more characteristic ethical and industrial tendencies of the present day. The course began with a theoretical consideration of the relation of the individual to society and to the state, – with a view to pointing out some theoretical misconceptions and practical errors traceable to an illegitimate use of the fundamental analogies and metaphysical formulas found in Comte, Spencer, P. Leroy Beaulieu, Schaeffle, and other writers. The second part followed more in detail the ethical and economic growth of society. Beginning with the development of social instincts manifested in voluntary organization, it considered the genesis and theory of natural rights, the function of legislation, the sociological significance of the status of women and of the family and other institutions, – with a view to tracing the evolution of certain types of society based upon a more or less complete recognition of the social ideas already considered. The last part dealt with certain tendencies of the modern state, discussing especially the province and limits of state activity, with some comparison of the Anglo-Saxon and the continental theory and practice in regard to private initiative and state intervention in relation to public works, industrial development, philanthrophy, education, labor organization, and the like. Each student selected for special investigation some question closely related to the theoretical or practical aspects of the course; and a certain amount of systematic reading was expected. —  7 students.

PROFESSOR ASHLEY. — Economic Seminary. Here four graduate students investigated the present industrial organization of the U. S.; one giving particular attention to the Woollen and Cotton Industries of New England; a second to the Coal and Iron Industries of Pennsylvania; a third to the Petroleum business; and the fourth to the Labor movement, especially around Chicago.

 

Source:   Radcliffe College. Report of the President, 1894-95, pp. 48-49.

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1895-96
ECONOMICS.

(Primarily for Undergraduates.)

1. PROFESSOR CUMMINGS. — Outlines of Economics. — Mill’s Principles of Political Economy. — Lectures on Economic Development, Distribution, Social Questions, and Financial Legislation. This course gave a general introduction to economic study, and a general view of Economics. It was conducted mainly by questions and discussions, supplemented by lectures. Large parts of Mill’s Principles of Political Economy were read, as well as parts of other general books; while detailed reference was given for the reading on the application and illustration of economic principles. — 20 students.

 

(For Graduates and Undergraduates.)

10. PROFESSOR ASHLEY. — The Mediaeval Economic History of Europe. The object of this course was to give a general view of the economic development of society during the Middle Ages. It dealt, among others, with the following topics: the manorial system in its relation to mediaeval agriculture and to serfdom; the merchant gilds and the beginnings of town life and of trade; the craft gild and the gild-system of industry, compared with earlier and later forms: the commercial supremacy of the Hanseatic and Italian merchants; the trade routes of the Middle Ages and of the sixteenth century; the merchant adventurers and the great trading companies; the agrarian changes of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and the break-up of the mediaeval organization of social classes; the appearance of new manufactures and of domestic industry. Special attention was devoted to England, but that country was treated as illustrating the broader features of the economic evolution of the whole of western Europe. — 6 students.

21. PROFESSOR ASHLEY. — Economic Theory, from Adam Smith to the present time.- Selections from Adam Smith and Ricardo. — 8 students.

22. PROFESSOR MACVANE. — Economic Theory. Modern Writers. — 4 students.

3. PROFESSOR CUMMINGS. — The Principles of Sociology. This course began with a general survey of the structure and development of society; showing the changing elements of which a progressive society is composed, the forces which manifest themselves at different stages in the transition from primitive conditions to complex phases of civilized life, and the structural outlines upon which successive phases of social, political, and industrial organization proceed. Following this, was an examination of the historical aspects which this evolution has actually assumed: Primitive man, elementary forms of association, the various forms of family organization, and the contributions which family, clan and tribe have made to the constitution of more comprehensive, ethnical, and political groups; the functions of the State, the circumstances which determine types of political organization, the corresponding expansion of social consciousness, and the relative importance of military, economic, and ethical ideas at successive stages of civilization. There was careful consideration of the attempts to formulate physical and psychological laws of social growth; the relative importance of natural and of artificial selection in social development; the law of social survival; the dangers which threaten civilization; and the bearing of such general considerations upon the practical problems of vice, crime, poverty, pauperism, and upon mooted methods of social reform. The student was made acquainted with the main schools of sociological thought, and opportunity was given for a critical comparison of earlier phases of sociological theory with more recent contributions in Europe and the United States. Regular and systematic reading was required. Topics were assigned for special investigation in connection with practical or theoretical aspects of the course. — 4 students.

 

(Primarily for Graduates.)

20. PROFESSOR ASHLEY. — Seminary in Economics. One student continued her investigation into mediaeval land tenure, and another began an inquiry into the relations between Adam Smith and Turgot. — 2 students.

 

Source:   Radcliffe College. Report of the President, 1895-96, pp. 46-47.

____________________________________

1896-97
ECONOMICS.

Primarily for Undergraduates: —

1. Asst. Professor CUMMINGS and Dr. JOHN CUMMINGS. — Outlines of Economics. Principles of Political Economy. Lectures on Economic Development, Distribution, Social Questions, and Financial Legislation. 3 hours a week.

15 Undergraduates, 3 Special students. Total 18.

 

For Graduates and Undergraduates: —

11. Professor ASHLEY. — The Modern Economic History of Europe (from1400). 2 hours a week.

2 Graduates, 1 Undergraduate, 1 Special student. Total 4.

9. Asst. Professor CUMMINGS and Dr. JOHN CUMMINGS. — The Labor Question in Europe and the United States. — The Social and Economic Condition of Workingmen. 3 hours a week.

1 Undergraduate, 4 Special students. Total 5.

3. Asst. Professor CUMMINGS. — The Principles of Sociology. Development of the Modern State and of its Social Functions. 3 hours a week.

1 Graduate, 1 Undergraduate, 4 Special students. Total 6.

 

Source:   Radcliffe College. Report of the President, 1896-97, p. 38.

____________________________________

1897-98
ECONOMICS.

Primarily for Undergraduates: —

1. Asst. Professor CUMMINGS and Dr. JOHN CUMMINGS. — Outlines of Economics. Principles of Political Economy. Lectures on Economic Development, Distribution, Social Questions, and Financial Legislation. 3 hours a week.

1 Graduate, 20 Undergraduates, 4 Special students. Total 26.

 

For Undergraduates and Graduates: —

11. Professor ASHLEY. — The Modern Economic History of Europe (from1400). 2 hours a week.

1 Graduate, 3 Special students. Total 4.

9. Asst. Professor CUMMINGS and Dr. JOHN CUMMINGS. — The Labor Question in Europe and the United States. — The Social and Economic Condition of Workingmen. 3 hours a week.

1 Graduate, 3 Undergraduates, 1 Special student. Total 5.

3. Asst. Professor CUMMINGS. — The Principles of Sociology. Development of the Modern State and of its Social Functions. 3 hours a week.

1 Graduate, 2 Undergraduates, 1 Special student. Total 4.

6. Dr. CALLENDER. — The Economic History of the United States. 3 hours a week.

1 Graduate, 1 Undergraduate. Total 2.

22. Professor TAUSSIG. — Economic Theory. Half-course. 3 hours a week. 2d half-year.

3 Undergraduates, 1 Special student. Total 4.

 

Primarily for Graduates: —

20. Professor ASHLEY. — Seminary in Economics. The Mediaeval History of certain English manors.

1 Graduate. Total 1.

 

Source:   Radcliffe College. Report of the President, 1897-98, pp. 38-39.

____________________________________

1898-99
ECONOMICS.

Primarily for Undergraduates: —

1. Asst. Professor CUMMINGS and Dr. JOHN CUMMINGS. — Outlines ofEconomics. Principles of olitical Economy. Lectures on Economic Development, Distribution, Social Questions, and Financial Legislation. 3 hours a week.

16 Undergraduates, 4 Special students. Total 20.

 

For Undergraduates and Graduates: —

112. Dr. CUNNINGHAM. — The Industrial Revolution in England in the 18th and 19th centuries. Half-course. 3 hours a week, 2d half-year.

1 Graduate, 11 Undergraduates, 7 Special students. Total 19.

6. Dr. CALLENDER. — The Economic History of the United States. 3 hours a week.

1 Graduate, 3 Undergraduates, 1 Special student. Total 6.

3. Asst. Professor CUMMINGS. — The Principles of Sociology. Development of the Modern State and of its Social Functions. 3 hours a week.

1 Graduate, 2 Undergraduates, 1 Special student. Total 4.

9. Asst. Professor CUMMINGS and Dr. JOHN CUMMINGS. — The Labor Question in Europe and the United States. — The Social and Economic Condition of Workingmen. 3 hours a week.

2 Graduates, 4 Undergraduates, 2 Special students. Total 8.

 

Primarily for Graduates: —

20. Asst. Professor CUMMINGS. — Seminary in Economics.

1 Special student. Total 1

 

Source:   Radcliffe College. Report of the President, 1898-99, pp. 35-36.

 

____________________________________

1899-1900
ECONOMICS.

Primarily for Undergraduates: —

1. Asst. Professor CUMMINGS and Dr. JOHN CUMMINGS. — Outlines of Economics. — Principles of Political Economy. — Lectures on Economic Development, Distribution, Social Questions and Financial Legislation. 3 hours a week.

27 Undergraduates, 4 Special Students. Total 31.

 

For Undergraduates and Graduates: —

11. Professor ASHLEY. — The Modern Economic History of Europe and America (from 1600). 2 hours a week (and occasionally a third hour).

8 Graduates, 7 Undergraduates, 2 Special students. Total 17.

6. Dr. CALLENDER. — The Economic History of the United States.2 hours a week.

2 Graduates, 5 Undergraduates. Total 7.

3. Asst. Professor CUMMINGS. — The Principles of Sociology. — Development of the Modern State and of its Social Functions. 3 hours a week.

2 Graduates, 6 Special students. Total 8.

 

Primarily for Graduates: —

**15. Professor ASHLEY. — The History and Literature of Economics to the close of the Eighteenth Century. 2 hours a week.

1 Graduate. Total 1.

**20c1. Professor Taussig. The Tariff History of the United States.Thesis. Half-course. 1 hour a week, 1st half-year.

1 Graduate. Total 1.

 

Source:   Radcliffe College. Report of the President, 1899-1900, pp. 42-43.

Image Source:  Library in Fay House, 1890s. Schlesinger Library. Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Harvard University Webpage.

Categories
Chicago Economists

Chicago. Economics Department on Possible Candidate for Permanent Employment, 1950

 

How big was the split within the department of economics in 1950 at the University of Chicago? Judging from the decision by chairman T. W. Schultz to essentially table the matter of approaching the central university administration with a candidate for a permanent position, there was a departmental deadlock.

The half-dozen economists discussed were: George Stigler, Abba Lerner, Kenneth Boulding, Leonid Hurwicz, Kenneth Arrow, and Lawrence Klein. Contemplate those names for a moment and then read aloud the following two sentences:

Several members of the Department stated that none of these men had all of the qualities sought: a good mind reaching out fruitfully in new directions in economics. It was agreed, however, that there were no likely candidates possessing these qualities in a high degree.   

We can only speculate which alpha economists happened to lock horns in those three meetings.

_________________________

From the MINUTES, Meeting of the Department,
May 24, 1950.

Present: T. W. Schultz, T. Koopmans, A. Rees, H. G. Lewis, D. G. Johnson, E. J. Hamilton, R. Burns, J. Marschak, F. H. Harbinson, F. H. Knight, M. Friedman, B. Hoselitz, L. Metzler

[…]

II. Appointments

Schultz informed the Department that Hildreth’s position has been renegotiated for a term of three years. The Department approved a motion authorizing for Hildreth the courtesy rank of Associate Professor for a three year term.

The Department then considered the appointment problem raised by the leaving of Blough (probably initially on a one year leave of absence) and Brownlee. Schultz suggested that the Department had two alternatives open to it: a temporary replacement (construed broadly) and a permanent appointment of a top ranking person.

The Department considered first possible candidates for permanent appointment. Attention centered on George Stigler, Abba Lerner, Kenneth Boulding, Leonid Hurwicz, Kenneth Arrow, and Lawrence Klein. For a temporary appointment Schultz suggested Gunnar Myrdal.

[Meeting began at 3:30 pm and ended 5:45 p.m.]

_________________________

From the MINUTES, Meeting of the Department,
May 30, 1950.

Present: T. W. Schultz, R. Burns, D. G. Johnson, E. J. Hamilton, F. H. Knight, L. Metzler, R. Blough, F. H. Harbinson, A. Rees, H. G. Lewis, T. Koopmans, J. Marschak, M. Friedman.

Appointments

The discussion of appointments continued from the previous meeting. Schultz expressed the conviction that the time was propitious for a new permanent appointment. On Metzler’s suggestion, the Department returned to discussion of the following candidates for a permanent appointment: Stigler, Hurwicz, Boulding, Klein, Lerner, Arrow.

Several members of the Department stated that none of these men had all of the qualities sought: a good mind reaching out fruitfully in new directions in economics. It was agreed, however, that there were no likely candidates possessing these qualities in a high degree.

The chairman then polled those present with respect to their first choice (or ties for first) for a permanent appointment. As a result of the poll the list of candidates was narrowed to Hurwicz, Stigler, and Lerner. The chairman then polled those present on their position toward permanent appointment of each of these men.

