Author: Irwin Collier

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

M.I.T. Capital Theory, Uncertainty, Welfare Economics. Half-semester Core Microeconomics. Samuelson, 1975

From my files from graduate school I have transcribed the syllabus and final exam for the fourth of the four half-semester core microeconomic theory courses taught at M.I.T. during the academic year 1974-75. The topics of capital theory, uncertainty and welfare economics fell to Paul Samuelson. The preceding three half-semester microeconomics theory courses were taught by Robert Bishop, Martin Weitzman and Hal Varian.

 

______________________

READING LIST FOR 14.124
P. A. Samuelson
SPRING 1975

MICROECONOMIC THEORY

I. CAPITAL THEORY

  1. I. Fisher

Theory of Interest
Part II, all; Part I, Chs. 1,3; Part III, Chs. 10,11.

  1. E. Böhm-Bawerk

Positive Theory of Capital
Book V, all; Book VI, Chs. 6,7,8.

  1. R. M. Solow

“A Contribution to the Theory of Economic Growth”
Quarterly Journal of Economics, February, 1956; pp. 65-94.

Capital Theory and the Rate of Return
(DeVries Lectures) North-Holland, Amsterdam, 1963.

  1. T. Koopmans

Three Essays, pp. 105-126.

  1. F. Ramsey

E.J., 1928

  1. N. Kaldor

“Alternative Theories of Distribution”
RES, 1955

  1. Sraffa

Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities
Chs. 1, 2, 3.

  1. Dorfman-Samuelson-Solow

Linear Programming and Economic Analysis
Chs. 11, 12.

  1. A. Samuelson

“A Summing Up”
QJE, 1966

II. ECONOMICS OF UNCERTAINTY

  1. K. Arrow

Theory of Risk Bearing
Chs. 3,1,2,4.

  1. J. Tobin

RES, 1958

  1. H. Markowitz

Portfolio Selection
sample

III. MODERN WELFARE ECONOMICS

  1. A. Bergson [A. Burk]

“A Reformulation of Certain Aspects of Welfare Economics”
QJE, 52 (February 1938)
pp. 310-334

  1. J. Hicks

“The Foundations of Welfare Economics”
EJ, 49 (December 1939)
pp. 696-712

  1. P. A. Samuelson

Foundations of Economic Analysis (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1947)
Chapter 8, “Welfare Economics”

  1. P. A. Samuelson

“The Pure Theory of Public Expenditure”
Review of Economics and Statistics, 36 (November 1954)
pp. 387-389

reproduced as
Chapter 92
The Collected Scientific Papers of Paul A. Samuelson, Vol. II
MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1966; editor: J.E. Stiglitz

  1. K. Arrow

Social Choice and Individual Values, 1951
Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Monograph #12
Wiley, New York, second edition, 1963

  1. J. Rawls

A Theory of Justice
Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1971

__________________

Background Reading

  1. A. C. Pigou

The Economics of Welfare, 1920
Macmillan, London, 4th edition, 1932
reprinted in new appendices, 1952

  1. L. Robbins

An Essay of the Nature and Significance of Economic Science, 1932
Macmillan, London, 2nd edition, 1935

  1. van der Graaf

Theoretical Welfare Economics
Cambridge University Press, London, 1957, paperback

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FINAL EXAM
14.124
MAY 20, 1975

This is a 1 ½ hour exam. You may take up to an extra half hour, but only if you need it and not in order to establish extra credit for all you know.
Answer any 3 of the following four questions, thus allowing about one half hour for each.

 

  1. Society consists of 2N people [equal numbers of men (i=1) and women (i=2)] who will live and consume for two periods: t=1,2, or now and tomorrow. Also, society has a Solow neoclassical production function:

C(t) + K(t+1) = F[L(t),K(t)]

All 2N people have the same labor, namely Li(t) = 1/2N. The women or men possesss equal shares in the initial capital good, K(1) = k/2N, but it is an unknown of the problem to find out what will be K(2).

Intertemporal tastes of the representative man and woman involve the same concave u[C(t)] function, and with equal Böhm-Fisher subjective time preference factors, ρ1 and ρ2, in:

U1 = u[C1(1)] + u[(C1(2)]/(1+ρ1), U2 = u[C2(1)] + u[(C2(2)]/(1+ρ2), ρ1 = ρ2.

(You may set N=1 to simplify your expositions if you wish to do so.)
The equilibrium is now determinable.

(a)  Describe graphically, and/or mathematically, and/or literally, how Irving Fisher or any modern economist would determine the equilibrium for:

C1(1)*, C1(2)*, C2(1)*, C2(2)*, K(2)*; r*, the rate of interest between period 1 and 2. (Hint: Will women lend to men or borrow from them?)