The poll showed that of those present

4 would favor and 5 oppose the permanent appointment of Hurwicz
4 would favor and 5 oppose the permanent appointment of Lerner
6 would favor and 6 oppose the permanent appointment of Stigler

A motion was passed instructing the chairman to poll the absent members of the Department in the same way on the appointment of Hurwicz, Lerner, and Stigler and to report back to the Department for further discussion.

[Meeting began at 3:30 pm and ended 6:15 p.m.]

_________________________

From the MINUTES, Meeting of the Department,
June 8, 1950.

Present: T. W. Schultz, H. G. Lewis, D. G. Johnson, J. Marschak, H. Kyrk, P. Thomson, M. Friedman, T. Koopmans, A. Rees, E. J. Hamilton, F. H. Knight, R. Blough.

Appointments

Schultz reported that he had polled Kyrk, Thomson, Mints, and Nef (but had not heard from Goode) on the matter of a permanent appointment for Stigler or Hurwicz or Lerner. The upshot of the poll was that the Department, the Chairman not voting, was evidently divided in its rating of Stigler for a permanent appointment; both permanent members and temporary members of the faculty showed an even division. The Chairman explained that he would abstain from voting on the belief that the Department was not now prepared to advance, with a strong meeting of minds, a strong case to the Central Administration for a permanent appointment. Schultz proposed that we investigate a slate of names for a one-year appointment.

A motion was passed authorizing the Chairman to put Gunnar Myrdal in the first position on the slate for a one-year appointment.

Successive motions passed by the Department added the following names to the slate:

Nicholas Kaldor   Simon Kuznets
Arthur F. Burns
H. M. Henderson
W. Vickrey
A. Hart
H. Stein

The Department then, following the system of ranking used in fellowship appointments, ranked these seven persons. The rank order follows:

1. Kaldor
2. Burns
3. Henderson
4. Kuznets
5½. Vickrey
5½. Hart
7. Stein

[Meeting began at 3:30 pm and ended 6:00 p.m.]

Source: University of Chicago Archives, Department of Economics Records, Box 41, Folder 12.

Image Source: Social Science Research Building.  University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf2-07466, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

 

Categories
Economists Harvard Yale

Harvard. Three generations of Economics Ph.D.’s. The Ruggles Dynasty

 

 

The passing of the torch from one generation in a family to another in economics is noteworthy, but hardly a rare occurrence. Everyone has heard of James and John Stuart Mill, Neville and Maynard Keynes, Robert Aaron and Margaret S. and their economist sons Robert J. and David Gordon, Bob and Anita with their bouncing Larry Summers, Richard and Jonathan Portes, as well as Ken and Jamie Galbraith, to drop only a few names. But one can honestly say that economists are underachievers in this torch-passing respect.

After all, musicians appear to find little difficulty in getting the beat to go on in the family, medical doctors seem to fall from family trees of doctors, the clergy (for religions in which sexual reproduction is a feature and not a bug) show little difficulty in begetting future clerics, and indeed the professional military is generally successful in instilling a pride of warriorship in its young. At least we economists can console ourselves that no one has (yet) composed a song with a title like “Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys”.

With all of this in mind, I present Economics in the Rear-view Mirror’s very first economics Ph.D. family trifecta: meet the Ruggles dynasty, three generations of Harvard economics Ph.D.’s who collectively span a century’s worth of economics right up to the present day.

I’ll let others assess the “relative” achievements of the dynasty founder, Clyde Orval Ruggles (“The economic basis of the greenback movement in Iowa and Wisconsin”, Harvard PhD, 1913),  vs. the middle-generation of Clyde’s son, Richard Francis Ruggles (“Price structure and distribution over the cycle”, Harvard PhD, 1942), and Richard’s first wife, Nancy Dunlap Ruggles (“Resource allocation and pricing systems”, Radcliffe PhD, 1949), vs. Clyde’s granddaughter, Patricia Ruggles (“The allocation of taxes and government expenditures among households in the United States”, Harvard PhD, 1980). Two remarks: (i) Appointments to a professorship at the Harvard Business School (Clyde) or to staff director of the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress and a pair of NSF fellowships (Patricia) are hardly chopped liver according to any meaningful metric; (ii) published tributes to the work of Richard and Nancy Ruggles are easy to find.

  • Barbara M. Fraumeni “Ruggles and Ruggles—A National Income Accounting Partnership” Survey of Current Business, April, 2001, 14-15. 
  • Timothy Smeeding (December 2001), In Memoriam: Richard Ruggles—a man for all seasons (1916-2001). Review of Income and Wealth, 47: 561-563.
    James Tobin (September 2001), In Memoriam: Richard Ruggles (1916-2001). Review of Income and Wealth, 47: 405–408.
  • Edward N. Wolff (September 2001), In Memoriam: Richard Ruggles (1916-2001). Review of Income and Wealth, 47: 409–415.
  • Helen Stone Tice (June 2004), Essays in Honor of Nancy and Richard Ruggles: Editor’s Introduction. Review of Income and Wealth, 50: 149-151.

Below you will find a variety of artifacts culled from public sources with (auto-)biographical information about the members of this dynasty. 

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Biographical Note about Clyde Orval Ruggles from the Baker Library of Harvard Business School

Clyde Orval Ruggles was born in Fairfield, Iowa on December 7, 1878. He received his BA from Iowa State Teachers College in 1906, his MA from the University of Iowa in 1907, and his PhD from Harvard in 1913. He also received a Litt.D. from Suffolk University in 1938.

Ruggles was the head of the Department of History and Social Science at the Iowa State Teachers College from 1909-1913. He then served on the faculty of the Department of Economics at Ohio State University from 1913-1920. He left Ohio State for a year to take up the position of Head of the School of Commerce and the Department of Economics at the University of Iowa from 1920-1921. He then moved back to Ohio State in 1921, serving as the Head of the Department of Business Administration from 1921 to 1926, and as Dean of the College of Commerce and Journalism from 1926-1928.

In 1928 he came to HBS as a Professor of Public Utility Management (later amended to Professor of Public Utility Management and Regulation), a position he held until his retirement from HBS in 1948, when he became an emeritus professor. He also served as the Director of the Division of Research from 1940-1942. After his retirement from HBS, he continued to teach, lecturing at or serving on the faculties of Ohio State, Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, the Georgia Institute of Technology and Northeastern University.

Ruggles was a nationally known economist with diverse research interests in the areas of public utilities management and business education. In addition to his academic work, Ruggles also served as a consultant to a variety of public and private agencies and companies, including the Civil Aeronautics Board, the National Monetary Commission, the United States Shipping Board, and the Montreal Tramways Company.

Ruggles’ publications include Terminal Charges at United States Ports (1919), Problems in Public Utility Economics and Management (1933 and 1938), Aspects of the Organization, Functions and Financing of State Public Utility Commissions (1937), and numerous journal and newspaper articles.

Clyde O. Ruggles died on April 6, 1958 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

 

Source:   Baker Library Historical Collections, Harvard Business School, Harvard University. Clyde O. Ruggles Papers, 1918-1957: A Finding Aid.

Image Source: Harvard Business School Yearbook 1938-39.

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Clyde O. Ruggles’ Daughter Catherine G. Ruggles
Radcliffe Ph.D. Conferred, June 1937

Catherine Grace Ruggles, A.M. Subject, Economics. Special Field, Public Finance. Dissertation, “The Financial History of Cambridge, 1846-1935.” Research Assistant, Harvard Department of Economics.

Source: Radcliffe College, President’s Report 1936-37, p. 20.

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American Economic Association’s Biographical Listing of Members (Dec. 1981)

Ruggles, Nancy D., 100 Prospect St., New Haven, CT 06511. Phone: Office (203)436-8583; Home (203) 777-4187. Fields: 220, 320. Birth Yr: 1922. Degrees: A.B., Pembroke Coll., 1943; Ph.D., Radcliffe Coll., 1948. Prin. Cur. Position: Sr. Res. Econ., Yale U., 1980-. Concurrent/Past Positions: Secy., Int’l. Assn. for Res. in Income & Wealth, 1961-; Asst. Dir., Statistical Off., United Nations, 1975-80. Research: Nat. acctg. systems & their integration with economic-social microdata.

Ruggles, Richard, 100 Prospect St., New Haven, CT 06511. Phone: Office (203) 436-4040; Home (203) 777-4187. Fields: 220, 320. [Birth Yr: 1916.] Degrees: A.B., Harvard Coll., 1939; M.A. Harvard U., 1941; Ph.D., Harvard U., 1942. Prin. Cur. Position: Prof. of Econs., Yale U., 1947-. Research: Nat. acctg. systems & their integration with economic-social microdata.

 

Source: Biographical Listing of Members in the 1981 Survey of Members (Dec., 1981) The American Economic Review, Vol. 71, No. 6. p. 354.

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Richard Ruggles (1916-2001),
Noted Economic Statistician, Dies

Richard Ruggles, a member of the Yale economics faculty for nearly 40 years who was a specialist in the fields of national economic accounting and economic theory, died March 4 at his home in New Haven of complications from prostate cancer.

Professor Ruggles, who was 84, was known for developing accounting tools for measuring national income and improving price indexes used in formulating government policy. Throughout his Yale career, he conducted research for numerous government agencies and bodies, including the United Nations, the Organization of American States, the Federal Reserve Board, the Bureau of the Census and the National Bureau of Economic Research, as well as the Ford Foundation. He also served on various governmental committees concerned with economic statistics.

The economist did much of his work with his first wife, Nancy, who died in 1987. Pricing Systems, Indexes, and Price Behavior, Macro- and Microdata Analyses and Their Integration, and National Accounting and Economic Policy, collections of their work, were published in 1999.

Born on June 15, 1916, in Columbus, Ohio, Mr. Ruggles was the son of economist Clyde O. Ruggles, who taught at and was dean [sic] of the Harvard Business School. The younger Mr. Ruggles attended Harvard for both undergraduate and graduate study, earning his B.A. in 1939, an M.A. in 1941 and his Ph.D. in 1942.

After earning his doctorate, Professor Ruggles joined the Office of Strategic Services as an economist. During World War II, he worked for the office in London, where he estimated the production rates of tanks at German factories using photographs of the serial numbers from captured or destroyed tanks. In 1945-46 he was with the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey in Tokyo and Washington.

Professor Ruggles returned briefly to Harvard as an instructor in 1946 before joining the Yale faculty a year later as an assistant professor of economics. He was named an associate professor in 1949 and a full professor in 1954. He was appointed the Stanley Resor Professor of Economics in 1954. He chaired the Department of Economics from 1959 to 1962, and also served as director of undergraduate studies in the department.

Professor Ruggles and his family traveled frequently, making trips to the Soviet Union and to various developing countries, among other places.

Professor Ruggles married Caridad Navarette Kindelán in 1989. In addition to his wife, he is survived by three children, Steven Ruggles of Minneapolis, Minnesota; Patricia Ruggles of Washington, D.C.; and Catherine Ruggles of Los Angeles, California; two sisters, Catherine Ruggles Gerrish of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Rebecca Ruggles of New York City; four grandchildren; and his wife’s seven children and 13 grandchildren.

 

Source: Yale Bulletin & Calendar, Vol. 29, No. 23 (March 23, 2001).

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Memories and Musings of Yale by Richard Ruggles (ca. 2000)

In 1939 I graduated from Harvard with my classmates, William Parker and James Tobin, and like them undertook graduate study in economics. The previous cohort of Harvard graduate students in economics was very distinguished and included Paul Samuelson, Ken Galbraith, Abe Bergson, Lloyd Reynolds, John Miller, Lloyd Metzler, Robert Triffin, Henry Wallich, and many others, including my sister Catherine Ruggles. With the outbreak of World War II, Bill Parker went into the Army and Jim Tobin went into the Navy. I managed to finish my graduate work and I went into OSS. I served in London in 1943, in Europe in 1944, and went to Japan for the Bombing Survey at the end of the war.

In 1946, I returned to Harvard as an Instructor and married Nancy Dunlap, who enrolled as a graduate student in economics at Radcliffe. At the 1946 meetings of the American Economic Association, I met John Miller, who had moved to Yale, and he invited me to give a talk at Yale. I did so and was appointed Assistant Professor. At that time Ed Lindblom, Neil Chamberlain and Challis Hall were also appointed as Assistant Professors. Although, at Harvard, Yale was viewed as a boys’ finishing school, there was a group of younger faculty members who were highly regarded. In addition to John Miller, Lloyd Reynolds had come from Harvard, and there were Max Millikan, Richard Bissell (who was always on leave) and Wight Bakke. The so-called “ice cap” consisted of pre-Keynesian economists who, for the most part, specialized in specific areas such as transportation, corporate finance, accounting, and money and banking. Generally speaking, the “ice-cap” were reasonable men, but they were oriented toward training Yale undergraduates to go out into the business world.

The newly appointed Assistant Professors were quite congenial and held Saturday night dances in the Strathcona lounge. There was, however, no role for professional women in the Economics Department so Nancy and I became consultants for the government, the United Nations, and foundations. In 1948, we went to Europe for the Economic Cooperation Administration. In the 1950s, we worked for ECA in Washington, the Ford Foundation, and the United Nations in New York. When the Korean war broke out, we were asked to create an intelligence unit for the CIA for collecting and analyzing Soviet factory markings. We hired some Yale students and employees from ECA. At Yale we developed a “Rapid Selector” project in conjunction with the Yale Electrical Engineering Department to help analyze the factory markings data collected from Korea. The “Yale Rapid Selector” was quickly made obsolete by the development of computers.