(b)  Very briefly, modify your above answer to show what will happen when men are more “impatient” than women, so that ρ1 > ρ2.

  1. Prove that fair-game investing or gambling will (a) be avoided by what class of people?; (b) be embraced by what class of people? How do you reconcile under (a) the purchases of insurance at unfavorable-game premiums?
  1. Lerner, Lange, and others wish to utilize market pricing in achieving maximization of a social welfare function appropriate to a socialist state where (a) all non-labor inputs are owned by the State; (b) “people’s changing tastes are to count,” (c) where the bureaucrats responsible for the different industries do not necessarily in every case face constant returns to scale and classical returns.

Describe how goods and services should be priced, how people’s total spendable incomes are to be determined, and also any special problems that might arise for the Lerner-Lange-Smith VISIBLE HAND.

  1. Bentham says that people may differ in the heights of their marginal utility from the same number of chocolates (or real incomes). But he believes that this difference in intensities of enjoyments is distributed “in about the same way among the very rich and the very poor.” What kind of income tax formula would he then presumably want to legislate? What “incentive effects” would you want to keep in mind appraising this solution?

Source: Personal copies

Image Source: Left to right: Robert C. Merton, Jerome Bert Wiesner and Paul A. Samuelson with Vol. 3 of Samuelson’s Collected Scientific Papers (1972). MIT Webmuseum.

Categories
Bibliography Harvard Suggested Reading

Harvard. Readings list for Commercial Crises Course by Persons, 1923

 

 

Warren M. Persons was an index number cruncher in the tradition of Irving Fisher and Wesley Clair Mitchell. As a guest professor at Harvard from Colorado College, he taught a course on the theory of business cycles (Economics 35) during the Winter term of the academic year 1916-17. Later as a member of the Harvard economics faulty and researcher with the Harvard Economic Service, he taught the course “Commercial Crises” (Economics 37) 1919-20, through 1926-27 that was attended primarily by graduate students.

Following an item from the Harvard Catalogue of its Officers and Graduates and a clipping from the Harvard Crimson about the Harvard Economic Service, I provide enrollment data for the course from 1923-24 when Frank Whitson Fetter (see his papers at Rubenstein Library, Duke University) attended. From Fetter’s handwritten course notes I have assembled a bibliography of items (with links to almost all references!) mentioned or assigned by Warren Persons. The final examination questions for the course have been transcribed in a later posting.

Note: The following three published items by (or edited by) Persons are relevant to the course content.

Persons, Warren M. “Books on Business Cycles: Mitchell, Aftalion, Bilgram.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 28, no. 4 (1914): 795-810. .

The Problem of Business Forecasting, ed. by Warren M. Persons, William Trufant Foster and Albert J. Hettinger, Jr. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1924.

Persons, Warren M. “Theories of Business Fluctuations.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 41, no. 1 (1926): 94-128. .

_________________________________________

 

Warren Milton Persons; S.B. Univ. Wis. 1899; Ph.D. Colorado Coll. 1912, Univ. Wis. 1915; Dean (Dept. of Business Administration and Banking) and Prof. of Economics and Finance, Colorado Coll. 1913-1918; Lectr. on Economics 1917; Prof. of Economics 1919—; Statistician of the Committee on Economic Research 1917-1919.

Source: Harvard University. Quinquennial Catalogue of the Officers and Graduates, 1636-1920, p. 100.

_________________________________________

 

REPLACES GUESS WORK BY ACCURATE FORECASTS

Harvard Economic Service Has Been of Great Value to Business, Experts Declare at Fifth Annual Conference

Harvard Crimson, October 22, 1923

The application of a scientific review of economic statistics to business concerns of the United States during the past five years, and its possible application to national and international affairs in the future, were the chief topics discussed on Saturday night at the fifth annual conference of the Harvard University Commitee on Economic Research, at a dinner held in the Harvard Club of Boston. After the dinner a group of speakers prominent in business and in economic research addressed the 200 subscribers to the Harvard Economic Service who were present.

After a brief introductory address by President Lowell, in which he commended the members of the committee for their service in developing economics from an inexact to an exact science. Professors Warren M. Persons and Charles J. Bullock, both of the committee, spoke, describing the growth and development of the Bureau of Economic Research at Harvard.

Persons Discusses Business Cycles

Professor Persons first described the theory of recurring business cycles, on which the Harvard Economic Service is based. Perpetual change, he showed, is an inherent feature of modern industrial enterprise. Prices rise and fall; markets expand and contract; production increases and decreases; orders accumulate beyond capacity and then seem to vanish altogether.