During the 1950s, Lloyd Reynolds was building up the Economics Department at Yale. He recruited Robert Triffin, Henry Wallich, and William Fellner. The Yale Economics Department was becoming known for the quality of its faculty. At that time, the Cowles Commission at the University of Chicago was unhappy with their arrangements there and approached Lloyd about coming to Yale. The arrangements for bringing Cowles to Yale were made in 1955, with Tjalling Koopmans and Jacob Marschak being appointed as Professors in the Economics Department. As part of the agreement, the Econometric Society also moved to Yale, and I agreed to serve as Secretary, with Nancy as Treasurer.

By 1959, however, friction developed between some members of the Cowles Foundation and the Chairman, Lloyd Reynolds. As a consequence I was asked to serve as chair. As Chairman I managed to recruit Joe Peck, William Parker, and Hugh Patrick, who had been an undergraduate at Yale and had participated in the CIA Korean project. However, I did not like being Chairman, and I resigned in 1962.

The Yale Economic Growth Center was established in 1961. Lloyd Reynolds and I had served as consultants to the Ford Foundation, and they had expressed an interest in establishing a center for the study of economic development at Yale. In addition, Nancy and I were actively consulting for the Agency for International Development in Washington D.C., and they also wished to foster such research. As a consequence, Lloyd Reynolds established the Yale Economic Growth Center. It had as its mission the development of “country studies” of economic development. Graduate students in economics writing their doctoral dissertations were sent to developing countries to do “country studies.” To facilitate and manage the operations, Miriam Chamberlain was appointed Executive Secretary to manage the day-to-day operations of the Growth Center. Miriam had been working at the Ford Foundation in New York and had moved back to New Haven when her husband Neil was made a Professor of Labor Economics. Mary Reynolds, wife of Lloyd Reynolds, was placed in charge of building up a library of books, documents, and data relating to developing countries. Nancy Ruggles was hired with AID funds to design the framework of data for the country studies. In addition, Nancy agreed to become the Secretary of the International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, which was transferred to the Economic Growth Center from the University of Cambridge, England. All three women had Ph.D.s from Radcliffe and were highly qualified for their functions.

To some members of the Economics Department, however, the hiring of faculty wives seemed inappropriate, and in 1966 the Chairman, therefore, asked for their resignations. Simon Kuznets suggested that Nancy and I could carry out our research program at the National Bureau of Economic Research in New York. For the next decade I carried out my research activities at the NBER in New York and Washington D.C. I taught the undergraduate course of the “Economics of the Public Sector,” the Senior Honors Seminar, the graduate course in “National Accounting,” and carried out the administrative tasks of Director of Undergraduate Studies or Director of Graduate Studies in Economics.

In 1978, I transferred my research activities from the NBER to the Institution for Social and Policy Studies at Yale. Nancy had been employed as the Assistant Director of the United Nations Statistical Office, but she also became associated with ISPS in 1980. We jointly carried out our research at ISPS until the accidental death of Nancy in 1987.

 

Source:   M. Ann Judd, The Yale Economics Department: Memories and Musings of Past Leaders

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Nancy Dunlap Ruggles
Radcliffe Ph.D., 1948

When Yale’s Economic Growth Center was founded in the 1961, three women, all with Ph.D.s, were hired as researchers or administrators. All three also happened to be married to Yale economics professors.

Five years later, amid a flash of concern about nepotism, the three women were required to leave their positions, despite being fully qualified.

For one of the women, Nancy Ruggles, the injustice was particularly acute given that she co-authored essentially all of her tenured husband’s academic work — a partnership she and her spouse, Yale economist Richard Ruggles, acknowledged and treasured.

“The situation with Nancy Ruggles was a shame, because she was someone who had all of the necessary qualifications to be a professor, should have been, and would be under present circumstances,” Yale economist and Nobel laureate Jim Tobin would later lament.

As Yale marks Women’s History Month and continues to commemorate the 50th anniversary of coeducation in Yale College and the 150th anniversary of female students at the university, it celebrates the visible achievement of women students and faculty. There’s also fresh appreciation of scholars whose accomplishments went unrecognized because of their gender.

Nancy Ruggles was born in 1922 and grew up during the Great Depression and World War II, formative experiences that exposed her to the importance of economics. She completed her undergraduate degree at Pembroke College, the women’s college affiliated with Brown University, in 1943. Immediately afterward, she took a job with the Office of Price Administration. There, through a co-worker, she met her future husband, Harvard economics Ph.D. Richard Ruggles.

Their daughter, Patricia Ruggles ’74, said Nancy’s experiences in Washington, D.C. during the war led her to study economics, and that Richard encouraged Nancy to enroll in a Ph.D. program once the war was over. At Radcliffe College, Nancy wrote her thesis on marginal cost pricing, an innovative idea at the time, and received her doctorate in 1948.

Patricia Ruggles said her mother, like other women, was made to accept less illustrious degrees from women’s colleges.

“My mother was very insulted when she was offered to trade her [Radcliffe] Ph.D. for a Harvard one both because it implied that a Radcliffe degree was second class and because she had been denied a Harvard degree in the first place, even though all of her courses were at Harvard.”

The Ruggles moved to New Haven in 1946, after Richard was appointed a professor at Yale. Together, their main research focus was developing the rules for national income accounting, which measures economic activity in a country. In 1947, the Ruggles worked on the implementation of the Marshall Plan and helped develop assessments for measuring the aid’s effectiveness in stimulating the health of European economies. Later, the Ruggles’ framework was adopted for calculating U.S. national accounts.

“As far as I know, my father never wrote anything without my mother as a co-author during the time they were married,” Patricia Ruggles said.

In a review of the Ruggles’ work, economist Utz-Peter Reich remembers Richard’s response to a question about the authorship of their work as, “It does not matter — it’s always been both of us who have been at it anyway.”

Still, gender barriers were a common theme in Nancy Ruggles’ career. She was a founding member of the International Association for Research on Income and Wealth and its secretary for many years. Though her husband served as editor of the association’s journal, she in fact did the bulk of the editorial work with manuscripts, according to Patricia Ruggles, because Richard was dyslexic.

The pair did much of their research out of their home on Prospect Street, which Sterling Professor of Economics and Economic Growth Center founder Lloyd Reynolds remembered as a “two-person, computerized data factory.”

According to Professor Emeritus Bill Brainard, the Ruggles had installed a 24-volt system to control all electricity in the house and created a sophisticated data storage center in the home. He also recalled a Ford van the Ruggles outfitted with plumbing and communications infrastructure, allowing them to work on road trips across the country and even around the world, going as far as Russia after World War II.

The Ruggles’ dynamism as a research duo was recognized and appreciated by many of their contemporaries. Said Tobin, “[The Ruggles] were probably the best husband-wife team in the history of economics.”

Unfortunately for Nancy Ruggles, the prevailing view at Yale during her time was that appointing spouses to faculty positions was immoral nepotism, especially within the same department, Tobin said.

After being let go from Yale, she went on to work for the United Nations, where she was assistant director of the Statistical Office from 1975 to 1980. In that role, she helped develop the rules for national income accounts published by the United Nations, especially for developing countries for whom the accounting rules of developed countries were less applicable. Her work had important implications for crafting economic development policies globally. After 1980, Nancy Ruggles returned to Yale, becoming affiliated with the Institute for Social and Policy Studies as a senior research economist. Back in New Haven, she resumed her joint research with her husband. She died in 1987.

“My parents were a very effective team except for the fact that my mother got no recognition for her part of it,” said Patricia Ruggles, who earned an economics degree as a member of Yale’s second fully co-ed undergraduate class, in 1974.

Following in her parents’ footsteps, she also went on to earn a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard, in 1980.

It would not be until 2001 that Yale had its first tenured women economics professor, when the department hired Penny Goldberg from Columbia University.

Source:  Lisa Qian, “Giving economist Nancy Ruggles her due” web publication of Yale News, March 10, 2020.

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About Patricia Ruggles at the NORC website

[2018]

Pat Ruggles
Senior Fellow
Economics, Justice, and Society

B.A., Economics, Yale University
M.A., Economics, Harvard Unversity
Ph.D., Economics, Harvard Unversity

Patricia Ruggles is a Senior Fellow with the Economics, Labor and Population Studies department. She has worked throughout her career to improve the quality of the economic and social statistics used for research and policy analysis. She has been involved in the development of methods for analyzing longitudinal data sets since the 1980s, when she was a researcher at the Urban Institute. She was an early user of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), using it to create integrated longitudinal files for the analysis of income and poverty spells over time. She served on the National Academy of Sciences Panel to evaluate the SIPP in 1989 and 1990.

Patricia has held two NSF/ASA fellowships at the Bureau of the Census, both focused on improving data quality and usability.. The analyses of poverty-related issues that came out of her first NSF fellowship contributed to her book, Drawing the Line, which analyzed the impacts of alternative poverty measures. That book led to a major review of poverty measurement by the National Academy of Sciences, and Census is now issuing a Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) that incorporates those recommendations. Patricia’s second NSF fellowship at Census focused on improving welfare program data in the SIPP, and led to her well-known work with Rebecca Blank on the dynamics of welfare spells. Patricia has also published many other studies based on the SIPP, the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) and other longitudinal data bases.

Patricia joined the staff of the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress in 1990, where she was concerned with data and measurement issues that affect policy analysis. In addition to a series of hearings on poverty measurement, she organized hearings on price measurement, unemployment, productivity, and other major economic indicators. She also worked extensively on issues relating to health insurance, health needs, and welfare. After a break to serve in the Clinton Administration, Patricia returned to the JEC as staff director in 2000.

In 1996 Patricia became the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Income Policy and the Chief Economist for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In that role she was responsible for an annual budget of about $20 million to oversee research on issues relating to income and poverty.

More recently, Patricia has worked at the National Academy of Sciences on projects relating to social and economic indicators and on a re-evaluation of the SIPP. She has also consulted with the city of New York on the creation of a city-specific poverty measure and with the United Nations on tracking environmental data in the context of the System of National Accounts.

Source:NORC experts webpage for Patricia Ruggles  .

 

[2013 NORC announcement of appointment of Patricia Ruggles]

Leading Poverty Economist Patricia Ruggles Joins NORC at the University of Chicago as a Senior Fellow in the Economics, Labor, and Population Studies Department

6/12/2013, Bethesda, MD.

– Patricia Ruggles, Ph.D., a long-time advocate for better poverty measurement and other important economic and social indicators, has been named a Senior Fellow at NORC at the University of Chicago. Ruggles has worked at the highest levels in both government and higher education. She has also written books and journal articles on poverty and on improving the quality of the economic and social statistics used for research and policy analysis. She has testified frequently before Congress on these issues, and was elected a Fellow of the American Statistical Association in recognition of her work on improving economic and social measurement.

“NORC at the University of Chicago has a strong track record in providing high-quality data and analysis on issues of social importance, and I look forward to being able to contribute to those efforts,” said Ruggles. “I will continue to work on issues relating to poverty, and will also conduct research on the accuracy and appropriateness of measures used to compute cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) for Social Security and other programs. I believe that good data, accurate and appropriate statistical measures, and effective, high-quality dissemination of data and research findings are all crucial to good policy decisions.”

“Patricia Ruggles’ deep expertise studying poverty and improving the methods leading researchers employ to understand this problem is invaluable to our organization and her field,” said Dan Gaylin, Executive Vice President, Research Programs at NORC. “NORC is fortunate to have her join our staff.”

Ruggles has held two National Science Foundation (NSF)/American Statistical Association fellowships at the Bureau of the Census, both focused on improving data quality and usability. The analyses of poverty-related issues that came out of her first NSF fellowship contributed to her book, Drawing the Line, which analyzed the impacts of alternative poverty measures. Ruggles’ second NSF fellowship at the U.S. Census Bureau focused on improving welfare program data in the Survey of Income and Program Participation, and led to her well-known work with economist Rebecca Blank on the dynamics of welfare participation.

“We are excited to add an economist of Patricia Ruggles’ experience and expertise to our department,” said Chet Bowie, Senior Vice President and Director of the Economics, Labor, and Population studies department at NORC. “Here at NORC, she will continue her work on improving the quality of the data and measures policymakers use to make critical decisions on social policy.”

From 1996 to 2001, Ruggles was the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Human Services Policy and the Chief Economist for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In that role she was responsible for an annual budget of about $20 million to oversee research on issues relating to income, poverty, and human services programs. Both before and after her employment at HHS, Ruggles served on the staff of the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress, from which she retired as Staff Director in 2003. She was also a visiting professor at Georgetown University in 2003-2004.

Source:  NORC press release.

Image Source:  Richard and Nancy Ruggles’ Tourist Card for Brazil dated 30 December 1962.

Categories
Bibliography Harvard Suggested Reading

Harvard. Debate Briefs on International Trade Policy, ca. 1886-96

 

Print from 1897 by J. S. Pughe in Punch. shows Uncle Sam sitting in a wooden tub labeled “Dingley Bill”, rowing with oars labeled “Monopoly” in a small pool labeled “Home Market” near a sign that states “Republican Goose Pond”. The title of the prints is “A self-evident fact” with the caption “Uncle Sam Say! I want you fellows to distinctly understand that I’m not racing with you!” Beyond the pond are several large steam ships, labeled “France, Germany, Italy, England, [and] Austria” steaming ahead of Uncle Sam. While Uncle Sam protects the home market through tariffs, European nations are expanding their global markets. (Library of Congress)

The inspiration for today’s posting comes from the announcement in late January, 2018 by U.S. President Donald J. Trump that steep tariffs would be imposed on washing machines and solar panels imported into the United States.

Below you will find transcriptions for Harvard University debating briefs on tariffs, subsidies and international trade from the last decade of the 19th century. While economics as a science has shown some considerable progress since that time, zombie ideas are resilient and continue to stalk the face of the earth in original and mutated strains. The literature cited in the briefs is taken largely from the popular periodical literature of the time or government and Congressional publications that conscientious scholars of the history of economics really need to be familiar with. Such stuff is not yet quite so neatly sorted and indexed for our purposes as to facilitate entry into flow of actual policy debates outside the academic realm. The collection of Harvard student debating briefs used here is really a treasure chest (Pandora’s box?) waiting to be opened, filled with good, bad, and ugly arguments regarding international commercial policy.

Also thanks to another of Trump’s policy initiatives, Economics in the Rear-view Mirror has provided transcriptions of analogous old debating briefs on the subject of immigration into the U.S.

The eight debate topics concerning international trade policy were:

Resolved, That the time has now come when the policy of protection should be abandoned by the United States.

Resolved, That a high protective tariff raises wages.

Resolved, That it would be to the advantage of the United States to establish complete commercial reciprocity between the United States and Canada.

Resolved, That foreign-built ships should be admitted to American registry free of duty.

Resolved, That the United States should establish a system of shipping subsidies.

Resolved, That sugar should be admitted free of duty.

Resolved, That a system of sugar bounties is contrary to good public policy.

Resolved, That a system of duties on wool and woollens is undesirable.

 

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Briefs for Debate on Current Political, Economic, and Social Topics.

Edited by
W. Du Bois Brookings, A.B. of the Harvard Law School
And
Ralph Curtis Ringwalt, A.B.
Assistant in Rhetoric in Columbia University

With an introduction by Albert Bushnell Hart, Ph.D.
Professor of Harvard University.
(1908)

[From the Preface:]

“The basis of the work has been a collection of some two hundred briefs prepared during the past ten years [ca. 1886-96] by students in Harvard University, under the direction of instructors. Of these briefs the most useful and interesting have been selected; the material has been carefully worked over, and the bibliographies enlarged and verified….

…” the brief is a steady training in the most difficult part of reasoning; in putting together things that belong together; in discovering connections and relations; in subordinating the less important matters. The making of a brief is an intellectual exercise like the study of a disease by a physician, of a case by a lawyer, of a sermon by a minister, of a financial report by a president of a corporation. It is a bit of the practical work of life.

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PROTECTION AND FREE TRADE.

Question: ‘Resolved, That the time has now come when the policy of protection should be abandoned by the United States.’

Brief for the Affirmative.

General references:

Frédéric Bastiat, Sophisms of the Protectionists; W. M. Grosvenor, Does Protection Protect?; Henry George, Protection or Free Trade; J. S. Mill, Principles of Political Economy, II., Bk. V., Chap. x., § 1; article on Protection in Tariff Reform Series, IV., No. 12, p. 2 (September 30, 1891); Lalor’s Cyclopædia, II., 289; Nation, XXVIII., 161 (March 6, 1879); XXIX., 338 (November 20, 1879); XXXIV., 288 (April 6, 1882) ; LXXVI., 118 (February 8, 1883); J. G. Carlisle in Congressional Record, 1891-1892, p. 6910 (July 29, 1892); D. A. Wells in Forum, XIV., 697 (February, 1893); F. A. Walker in Quarterly Journal of Economics, IV., 245 (April, 1890); Edward Atkinson in Popular Science Monthly, XXXVII., 433 (August, 1890); Senator Vest in North American Review, Vol. 155, p. 401 (October, 1892); Harper’s Weekly, XXXVIII., 819 (September 1, 1894).

  1. Protection is unsound in theory:

J. S. Mill, Principles of Political Economy, II., 532. — (a) It shuts out what is ours by nature: Sophisms of the Protectionists, pp. 73-80. — (b) It raises unnatural obstacles to intercourse: Sophisms of the Protectionists, pp. 84-85. — (c) It can only raise prices by diminishing the quantity of goods for sale: Sophisms of the Protectionists, pp. 7, 17. — (d) It endangers the interests it aims to promote: Nation, XXXVI., 118. — (e) It may transfer but not increase capital: Sophisms of the Protectionists, p. 93. — (f) The doctrine of protection for revenue is inconsistent: J. S. Mill, Principles of Political Economy, II., 538. — (g) It is anti-social: Sophisms of the Protectionists, pp. 15, 127; Nation, XXXVI., 118; XXXVIII., 161.

  1. Protection is unsound in general practice.

(a) It makes capital and labor less efficient: J. S. Mill, Principles of Political Economy, II., 532, 539. — (b) It hurts our carrying trade: Nation, XXXVI., 118. — (c) It closes against us many of the world’s best markets: J. S. Mill, Principles of Political Economy, II., 537; Nation, XXVIII., 161; XXXVI., 118.

  1. Protection is not beneficial to any class.

(a) It raises prices to consumers: Popular Science Monthly, XXXVII., 433. — (b) It does not raise the wages of laborers: Congressional Record, 1891-1892, pp. 6910-6917; Popular Science Monthly, XXXVII., 433. — (c) It hurts farmers: Nineteenth Century, XXXII., 733 (November, 1892). — (d) It hurts the community by shutting off foreign markets: North American Review, Vol. 155, p. 401. — (e) It increases the cost of materials. — (f) It does not help us against pauper labor: Popular Science Monthly, XXXVII., 433. — (g) It does not benefit the majority: Nation, LV., 299 (October 20, 1892). — (h) Infant industries are not permanently aided: Quarterly Journal of Economics, IV., 245.

  1. Protection tends to run to extremes.

(a) It perverts taxation from its proper uses: Forum, XIV., 51 (September, 1892). — (b) It creates dangerous precedents: Ibid. — (c) Industries seek permanent protection: Nation. LV., 252 (October 6, 1892). — (d) It creates monopolies.

Brief for the Negative.

General references:

S.N. Patten, The Economic Basis of Protection; H. M. Hoyt, Protection versus Free Trade; Congressional Record, 1889-1890, p. 4248 (May 7, 1890); 1891-1892, p. 6746 (July 26, 1892); J. G. Blaine in North American Review, Vol. 150, p. 27 (January, 1890); William McKinley in North American Review, Vol. 150, p. 740 (June, 1890); R. E. Thompson, Social Science and National Economy, pp. 243-278; Lalor’s Cyclopædia, III., 413; Van Buren Denslow, Principles of Economic Philosophy, Chaps. xiii., xiv., xv., xvi.

  1. The policy of protection is sound in principle.

(a) It enables a country to fix the terms of exchange in foreign trade. — (1) Foreign demand for our commodities is necessarily great. — (2) Protection lessens our demand for foreign commodities. — (b) Protection is the best means of increasing the consumer’s rent.

  1. The policy of protection has proved beneficial in practice.

(a) Without it no country has secured a symmetrical development of its industries: Social Science and National Economy, p. 267. — (b) Every period of protection in the United States has been followed by great material prosperity.

  1. Protection secures a home market for commodities incapable of transportation abroad:

E.E. Hale, Tom Torrey’s Tariff Talks. — (a) It enhances values, especially the value of land: J. R. Dodge, How Protection Protects the Farmer.

  1. A protective tariff does not raise prices.

(a) The establishment of a new industry has invariably been followed by lower prices: Congressional Record, 1889-1890, p. 4248.—. (1) Steel rails.—(2) Glass and earthen ware.—(3) Wool.— (4) Tin-plate.

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THE TARIFF AND WAGES.

Question: ‘Resolved, That a high protective tariff raises wages.’

Brief for the Affirmative.

General references:

S. N. Patten, The Economic Basis of Protection, pp. 54-80; Lee Meriwether, ‘How Workingmen Live in Europe and America,’ in Harper’s Magazine, LXXIV., 780 (April, 1887); R. P. Porter, Bread Winners Abroad (People’s Library), Chaps. xvi., xxviii., xlix., li., liii., lvi., lxvi., lxvii., lxxxiv., civ.; Van Buren Denslow, Principles of Economic Philosophy, pp. 623-627.

  1. A high protective tariff raises wages theoretically.

(a) It causes more employers to compete for the hire of labor.—(1) By increasing the number of occupations and enterprises that can be carried on: R. E. Thompson, Social Science and National Economy, p. 248; Principles of Economic Philosophy, pp. 623-624. (b) It increases the amount of money available for the compensation of labor.—(1) By increasing the profits of manufacturers: Principles of Economic Philosophy, pp. 626-627. (c) It enables laborers to share in the natural resources of the country.—(1) By preventing competition with cheap foreign labor: The Economic Basis of Protection, pp. 64-70.

  1. A high protective tariff raises wages practically.

(a) In the United States, which furnishes the best example of a protective tariff, money wages are higher than in Europe.— (1) This is shown by the opinions of writers: Principles of Economic Philosophy, p. 527; Bread Winners Abroad; Consular Reports of the United States, No. 40, p. 304 (April, 1884). —(2) It is shown by the opinions of manufacturers: John Roach in International Review, XIII., 455 (November, 1882); J. M. Swank, Our Bessemer Steel Industry, p. 23; letters from the National Association of Wool Manufacturers and the Titus Sheard Co. in Congressional Record, 1891-1892, p. 6751 (July 26, 1892). (b) Wages have risen in other countries under a protective system. — (1) In Germany: Principles of Economic Philosophy, pp. 523-524; Consular Reports of the United States, No. 42, pp. 12, 13, 15 (June, 1884).—(2) In Canada: Principles of Economic Philosophy, pp. 666-668. (c) Real wages are higher in the United States than in Europe.—(1) An American workman can save more than a European: Consular Reports of the United States, No. 40, p. 304.—(2) His standard of living is higher: Harper’s Magazine, LXXIV., 780.

Brief for the Negative.

General references:

F. W. Taussig in Forum, VI., 167 (October, 1888); W. G. Sumner in North American Review, Vol. 136, p. 270 (March, 1883); J. Schoenhof, The Economy of High Wages, pp. 175-193; J. Schoenhof, Wages and Trade; ‘Labor, Wages, and Tariff,’ Tariff Reform Series, II., No. 21 (January 15, 1890); ‘Labor and the Tariff,’ Tariff Reform Series, I., No. 12, p. 2 (October 10, 1888).

  1. Arguments based on comparisons of wages in different countries are untrustworthy.

(a) Such comparisons prove too much: D. A. Wells, Practical Economics, p. 137. — (b) There is no uniform rate in any country. — (c) There are many local causes which must necessarily make wages higher in one country than in another. — (1) Natural advantages: D. A. Wells, The Relation of the Tariff to Wages, p. 2. — (2) Standing army service: Ibid. — (3) The question of unoccupied land: North American Review, Vol. 136, p. 270.

  1. Careful use of statistics shows that wages are relatively higher under a low tariff.

(a) The high rate of wages in the United States is determined by unprotected industries.— (1) There are more laborers connected with unprotected than with protected industries: J. L. Laughlin’s edition of J. S. Mill, Principles of Political Economy, p. 619. — (b) Wages in certain protected industries in the United States are lower than wages in the same industries in England. — (c) In protected industries in which wages are higher than abroad, they were higher before the existence of a protective tariff: Nation, XLVII., 327 (October 25, 1888). — (d) New South Wales is more prosperous than Victoria: Fortnightly Review, XXXVII., 369 (March, 1882).

  1. A protective tariff lowers wages by diminishing the amount of capital to be distributed for wages.

(a) The general productiveness of industry is less: Practical Economics, p. 135.— — (1) The effect of limiting the sale of commodities to a domestic market is evil: Practical Economics, p. 139. — (b) The proportion in which that produced is divided is less favorable to labor.—(1) The producer requires the same ratio of profit, while the number of laborers among whom the smaller wage-fund is divided is as large as before: North American Review, Vol. 136, p. 270.

  1. Real wages are less.

(a) The tariff increases the price of commodities and puts them out of the reach of the poorer classes: North American Review, Vol. 136, p. 270.

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RECIPROCITY WITH CANADA.

Question: ‘Resolved, That it would be to the advantage of the United States to establish complete commercial reciprocity between the United States and Canada.’

Brief for the Affirmative.

General references:

Goldwin Smith, Canada and the Canadian Question, pp. 281-301; Handbook of Commercial Union (Toronto, 1888); Century, XVI., 236 (June, 1889); Forum, VI., 241 (November, 1888) ; VII., 361 (June, 1889); New Englander, LIII., 1 (July, 1890); North American Review, Vol. 148, p. 54 (January, 1889); Vol. 151, p. 212 (August, 1890); Vol. 139, p. 42 (July, 1884); Harper’s Magazine, LXXVIII., 520 (March, 1889).

  1. Greater freedom of trade between the United States and Canada is desirable.

(a) It would furnish the United States with much needed raw materials: Century, XVI., 236. — (1) Coal, iron, and other mineral products are extensive and easily accessible to the northern and middle states: Handbook of Commercial Union, pp. 72-85; North American Review, Vol. 139, p. 42. — (2) Agricultural products. — (b) It would open to us a large and convenient market for our manufactures: Handbook of Commercial Union, p. 249. — (c) Closer commercial relations would remove much of the present ill feeling, and international disputes would be avoided.

  1. Reciprocity would be advantageous economically.

(a) It would open up a great field for the investment of American capital: Handbook of Commercial Union, p. 247. — (b) It would do away with the enormous expense of maintaining an unnatural customs line four thousand miles long. — (c) By the settlement of the fishery question it would give our fishermen valuable privileges.

  1. Reciprocity is practical:

Handbook of Commercial Union, p. 111. — (a) Great Britain would not raise serious objections: Handbook of Commercial Union, p. 101 .— (1) English investments in Canada would be benefited by commercial prosperity. — (2) Greater commercial activity would establish confederation on a firm basis and give assurance that Canada would remain a part of the British domain. — (b) The loyalty of Canadians would not be affected. — (1) The common tariff would not discriminate against England. — (c) A common tariff could be agreed upon. — (1) The present policy of the United States is toward a reduction of tariffs, while that of Canada is toward an increase. — (2) Canada would be willing to make concessions, such as the adjustment of internal revenue. — (d) The reciprocity treaty of 1854 was a commercial success. — (1) Trade rose from seven millions to twenty: Encyclopedia Britannica, IV., 766. — (2) The abrogation of the treaty was due to national animosity caused by acts of the English during the civil war.

 

Brief for the Negative.

General references:

James Douglas, Canadian Independence, Annexation, and British Imperial Federation; Forum, VI., 451 (January, 1889); J. N. Larned, Report to the Secretary of the Treasury on the State of Trade Between the United States and British Possessions in North America, January 28, 1871; Penn Monthly, V., 529 (July, 1874); Congressional Globe, 1864-1865, pp. 229-233 (January 12, 1865).

  1. Complete commercial reciprocity is impracticable.

(a) The commercial policies of Great Britain and the United States are conflicting. — (b) A common tariff could not be decided upon without detriment to one country. — (c) Internal revenue stands in the way.—(1) Excise taxes and internal revenue would have to be made equal; but excise is necessary to Canada, while it is not unlikely that we shall do away with our internal revenue: Forum, VI., 451.

  1. Complete reciprocity would be contrary to good public policy.

(a) It would result in loss of revenue. — (b) In case of war with Great Britain the frontier would be in a bad condition, and our whole tariff system would be torn asunder.

  1. Complete reciprocity would be economically disastrous.

(a) American and Canadian products are not supplementary, but competitory. — (b) Cheaper wages and cheaper raw material would be an inducement for our capital to move to Canada, and would also lower wages in the United States. — (c) We should lose much through emigration to Canada. — (d) It would give Canada the benefit of the market which we hav

e built up for ourselves by protection: Penn Monthly, V., 531.

  1. Historically, reciprocity with Canada has proved injurious.

(a) The United States tried commercial reciprocity with Canada in 1854, but abrogated the treaty in 1866.

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FREE SHIPS.

Question: ‘Resolved, That foreign-built ships should be admitted to American registry free of duty.’

Brief for the Affirmative.

General references:

D. A. Wells, The Decay of Our Ocean Mercantile Marine; John Codman, Free Ships; J.D.J. Kelly, The Question of Ships; North American Review, Vol. 142, p. 478 (May, 1886); House Reports, 1889-1890, No. 1210, Minority Report; 1882-1883, No. 1827, Views of the Minority; 1891-1892, No. 966; 1887-1888, No. 1874; Congressional Record, 1890-1891, p. 1044 (January 8, 1891); Congressional Globe, 1871-1872, Part 3, p. 2241 (April 6, 1872).

  1. A change in our navigation laws is necessary.

(a) Under their restrictions American shipping has suffered. — (1) Through heavy duties on ships. — (b) Though heavily protected, the ship-building industry has not thrived. — (1) The cost of labor is too great. — (c) American capital has been forced abroad. — (d) The present provision for the limited admission of foreign ships is inadequate. — (e) The development of inventive genius is prevented.

  1. Free ships furnish the only practicable remedy:

The Question of Ships, Chap. v. — (a) They enable Americans to compete on equal terms for world’s commerce. — (1) Ships can be bought at the lowest price. — (b) Carrying trade should not be sacrificed to ship-building.—(1) It employs fifty times as many men: The Question of Ships, p. 31. — (c) American ship-building would not be seriously affected.— (1) Only iron ships are concerned. — (d) The success of the plan is well illustrated by Germany’s policy.

  1. Subsidizing schemes are impracticable and inefficient:

The Question of Ships, Chap. iv. — (a) Subsidies large enough to be efficient would be too great a tax on the people. — (1) The cost of building ships is one-third greater than in England: John Codman, Free Ships. — (b) They must be permanent. — (c) They have already been unsuccessfully tried in the United States. — (d) They have failed in France. — (1) Ship-building has not been built up in ten years’ trial. — (e) England’s supremacy is not due to subsidizing: The Decay of Our Ocean Mercantile Marine, pp. 29-45. — (1) No payments are made to sailing vessels. — (2) Compensation is given only for carrying mails, and for building according to admiralty requirements.

Brief for the Negative.

General references:

W. W. Bates, American Marine; C. S. Hill, History of American Shipping; H. Hall, American Navigation; North American Review, Vol. 148, p. 687 (June, 1889); Vol. 154, p. 76 (January, 1892); Vol. 158, p. 433 (April, 1894); House Reports, 1891-1892, No. 966, Views of the Minority; 1887-1888, No. 1874, Views of the Minority, p. 10; 1882-1883, No. 1827; 1869-1870, No. 28; Nelson Dingley, Jr., in Congressional Record, 1890-1891, p. 997 (January 7, 1891).

  1. The lack of free registry was not responsible for the decline in American shipping.

(a) Under the present laws our merchant marine reached its height. — (b) The decline was due to other causes. — (1) To the destruction of commerce by English-built cruisers: American Marine, Chap. ix. — (2) To the commercial depression following war. — (3) To mechanical changes. — (x) From wood to iron. — (y) From sail to steam.

  1. Free registry offers no material advantages.

(a) American capital now invests in foreign-built ships. — (1) ‘Whitewashed’ sales: American Navigation, p. 75. — (b) The advantage of flying American flag would be subject to abuse.

  1. Free registry involves grave evils.

(a) Economic. — (1) It would annihilate ship-building in the United States. — (2) It would withdraw millions of capital from the country. — (b) National. — (1) It would cripple us in time of war. — (x) We should have no trained workmen. — (y) We should have no shipyards to build in an emergency.

  1. There are better alternatives than free registry.

(a) The removal of duties on materials. — (b) Sufficient mail subsidies to American-built ships: American Navigation, p. 77. — (c) A change in taxation from the principal invested in ships to net profits.

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SHIPPING SUBSIDIES.

Question: ‘Resolved, That the United States should establish a system of shipping subsidies.’

Brief for the Affirmative.

General references:

W. W. Bates, American Marine; House Reports, 1889-1890, No. 1210; C. S. Hill, History of American Shipping; House Reports, 1888-1889, No. 4162, Views of the Minority, p. 5; Congressional Record, 1890-1891, p. 997 (January 7, 1891), p. 3355 (February 26, 1891); Statement of Captain W. W. Bates in House Reports, 1889-1890, No. 1210, p. 220; Overland Monthly, I., 462 (May, 1883); H. Hall, American Navigation.

  1. The merchant marine of the United States is at present in a deplorable condition and ought to be built up:

House Reports, 1889-1890, No. 1210, pp. i-vi. — (a) A national marine is of the greatest importance to the wealth and the commercial prosperity of a nation: Lalor’s Cyclopædia, II., 987; J.D.J. Kelly, The Question of Ships, p. 108. — (1) It is essential to naval power. — (2) To the development of resources. — (3) To national unity and individualism. — (b) The United States has the necessary qualifications for the marine industry: The Question of Ships, Chap. i.; American Navigation, Chap. ii. — (1) In 1856 the United States merchant marine was the most extensive in the world. — (2) Our extensive sea-coast naturally fosters a maritime spirit. — (3) We have abundant natural resources. — (4) Extensive commerce. — (5) Great ship-building interests.

  1. The subsidy system is a desirable means of building up the marine.

(a) It is preferable to the policy of free ships. — (1) Such a policy would destroy our ship-building industry: American Navigation, Chap. vii. — (b) Subsidies given to vessels for mail service would greatly encourage commerce. — (1) By insuring regular service: American Navigation, p. 77; Congressional Record, 1885-1886, p. 4009 (April 30, 1886). — (c) Vessels subsidized could be put under contract to serve the United States in case of war: American Navigation, pp. 83-86. — (d) It is an economical system. — (1) The total payments would not exceed $5,000,000 per annum. — (2) The earnings of the foreign mail service, which amount to $10,000,000 per annum, could fittingly be used for subsidies: Congressional Record, 1889-1890, p. 6996 (July 7, 1890).

  1. Subsidies are necessary.

(a) The cost of American ships and their running expenses are greater than those of foreign vessels. — (b) The high subsidies given to foreign lines make it impossible for American lines to compete without like subsidies.

  1. Subsidies have proved successful in practice:

American Marine, pp. 325-327. — (a) We have tried such a system and found it effective: W. S. Lindsay, Merchant Shipping, IV., 194-228. — (b) Nearly all foreign nations maintain shipping subsidies: Congressional Record, 1890-1891, pp. 3359-3362 (February 26, 1891). — (c) They have been successful in France: House Reports, 1889-1890, No. 1210, pp. ix-xv. — (d) Great Britain, the foremost maritime country, has steadily adhered to a system of bounties: Congressional Record, 1890-1891, pp. 1001-1003 (January 7, 1891).

Brief for the Negative.

General references:

House Reports, 1889-1890, No. 1210, Minority Report, p. xxxix.; D.A. Wells, Our Merchant Marine; D.A. Wells, The Decay of Our Ocean Mercantile Marine; John Codman, Free Ships; John Codman, Shipping Subsidies and Bounties; Congressional Record, 1890-1891, pp. 3348, 3368, 3383 (February 26, 1891); 1889-1890, p. 6959 (July 3, 1890); House Reports, 1888-1889, No. 4162; J. D. J. Kelly, The Question of Ships.

  1. Subsidies are politically objectionable.

(a) They have proved and always will prove inducements to corrupt legislation. — (b) They create and foster a privileged class at the expense of the whole people: Our Merchant Marine, p. 141; Free Ships, p. 15. — (c) The practice would establish a bad precedent: House Reports, 1889-1890, No. 1210, pp. xl., xlii.

  1. Subsidies are economically objectionable:

Congressional Record, 1890-1891, p. 3352. — (a) They are merely temporizing measures: The Decay of Our Ocean Mercantile Marine, p. 25. — (b) They would be a tremendous cost: House Reports, 1888-1889, No. 4162, p. 4. — (c) They would not contribute to the general prosperity of the country: House Reports, 1888-1889, No. 4162, pp. 2-3. — (1) They would not benefit commerce. — (x) Foreign vessels now carry as cheaply as it can be done. — (2) They would benefit one industry at the expense of others. — (3) As profit would come wholly from subsidies, shippers would become uneconomical and the advantages of competition would be lost.

  1. There is no truth in the statement that shipping subsidies have built up merchant marines.

(a) Great Britain does not subsidize her vessels: The Decay of Our Ocean Mercantile Marine, p. 29; House Reports, 1889-1890, No. 1210, pp. xlii., 1. — (1) British mail subsidies are for actual service rendered as shown by the exacting rules and penalties for non-performance of contracts. — (b) The French system has not been successful: House Reports, 1888-1889, No. 4162, p. 3; 1889-1890, No. 1210, pp. 1-lx. — (c) Our own experience has been unfavorable. — (1) The Collins line in 1847: Congressional Record, 1890-1891, p. 3386.

  1. The best remedy for American shipping is free ships:

Our Merchant Marine, pp. 95-128; North American Review, Vol. 142, pp. 481-484 (May, 1886). — (a) Free ships would at least allow Americans to compete on equal terms for the commerce of the world.

 

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FREE SUGAR.

Question: ‘Resolved, That sugar should be admitted free of duty.’

Brief for the Affirmative.

General references:

‘Sugar and the Tariff,’ Tariff Reform Series, III., No. 12, p. 174 (July 30, 1890); Harper’s Weekly, XXXVIII., 602 (June 30, 1894), 771 (August 18, 1894), 819 (September 1, 1894); Nation, LIX., 74 (August 2, 1894), 112 (August 16, 1894); Congressional Record, 1889-1890, p. 10,631 (September 27, 1890).

  1. The question of protection does not enter.

(a) We produce only ten per cent, of the sugar we use: Princeton Review, VI., 322 (November, 1880). (b) The established industry can be more economically protected by bounties.

  1. The tariff is a burden on the poor.

(a) The poor man must pay more in proportion to his ability than the rich: C. D. Wright in Seventeenth Annual Report of Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor, p. 266; W. O. Atwater in American Public Health Association, XV., 208. — (1) Carbohydrates are necessary to life. — (2) Sugar is the most economical carbohydrate. — (3) The laboring man consumes the greatest proportion of this constituent: American Public Health Association, XV., 216.

  1. The sugar tariff is a check to the country’s development.

(a) It discourages industries in which sugar is a raw material. — (1) The preserving industry. — (2) The condensed milk industry. — (3) The refining industry. — (b) It injures foreign commerce. — (1) With Brazil and Cuba. — (2) Germany has retaliated for our tariff by putting a tax on American beef: Harper’s Weekly, XXXVIII., 1058 (November 10, 1894).

  1. Sugar taxes are a great source of corruption.

(a) They enable importers to defraud the government by manipulating the grades of sugar. — (b) They give rise to political corruption such as has disgraced the Senate. — (1) By fostering the sugar trust: Nation, LVIII., 440 (June 14, 1894); LIX., 71, 93, 112; Harper’s Weekly, XXXVIII., 602, 771, 819; Tariff Reform Series, VII., No. 2, p. 28 (July 1, 1894).

  1. The sugar tax is not necessary for revenue.

(a) If the revenues fall short, the deficiency can be made up better by replacing the higher taxes on malt liquors and tobacco.

Brief for the Negative.

General references:

Congressional Record, 1893-1894, Appendix, p. 1178 (August 13, 1894), p. 634 (January 23, 1894); 1889-1890, Appendix, p. 437 (May 20, 1890); Harper’s Weekly, XXXVIII., 218 (March 10, 1894); Tariff Hearings Before the Committee on Ways and Means, 1893, pp. 505, 520, 542.

  1. A tax on sugar is a just way of raising revenue:

Congressional Record, 1893-1894, Appendix, p. 1182. — (a) It is evenly distributed: Ibid. — (1) It reaches consumers in proportion to their incomes. — (2) Sugar is to a great extent an article of voluntary consumption.

  1. It is a desirable way of raising revenue.

(a) It is the only tax which furnishes a steady, reliable revenue, capable of computation beforehand. — (b) It is an easy tax to collect. — (c) Precedent has established sugar as a fitting article for taxation: D. A. Wells in Princeton Review, VI., 323 (November, 1880); Congressional Record, 1893-1894, Appendix, pp. 1180-1186. — (1) It has heretofore furnished one-fourth of the total revenue: D. A. Wells, The Sugar Industry of the United States and the Tariff, p. 9.

  1. The tax is necessary to encourage the American sugar industry:

Congressional Record, 1893-1894, Appendix, p. 632. — (a) The beet and sugar industries are difficult to establish. — (1) They require a large outlay of capital at the beginning. — (2) The return on the investment is small. — (3) The industries are still experimental. — (b) American producers require a special protective tax to offset the large bounties which foreign countries pay to their producers.

  1. The objections to the tax are unsound.

(a) The sugar-refining trust would remain even if sugar were admitted free. — (1) As nearly all of the sugar admitted to the United States is raw, it would still have to pass through the refineries. — (b) The frauds against the government, due to the manipulation of grades, are not an inherent result of the tax.

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SUGAR BOUNTIES.

Question: ‘Resolved, That a system of sugar bounties is contrary to good public policy.’

Brief for the Affirmative.

General references:

D. A. Wells, Recent Economic Changes, pp. 295-309; Lalor’s Cyclopædia, II., 99; Fortnightly Review, XLII, 638 (November, 1884) ; Nation, XLV., 164 (September 1, 1887); XLII, 420 (May 20, 1886); Congressional Record, 1889-1890, pp. 10,712-10,716 (September 30, 1890), Appendix, p. 391.

  1. The bounty system is unconstitutional.

(a) It is legislation in favor of a class: Nation, XLVII., 24 (July 12, 1888); Congressional Record, 1889-1890, pp. 10,712-10,716, Appendix, p. 391; Loan Association v. Topeka, 120 Wallace, 663-664.

  1. The bounty system is burdensome on the people:

Nation, XLIV., 484 (June 9, 1887). — (a) The people are compelled to pay the bounty: Fortnightly Review, XLII., 638. — (b) They are compelled to pay the highest cost of production for sugar: Fortnightly Review, XLII., 638. — (c) They are compelled to pay for the expensive system of administration.

  1. The bounty system gives rise to fraud.

(a) It places a great amount of money and patronage in the hands of political parties: Congressional Record, 1889-1890, Appendix, p. 391. — (b) The intricate system of bounty payments enables producers to defraud the government: Recent Economic Changes, pp. 295-298.

  1. The bounty system is injurious to commerce.

(a) It deranges prices. — (1) The producer is led to disregard the law of supply and demand: Fortnightly Review, XLII., 638. — (b) It makes foreign exchange uncertain: Nation, XLV., 164. — (1) By causing alternate over-production and under-production: Recent Economic Changes, pp. 295-309. — (c) It enables producers to control the markets.

  1. The bounty system is unnecessary for the development of the industry.

(a) The United States has as good facilities for raising beets as any other country. — (b) The sugar industry is not an infant industry.

  1. The bounty system has proved a failure in Europe:

Nation, XLVI., 45 (January 19, 1888); Recent Economic Changes, pp. 295-309; Lalor’s Cyclopædia, II., 99. — (a) The beet-sugar industry was fostered at the expense of cane sugar: Nation, XLV., 164. — (b) International complications arose: Saturday Review, LXIV., 142 (July 30, 1887), 847 (December 24, 1887).

Brief for the Negative.

General references:

Essay on ‘Industry and Commerce’ in Works of Alexander Hamilton, III., 366; Congressional Record, 1889-1890, p. 4266 (May 7, 1890); Senators Allison and Sherman in Congressional Record, 1888-1889, pp. 888-895 (January 17, 1889).

  1. The sugar industry is highly desirable.

(a) The importance of sugar as a food is constantly increasing: Congressional Record, 1889-1890, p. 4266. — (b) The industry will be national, not sectional: Congressional Record, 1888-1889, p. 892; 1889-1890, p. 4515 (May 10, 1890). — (c) Beets do not exhaust the soil: Congressional Record, 1889-1890, p. 4266.

  1. The sugar industry would bring general economic advantages.

(a) It would keep at home money now sent abroad in payment for sugar. — (b) Capital greatly exceeding the amount of the bounty would be invested in the industry. — (c) The industry would create a new and a large demand for labor, both agricultural and mechanical.

  1. The bounty system is the best means of establishing the sugar industry.

(a) Protective duties are inadequate. — (1) Bounties paid by foreign countries tend to counteract our tariff. — (2) In the past import duties have failed. — (b) Bounties are necessary to tide the industry over the critical time of beginning: Congressional Record, 1889-1890, p. 4515. — (1) Establishment is difficult and expensive. — (2) There is small inducement for capital. — (3) Beet and sorghum sugar industries are more or less experimental. — (c) Bounties have been successful in establishing industries abroad. — (1) Beet-sugar industry in Germany: Congressional Record, 1889-1890, pp. 4266, 4431 (May 9, 1890).

  1. The bounty system is constitutional.

(a) The bounty is extended to anyone who is willing to undertake the production of sugar: American Law Register and Review, XXXI., 289 (May, 1892).

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DUTIES ON WOOL AND WOOLLENS.

Question: ‘Resolved, That a system of duties on wool and woollens is undesirable.’

Brief for the Affirmative.

General references:

F. W. Taussig in Quarterly Journal of Economics, VIII., 1 (October, 1893); North American Review, Vol. 154, p. 133 (February, 1892); ‘Wool and Tariff,’ Tariff Reform Series, III., No. 19, p. 342 (November 15, 1890); ‘The Wool Question,’ Tariff Reform Series (Report of Ways and Means Committee on the Springer Bill), V., No. 1, p. 1 (March 15, 1892).

  1. Duties on wool and woollens have failed to bring beneficient results.

(a) Wool-growing has not prospered. — (1) The United States cannot raise grades of wool that will compare in quality with the better grades of foreign countries. — (x) Owing to climate: Quarterly Journal of Economics, VIII., 18. — (b) Woollen manufacturers produce only the cheapest grades of woollens. — (c) Under the tariff American producers have succeeded in producing but a small quantity of woollens in comparison with foreign importations: Quarterly Journal of Economics, VIII., 28-29; Tariff Reform Series, III., No. 19, p. 359.

  1. The removal of duties on wool does not hurt woolgrowers.

(a) The grades of wool raised by American growers are not subject to foreign competition. — (1) In these grades the American producer has an equal advantage with foreign producers: Quarterly Journal of Economics, VIII., 5-20.

  1. Free woollens are not injurious to manufacturers.

(a) They do not injure the production of cheap grades of woollens for the American market. — (1) The American manufacturer, owing to the greater efficiency of his machinery and the small necessity for hand labor, can compete on equal terms in these grades.

  1. The removal of duties on wool is a benefit to manufacturers.

(a) It enables them to engage in the manufacture of finer grades of woollens: Quarterly Journal of Economics, VIII., 32-33. — (1) By giving them free raw material of finer grades. — (b) It gives them a larger assortment of wools from which to select their grades: Congressional Record, 1887-1888, pp. 6519-6530 (July 19, 1888). (c) It enlarges their trade with South America: Nation, XLVI., 500 (June 21, 1888).

  1. Duties are unjust to consumers.

(a) They require them to pay a high price for woolens which are not made in America. — (1) This is shown by the constant increase in the importations of the finer grades of woollens in spite of the high tariff.

Brief for the Negative.

General references:

Bulletin of National Association of Wool Manufacturers, XVIII., 1888, Nos. 2, 3; XXII., 268 (September, 1892); XXIII., 275 (December, 1893); XXII., 1 (March, 1892); XXL, 333 (December, 1891); XXII., 115 (June, 1892); W. D. Lewis, Our Sheep and the Tariff (Publications of the University of Pennsylvania), Chaps. i., vii.; Congressional Record, 1893-1894, Appendix, pp. 1064, 1172.

  1. Duties on wool are necessary to protect the sheep-raising industry:

Our Sheep and the Tariff, Chap. vii. — (a) Foreign competition is especially active in this industry. — (1) Australia and the Argentine Republic have superior natural advantages.

  1. Duties on woollens are necessary to protect manufacturers:

Bulletin of National Association of Wool Manufacturers, XXII., 133. — (a) Foreign manufacturers have an advantage in cheap labor. (b) Foreign manufacturers have as good machinery as manufacturers in the United States. — (1) American machinery is used extensively abroad. — (c) The return on investments in the United States is less than it is abroad. — (1) A larger capital is required to produce an equivalent amount of woollens: Bulletin of National Association of Wool Manufacturers, XXII., 136.

  1. The history of the United States shows that duties have been successful in building up the wool and woollen industries:

Bulletin of National Association of Wool Manufacturers, XVIII., 234. — (a) The production of wool has greatly increased since the system was begun. — (b) The woollen industry is four times as large as in 1860: Bulletin of National Association of Wool Manufacturers, XXII., 3. — (c) Under periods of high protection the industries have been most prosperous.

  1. The duties have benefited the consumers:

Bulletin of National Association of Wool Manufacturers, XXII., 119. (a) They have reduced the price of woollens to less than half what it was thirty years ago. — (1) By causing active competition and rapid improvements in machinery: Bulletin of National Association of Wool Manufacturers, XXII., 119.

 

Source: W. Du Bois Brookings and Ralph Curtis Ringwalt, eds., Briefs for Debate on Current Political, Economic, and Social Topics. New York: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1908, pp. 96-117.

Image Source:  Cartoon by John S. Pughe published in Puck , September 15, 1897. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540.

Categories
Economics Programs Fields M.I.T.

M.I.T. Graduate Economics Program Brochure, 1961

 

 

 

Robert Solow served as the graduate registration officer of the Department of Economics and Social Science at M.I.T. perhaps even as late as when the graduate program brochure (transcribed below) was printed in 1961. Since Solow went down to Washington to serve as a senior staff economist on the Council of Economic Advisers in 1961, it seems likely that the brochure would have been drafted sometime before John F. Kennedy’s inauguration. This brochure is striking in many ways, e.g. its 100% informational content, presumably reflecting significant authorship/editor responsibilities of Robert Solow.

Five cherry-picked quotes from the brochure I found particularly sweet:

“The M.I.T. program does not concentrate on mathematical economics”
[It’s not what you say, it’s what they hear.]

“The department welcomes applications from qualified women”
[Apparently in the DNA of the department since World War II nearly emptied the pool of qualified male applicants.]

“The purpose of the minor program is to broaden the interests or capacities of the student in other areas than those of his major intellectual objective. While some latitude is allowed in particular cases, the spirit of this purpose is always held in view.”
[As opposed to the commandment “Thou shalt stay in thy lane”.]

“Students who are prepared for graduate work in economics are almost never deficient in humanities. Similarly, deficiencies in science are infrequent; but candidates are frequently admitted without preparation in calculus.”
[You go to war with the army you have.]

“In judging promise, special weight is naturally given to letters of recommendation from economists known to members of the department. The difficulty of evaluating records in foreign institutions and of judging foreign references constitutes a serious but no impassable barrier for foreign applicants.”
[Signal extraction problem vs. the problem of old boy networks]

Incidentally, neither “microeconomics” nor “macroeconomics” appear in the document at all. The preferred terms seen here in the brochure are “price and allocation theory” and “income analysis”.

____________________________________

The Graduate Program in Economics

School of Humanities and Social Science
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
[1961]

This brochure has been prepared especially for students who may enter the graduate program in economics at M.I.T. Its purpose is to answer a number of questions which have been recurrently raised about the program and to add to the information which is given in the M.I.T. catalogue.

 

Highlights of the M.I.T. Graduate Program in Economics

  1. The program is almost entirely for doctoral candidates. The master’s degree at M.I.T. is given in either economics and engineering or economics and science; it requires the equivalent of the M.I.T. undergraduate content in engineering or science.
  2. The M.I.T. program does not concentrate on mathematical economics. All students are required to have and use a minimum of mathematics. Students who enter without calculus may make up their deficiency in the first term with a one-semester subject (Mathematics for Economists—14.101), given in our own department. Most of the work in most fields, however, is nonmathematical.
  3. The program is limited in size. Approximately twenty-five students are admitted in any year; sixty or so students are in residence at one time. The department has more than thirty faculty members, twenty of whom have a major responsibility in the graduate program.
  4. The department welcomes applications from qualified women.
  5. All applicants are urged to take the Graduate Record Examination no later than during the January preceding the September in which they wish to enter. They should take the quantitative and verbal aptitude tests as well as the test in economics (Write to the Graduate Record Examinations, educational Testing service, 20 Nassau Street, Princeton, New Jersey, for information on these examinations. Students in western states should write to 4640 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles 27, California.)
  6. Visits to the M.I.T. Campus are helpful both to the candidate and to the departmental admissions committee. Appointments are desirable but are not generally essential, since members of the committee are likely to be available.
  7. The department would like each applicant to submit a statement (one or two pages) explaining his interest in economics. An informal questionnaire is provided for general guidance.
  8. Admission in February is granted only on an exceptional basis, because many subjects given in the spring are continuations of work given in the fall. In any event, fellowship assistance is given only as a consequence of the annual March competition, for students entering in the following September.
  9. Fellowships and scholarships in amounts up to $3250 are available for entering graduate students.
  10. Winners of outside fellowships are welcome to use them at M.I.T. It is entirely appropriate to apply for a Woodrow Wilson, G.E., A.A.U.W., National Science Foundation, or other outside fellowship at the same time that one applies to M.I.T. As a rule, M.I.T. learns of the outside award prior to making its own announcements.
  11. Liberal second-year fellowships are available both to students entering with fellowships and to those who enter without financial assistance. Awards are made on the basis of first-year performance.
  12. Teaching assistantships are ordinarily available for third-year students only, although some second-year students may do a small amount of teaching. Assistantships are not available to entering students unless they have had prior graduate study and teaching experience elsewhere.
  13. I.T. these are written in residence. Following an Institute rule, theses are prepared in residence except where the special requirements of the subject, such as field work, dictate otherwise. All theses are written in residence.
  14. For further information, write the Graduate Registration Office of the Department of Economic and Social Science, Professor Robert M. Solow.

 

S.M. in Economics and Engineering or Economics and Science

The department offers a Master of Science degree only in the combined fields of economics and engineering or economics and science. This degree is available primarily to students whose undergraduate work was in either engineering or science. Its purpose is to enable scientists and engineers, and in particular graduates of the undergraduate Courses in Economics and Engineering or Science (Course XIV) at M.I.T., to carry their economics training to the graduate level in order to equip them more fully for work in industry or government.

 

Ph.D. Degree

Ph.D. degrees are awarded in economics (including industrial relations) and in political science. In addition, candidates occasionally work for a doctorate in two or more fields—for example, economics and mathematics, economics and operations research, or economics and regional planning. These candidates are examined by special committees, on which members of the Department of Economics and Social Science serve jointly with members of the other departments concerned. Most of the graduate work in the department is directed towards the doctor’s degree. This pamphlet deals exclusively with the Ph.D. in economics; a separate bulletin describing graduate work in political science is available on request.

There are four departmental requirements for the Ph.D. degree: the passing of a general examination in a number of approved fields within the area of economics and social science; the satisfactory completion of a “minor” program in another department; demonstration of ability to read two foreign languages of significance in economics; and preparation and defense of a dissertation.

 

Major Program and General Examinations

Work taken in the Department of Economics and Social Science for the doctorate in economics is divided—broadly speaking—into two separate options: economics and industrial relations. But there is considerable overlap between the two.

All students in both options are examined five fields. Among the fields presently available are the following: economic theory, advanced economic theory, monetary and fiscal economics, industrial organization, economic development, international economics, economics of innovation, labor economics and labor relations, personnel administration, human relations in industry, statistical theory and method, and economic history. Each student selects one field as having primary importance for this professional career; ordinarily this is the field in which he writes his dissertation, though exceptions may be made. The remaining four fields are designated secondary fields. One of the five fields must be economic theory.

Students are also required to have at least a minimum knowledge of statistics and economic history. This minimum is presently interpreted to mean one semester of work in each at the graduate level. Candidates who present statistics or economic history as a primary or secondary field normally take two or three semester subjects in the field and automatically satisfy the requirements in that area.

Students may qualify in one of the secondary fields through course work only, provided that they receive a mark of B or better in two subjects. Students are examined in writing in the remaining four fields during an eight-day period (Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Monday). The theory examination is four hours long (divided roughly between microeconomics and macroeconomics), while the other three are each three hours long.

Following these written examinations, the student takes a two-hour oral examination which covers theory, his primary field, and one secondary field.

 

Foreign Languages

Doctoral candidates must show reading knowledge of two foreign languages; the standard set is the ability to read works of scientific interest at a relatively slow pace. Acceptable languages are German, French, Russian, or any other language which has a literature in economics or which will advance the educational program planned by the individual student. Students are examined by the Department of Modern Languages.

Students whose language preparation has been limited may take subjects which prepare specifically for the language examinations. Students with no previous training in a language frequently are able to attain the necessary minimum proficiency during a single semester of fairly intensive study. Others, who have already had some introduction to a language, often pass the requirement at some time before the end of the semester.

 

Minor Program

Every candidate for the doctor’s degree at M.I.T. must complete a program in a minor field in another department of the Institute. This program consists of a minimum of 24 units, which ordinarily implies three one-semester subjects. The choice of the minor field is made by the student, with the approval of the Department of Economics and Social Science. The content of the program within the other department is a matter for that department’s determination. Satisfactory completion of a minor is ordinarily contingent upon an average rating of 3.5 (in effect, a minimum of two B’s and a C). The normal standard is that the minor work shall be beyond the level required of M.I.T. undergraduates. Students who have done advanced undergraduate work in some field other than economics may often use it to meet part of the minor requirement.

Students in economics have met the minor requirement in such fields as mathematics, industrial management, history, international relations, other social sciences, literature, city planning, chemistry, and electrical engineering. Subjects taken in the minor program must not duplicate work which may be offered for one of the five fields in economics. A minor program in history may include only one term of economic history, since two terms would qualify the student to offer it as a field in economics. Similarly, students minoring in industrial management may not concentrate in such areas as personnel administration. The purpose of the minor program is to broaden the interests or capacities of the student in other areas than those of his major intellectual objective. While some latitude is allowed in particular cases, the spirit of this purpose is always held in view.

 

Courses at Harvard

Students regularly enrolled at M.I.T. are permitted to take a limited number of subjects at Harvard University—about two miles distant in Cambridge—on an exchange basis, without paying extra tuition. Such subjects may be taken as a part of the minor program. Fields for the major program other than those described above may sometimes be offered on the basis of work at Harvard.

 

Residence Requirements

The minimum residence requirement for the Ph.D. degree, including thesis, is the equivalent of one and one-half full-time academic years. No specific number of subjects is required for the general examinations. In general, however, it is recommended that students have at least the equivalent of three semesters of work at the graduate level for the primary field; four semesters in economic theory; and two semesters in each of the other fields. Work on the graduate level at other institutions is considered in meeting these broad approximations of the requisite preparation. Since there are no formal course requirements, there is no occasion to have graduate credits from other schools transferred.

A full-time student is expect to take the equivalent of five subjects each semester for credit; this may include one “reading subject,” in which the student will broaden his reading in his regular subjects. A half-time student is permitted to take approximately three subjects, and a third-time student two subjects. Auditing of additional subjects is permitted as an overload.

 

Dissertation and Special Examination

The Institute requires that all dissertations be prepared in residence, during which period tuition must be paid. Field work may be necessary to gather material; but the analysis of this material must take place at the Institute, under supervision of the instructor in charge of the dissertation. In some cases the writing of the final, polished version of the thesis may be completed elsewhere.

As in other institutions, the dissertation is expected to make a contribution to knowledge in the subject. Shortly after each candidate has submitted his thesis, he is examined on its subject. This examination is oral, conducted by a committee generally consisting of three faculty members, and usually is one hour in length.

 

Total Program of Course Work

The typical student comes to the Institute directly from college with no previous graduate study, having a deficiency in one subject and the ability to pass the reading examination in one language. He can usually prepare for the general examinations in four semesters (two academic years) taking five subjects in each, divided as follows:

 

In the Department of Economics Economic theory—four subjects
One primary field—three subjects
Three secondary fields—six subjects
Statistics—one subject
In other departments Deficiency—one subject
Language—one subject
Minor—three subjects
Total: Twenty subjects
[sic, total of the above is nineteen]

This program is only illustrative, of course, and a wide number of variations are to be expected. Additional work may be required because of additional deficiencies or lack of language preparation. The number of subjects may be reduced by absence of deficiencies, by better preparation in languages, by postponing one or more requirements (such as a part of the minor) until after the general examinations, or by incorporating economic history and/or statistics as primary or secondary fields.

 

Time Required for the Ph.D. Degree

A student entering the program with only a bachelor’s degree may expect to receive the Ph.D. degree in three years under optimum conditions. This will entail taking the general examination in May of the second year and completing a satisfactory dissertation in two semesters of full-time work thereafter. Normally, however, somewhat more time is needed, either in summer work or in some part of a fourth year. Students may need this additional time for more extensive preparation before the general examination, for the thesis, or (in the ordinary case) because teaching duties prevent full-time progress as a student. Many students who plan to enter the teaching profession take advantage of the opportunity to teach part-time at M.I.T. Teaching assistantships are available for students who have passed their general examinations, and occasionally for second-year students.

General examinations are given in the department at the beginning of each semester—in September and February—an again in May. Defense of the dissertation is arranged individually at any time.

Students enrolling in the Ph.D. program with a master’s degree from another institution, based on one or more years of residence at that institution, are urged to take their general examinations earlier than May of their second year at M.I.T. It is not usual, however, for a student to be able to transfer between institutions without some loss of time.

 

Summer School

The department does not offer any subjects at the graduate level during the summer session. However, students may enroll during the summer for thesis credits, for which tuition must be paid. Scholarships are only rarely available for payment of summer school tuition.

 

Admission

To be admitted into the program, a student must hold a bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university. To be admitted without deficiencies, he must have taken one year of college mathematics, including at least one semester of calculus; one year of college science; and a minimum of three years of college work in the humanities and social sciences. While an undergraduate degree in economics is not indispensable, students are expected to have done a considerable amount of undergraduate work in this field. Students who are prepared for graduate work in economics are almost never deficient in humanities. Similarly, deficiencies in science are infrequent; but candidates are frequently admitted without preparation in calculus.

 

Special Students

Special students, taking from one to five subjects, may be admitted to the Institute and to the department from time to time under special circumstances. Admission of special students automatically lapses each semester; application for re-admission, in the case of students wishing to continue course work, must have the approval of the instructor concerned and the department.

 

Deficiencies

Students who, upon admission, are deficient in mathematics may make up this deficiency by taking a special one-semester subject offered by the Department of Economics—Mathematics for economists (14.101.) Since calculus is required for some of the work in economic theory and statistics, students entering with a deficiency in this area are required to make it up as soon as possible. Though this is not specifically recommended, some students may be able to make up a deficiency in calculus by studying at a summer school prior to fall enrollment at the Institute.

 

Fellowships, Scholarships, and Financial Assistance

Fellowships and scholarships are awarded on a competitive basis only. First-year awards are made on April 1 for the academic year beginning in the following September. Second-year and subsequent departmental awards are made in June. No academic assistance is available for students applying after April 1, or (until the following September) for those entering in February.

Fellowships cover the tuition fee of $1500 and some cash payment toward living expenses. A fellowship of $3200 will thus include $1500 tuition and $1700 cash. The cash award is paid in two equal installments, at the beginning of each semester.

The total of fellowship assistance varies from year to year. There are several name fellowships: the Goodyear, varying from $3000 to $3500; the United States Steel, at about $3100 for each of two years (awarded every other year); the RAND Corporation Fellowship in Mathematical Economics, varying from $3000 to $3500; the Hicks, for students of industrial relations, ranging from $2000 to $3000; and the Center for International Studies Fellowship in Economic Development, ranging from $3000 to $3500; In addition to these, the Institute awards Whitney Fellowships ($3000 in 1961), open only to first-year graduate students coming from outside M.I.T., upon recommendation of the department; and the department has limited funds with which it makes scholarship and fellowship awards varying from $1500 to $3000.

In offering scholarships and fellowships, the department takes into account a variety of factors; academic achievement, career promise, and need. In judging promise, special weight is naturally given to letters of recommendation from economists known to members of the department. The difficulty of evaluating records in foreign institutions and of judging foreign references constitutes a serious but no impassable barrier for foreign applicants.

In general, outside fellowships are financially better than all but a few of the department’s awards. Applicants are therefore urged to seek Woodrow Wilson, Danforth, National Science Foundation, and similar fellowships for use at M.I.T., if they think they stand a good chance of success in the national competition.

Students who perform effectively in their first year are assured of financial support needed to finish the degree. Part of this takes the form of fellowships, in amounts somewhat lower than first-year awards; the rest consists of teaching and research assistantships and instructorships. The half-time teaching assistantship covers the half-time tuition fee of $1000 and pays $180 a month for nine months—a total of $2620. The half-time instructorship, which is reserved for students who have demonstrated effective teaching as an assistant, pays the same tuition and $235 monthly–$3115 for the academic year. The few research assistants appointed each year receive a higher rate of pay than teaching assistants but pay their own tuition. They have the advantage, however, of working on a subject related to their thesis. The department is occasionally able to obtain assistantships for applicants in other parts of the Institute, such as the School of Industrial Management or the Operations Research Group.

Third-year students are also encouraged to compete for outside assistance in supporting their thesis research, such as the Ford Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Awards, the Social Science Research Council Fellowships, and Fulbright Awards.

 

The Faculty in Economics and Industrial Relations

Morris A. Adelman, Professor of Economics
Ph.D. Harvard 1948
Industrial organization, government regulation

Albert K. Ando, Assistant Professor of Economics
Ph.D. Carnegie Institute of Technology 1959
Statistics and econometrics, economic fluctuations

Francis M. Bator, Associate Professor of Economics
Ph.D. M.I.T. 1956
Price and allocation theory, income analysis, economic growth

Robert L. Bishop, Professor of Economics, in charge of the department
Ph.D. Harvard 1949
Price and distribution theory, industrial organization, history of economic thought

E. Cary Brown, Professor of Economics
Ph.D. Harvard 1948
Public finance, income analysis, fiscal economics

Evsey D. Domar, Professor of Economics
Ph.D. Harvard 1947
Income analysis, economic growth, Soviet economics, fiscal economics

Robert Evans, Jr., Assistant Professor of Industrial Relations
Ph.D. Chicago 1959
Labor economics, industrial relations

Franklin M. Fisher, Assistant Professor of Economics
Ph.D. Harvard 1960
Econometrics, price and allocation theory

Harold A. Freeman, Professor of Statistics
S.B. M.I.T. 1931
Statistical theory, experimental design probability methods

Ralph E. Freeman, Professor of Economics, Emeritus; Lecturer
A.M. McMaster 1914, B. Litt. Oxford 1919
Monetary economics

Everett E. Hagen, Professor of Economics
Ph.D. Wisconsin 1941
Economic development, income analysis

Ralph C. James, Jr., Assistant Professor of Insutrial Relations
Ph.D. Cornell 1957
Labor economics, industrial relations

Charles P. Kindleberger, Professor of Economics
Ph.D. Columbia 1937
International economics, monetary theory and policy

Edwin Kuh, Associate Professor of Economics
Ph.D. Harvard 1955
Econometrics, income analysis

Max F. Millikan, Professor of Economics
Ph.D. Yale 1941
Economic development, income analysis

Charles A. Myers, Professor of Industrial Relations
Ph.D. Chicago 1939
Labor economics, industrial relations

Paul Pigors, Professor of Industrial Relations
Ph.D. Harvard 1927
Personnel administration, industrial relations

Paul N. Rosenstein-Rodan, Professor of Economics
Dr.Rer.Pol. Vienna 1925
Economic development

Walt W. Rostow, Professor of Economic History
Ph.D. Yale 1940
Economic history, economic growth

Paul A. Samuelson, Professor of Economics
Ph.D. Harvard 1941
Price and allocation theory, income analysis, monetary theory and policy

Abraham J. Siegel, Associate Professor of Industrial Relations
M.A. Columbia 1949
Labor economics, industrial relations

Robert M. Solow, Professor of Economics
Ph.D. Harvard 1951
Price and allocation theory, income analysis, econometrics

 

Graduate Subjects

Price and allocation theory

14.121, 122 Economic Analysis
14.123 Advanced Economic Theory
14.132 Schools of Economic Thought
14.151 Mathematical Approach to Economics

 

Income analysis

14.451 Theory of Income and Employment
14.452 Economic Growth and Fluctuations

 

Economic history and economic development

14.161,162 Economic History
14.171 Theory of Economic Growth
14.172 Research Seminar in Economic Development
14.182 Capitalism, Socialism, and Growth

 

Economics of industry

14.271 Problems in Industrial Economics
14.272 Government Regulation of Industry

 

Statistics and econometrics

14.371,372 Statistical Theory
14.374 Design and Analysis of Scientific Experiments
14.381 Statistical Method
14.382 Economic Statistics
14.391 Research Seminar in Economics
15.032 Sampling of Human Populations1

 

Monetary and fiscal economics

14.461,462 Monetary Economics
14.471 Fiscal Economics
14.472 Seminar in Fiscal and Monetary Policy

 

International economics

14.581,582 International Economics
14.584 Seminar in International Economic Theory

 

Industrial relations

14.671 Problems in Labor Economics
14.672 Public Policy on Labor Relations
14.674 The Labor Movement: Theories and Histories
14.681,14.682 Seminar in Personnel Administration
14.691,692 Research Seminar in Industrial Relations
14.693 Collective Bargaining and Union-Management Cooperation
14.694 Seminar in Union-Management Cooperation

1School of Industrial Management

 

[Production Credits]

Editorial service by the M.I.T. Office of Publications. Design by Brigitte Hanf. Typesetting by the Lew A. Cummings Company, Inc., Manchester, New Hampshire, and The Composing Room, Inc., New York. Production by the Lew A. Cummings Company, Inc. January, 1961.

 

Source: MIT Archives, Department of Economics Records, Box 2, Folder “Department Brochures”.

Image Source: MIT beaver mascot, Tim,  from Technology Review in 1914.

Categories
Economists Harvard History of Economics Northwestern

Harvard. Economics Ph.D. alumnus Homer Bews Vanderblue, 1915

 

Homer Bews Vanderblue (Harvard Ph.D., 1915) won his academic spurs for work on the economics of railroads. He went on to become the Dean of the School of Commerce at Northwestern. Before leaving for Northwestern in 1939 he donated his personal collection of Adam Smith materials to the Harvard Business School’s Baker Library.

_______________________

Homer Bews Vanderblue’s Ph.D. exams at Harvard

General Examination in Economics, Monday, May 11, 1914.
Committee: Professors Taussig (chairman), Turner, Sprague, Day, and Dr. Copeland.
Academic History: Northwestern University, 1907-12; Harvard Graduate School, 1912—. A.B., Northwestern, 1911; A.M. ibid., 1912. Assistant in Economics, Harvard, 1913—.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Statistics. 3. History of American Institutions since 1789. 4. Economic History since 1750. 5. Commercial Organization. 6. Transportation.
Special Subject: Transportation.
Thesis Subject: “Railroad Valuation.” (With Professor F. W. Taussig and Mr. E. J. Rich.)

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examinations for the Ph.D. (HUC 7000.70), Folder “Examinations for the Ph.D., 1913-14”.

Note:  Thesis published as Railroad Valuation, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1917.  It was awarded second prize ($500) in Class A of the Hart, Schaffner & Marx competition.

_______________________

From the 1941 Harvard Business School Yearbook

Homer Bews Vanderblue
Honorary Curator of Early Economic Literature

Degrees: A.B., 1911; A.M., 1912, Northwestern University; Ph.D., 1915 Harvard University.

History in Brief: Instructor in Economics, Harvard College, 1914-15; Assistant Professor, Associate Professor and Professor of Transportation, Northwestern University, 1915-22; Research Director, Denver Civic and Commercial Association, 1920-21; Economist and Director, Harvard University Committee on Economic Research, 1922-29; Professor of Business Economics, 1922-29; Vice President, Tri-Continental Corporation, New York City, 1929-37; Member, Library Committee, College of William and Mary since 1936; Member, Committee on Economic Bibliography, British Academy since 1937; Honorary Curator of Early Economic Literature since 1936; Dean of College of Commerce, Northwestern University since 1939.

Source: Harvard University, The Harvard Business School Yearbook, 1941, page 37.

_______________________

Death notice from Harvard College President’s Annual Report

Homer Bews Vanderblue, Honorary Curator of Early Economic Literature in the Baker Library, died on July 12, 1952, in his sixty-fourth year. His first appointment at the University was as Assistant in Economics and Proctor in 1913-14. He became Instructor in Economics in 1914-15. Until 1922, he taught at Northwestern University as Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Professor of Transportation. From 1922 until his resignation in 1929, he was Professor of Business Economics, and from 1936 until his death he filled the post of Honorary Curator of Early Economic Literature in the Baker Library. He returned to Northwestern as Professor of Business Economics and Dean of the School of Commerce (1939-49).

 

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College and reports of departments, 1951-52, pp. 49-50.

_______________________

Vanderblue as Head of Northwestern’s School of Commerce

Homer Vanderblue becomes the fifth dean of the School of Commerce. Vanderblue proves to be a successful academic and administrative leader, keeping the school functioning during the resource shortages associated with World War II when most business schools curtailed their operations or suspended instruction entirely.

Under Dean Vanderblue, the school shifts away from technical specialization toward a broader managerial education. To accomplish this shift—which would take years to complete—Vanderblue introduces the “rotating chairs” system for academic department heads, thus sidestepping department rigidity. He recruits faculty sympathetic to his goals and ideals of “liberal business education.”

Vanderblue also works to bridge the fiscal gap between what the school generates for the university and what it earns to meet its expenses. Among other things, Vanderblue proposes raising faculty salaries, which had declined during the depression, and constructing new buildings in Evanston and Chicago. Vanderblue admits that to retain the best faculty, he has to draw upon loyalty to Northwestern by “playing on the ‘I love Evanston’ key” to retain the best senior professors, something he is able to do in many cases.

Dean Vanderblue retires due to ill health in 1949.

 

Source: Northwestern University, Webpage: “Kellogg School History: 1938-1947.”

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Adam Smith—Vanderblue Collection

Baker Library has brought together one of the most comprehensive collections of the works of Adam Smith in the world, with a special focus on The Wealth of Nations. This collection contains virtually all published editions in English of this work, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, and Essays on Philosophical Subjects as well as translations into Chinese, French, Russian, and numerous other languages. Further, it holds many of Smith’s other published materials, manuscript letters, and several volumes from Smith’s own library. Harvard Business School Professor Homer B. Vanderblue donated the collection in 1939.

Source: https://www.library.hbs.edu/Find/Collections-Archives/Special-Collections/Collections/European-Economic-History-Philosophy-Kress-Collection/Adam-Smith-Vanderblue-Collection

Image Source: Homer Bews Vanderblue from the 1946 volume of the Northwestern University yearbook Syllabus. Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Categories
Economic History Economists Harvard

Harvard. Ph.D. Economics Alumnus, Arthur Harrison Cole

 

Many Harvard Ph.D.’s in economics went on to careers across the Charles River at the Harvard Business School. The economic historian, Arthur Harrison Cole, is best known as having been the Librarian of the Business School’s Baker Library and also the executive director of the Research Center in Entrepreneurial History at the Business School. 

Arthur Harrison Cole’s doctoral examination fields can be found at this post. His dissertation is included in this list of Harvard economics Ph.D.’s through 1926.

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From the Report of the President of Harvard College, 1973-74

Arthur Harrison Cole, who died November 10, 1974 in his 85th year, was Professor of Business Economics, Emeritus and former Librarian of the Baker Library at the School of Business Administration. Called a “pivotal figure” in the growth of the Library, Cole boldly reorganized and reclassified its collections, transforming it into a distinguished, scholarly institution. He presented to the Library the records of the first cotton manufacturing concern in this country which he had discovered in Webster, Massachusetts while a doctoral student. From this experience came his long professional interest in the changing ways of American business. His two-volume work, The American Wool Manufacture (1926), is still an important source book on the subject, and the Research Center in Entrepreneurial History at the School of Business Administration was largely his project — he was executive director from 1948 to 1958. After graduation from Bowdoin College in 1911 Cole received the A.M. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard in 1913 and 1916. In 1913 he was appointed Assistant in Economics in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and in 1916 Instructor in Economics and Tutor in the Division of History, Government and Economics. He became an Assistant Professor in 1926 and Associate Professor in 1928. His service at the Business School commenced in 1929 when he was made Administrative Curator of the Baker Library. In 1932 he became Librarian of Baker and in 1933 was elected Professor of Business Economics. His activity in his field continued after his retirement in 1956. He was an editor and a prolific writer who published in many journals. A slight but charming evidence of his editorship was Charleston Goes to Harvard, the diary of a Harvard student from South Carolina during one term in 1831. Cole’s most recent book was The Birth of a New Social Sciences Discipline: The Achievements of the First Generation of American Business Historians, 1893-1974. A room in Baker Library devoted to corporate publications is scheduled to be dedicated to his memory this spring.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College and Reports of Departments, 1973-74, pp. 32-3.

Image Source: Harvard Business School Yearbook 1930-1931, p. 39.