And yet, he said, the course of business is not purely fortuitous or haphazard. By studying the price movements in the United States for the past 20 years, an index of trade for the United States has been obtained. This chart reveals a well defined ebb and flow of prosperity and depression. First comes a period of business depression, then a recovery; this is followed by a period of prosperity followed by financial strain, which ultimately brings about a financial crisis. These five phases, each leading into the other, are known as the business cycle.

“In 1915,” he said, “the Harvard Economics Department started to investigate statistical data concerning past business cycles. From this data we were able to make accurate generalizations concerning past business cycles and inferences for the future.”

Discusses Development of Service

Professor Bullock showed how the Harvard Economic Service has developed during the past five years, and cited the increase in its number of subscribers to show its increasing value to the business houses of the United States.

“The old haphazard methods of business belong to the prehistoric ages of five years ago when we were in the business wilderness,” next declared Mr. Howard Coonley ’98, president of the Boston Chamber of Commerce, and of the Walworth Manufacturing Company. He said that since he had discovered that the sales of the Walworth Company followed almost precisely the sales graphs prepared by the Harvard Economic Service, his company had been able to discard the old uncertain method of irregular production. By following the Harvard forecast, they had been able to estimate sales for each phase of the business cycle, and plan their production and financial programs accordingly.”

“The Economic Service,” he said, “gives a perspective to business. It is an executive airplane that enables a man to see his business from afar in relation to other businesses, and deal with it accordingly.”

Turning from the past accomplishments of the Economic Service, the remaining speakers developed the further possibilities of a Bureau of Economic Research.

Mr. Jesse Isidor Straus ’93, president of R. H. Macy and Company, urged the application of the economic study of statistics to legislative problems of the country. A study he said of the economic effects of tariff and taxation on commerce might produce results that would cause even Congress to give heed to the findings of the Harvard Research Bureau in preparing its legislation.

Professor Thomas N. Carver, chairman of the Department of Economics at the University also spoke of the need of conducting national affairs by cientific economic principles.

“Already,” he said, “two great countries of the world are on the rocks largely because the men in control were illiterates in economics.

Professor Bullock, the concluding speaker, emphasized the importance of the international study of economic statistics. He said that a research bureau similar to that at Harvard had already been established by London and Cambridge Universities, and that one would soon be started at the Institute of Statistics of the University of Paris. By the cooperation of these three bureaus, he said he hoped that long strides would be taken towards a better understanding of economics and business conditions throughout the world.

_________________________________________

 

Enrollment in Economics 37, Commercial Crises 1923-24

[Economics] 37 1hf. Professor Persons.—Commercial Crises.

Total 22: 16 graduates, 2 Seniors, 1 Junior, 2 Radcliffe, 1 Graduate School of Business

 

Harvard University. Report of the President and the Treasurer of Harvard College, 1923-24. p. 107.

_________________________________________

Course Bibliography for Economics 37
Harvard University, First Term, 1923-24

Persons
Business Cycles (37)
1923-1924

Oct. 2

**Business Cycles and Unemployment. Report and Recommendations of a Committee of the President’s Conference on Unemployment, including an Investigation made under the Auspices of the National Bureau of Economic Research. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1923. Includes Wesley Clair Mitchell (ed.), “The Relation of Business Cycles to Unemployment” with articles by many economists.

*Mitchell, Wesley Clair—Business Cycles. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1913.

Burton, Theodore E.—Financial Crises and Periods of Industrial and Commercial Depression. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1920.

Hull, George H.—Industrial Depressions, their Causes Analysed and Classified with a Practical Remedy for such as Result from Industrial Derangements, or Iron the Barometer of Trade. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1911.

Hawtrey, Ralph George—Good and Bad Trade: An Inquiry into the Causes of Trade Fluctuations. London: Constable & Company Limited, 1913.

*Robertson, Dennis Holme—A Study of Industrial Fluctuation: An Enquiry into the Character and Causes of the so-called Cyclical Movements of Trade. London: P.S. King & Son, Ltd., 1915.

*Moore, Henry Ludwell—Economic Cycles: Their Law and Cause. New York: Macmillan, 1914.

Review of Economic Cycles: their Law and Cause by Henry Ludwell Moore.
Persons, Warren M. The American Economic Review 5, no. 3 (1915): 645-48.

Review of Economic Cycles: their Law and Cause by Henry Ludwell Moore.
Persons, Warren M. Publications of the American Statistical Association 14, no. 111 (1915): 695-98.

*Aftalion, Albert (2 vol.)—Les Crises Périodiques de Surproduction. Paris: Livrairie des Sciences Politiques et Sociales, Marcel Rivière et Companie, 1913. Volume I; Volume II.

*Veblen, Thorstein—The Theory of Business Enterprise. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1904.

Bilgram, Hugo and Louis Edward Levy—The Cause of Business Depressions as Disclosed by an Analysis of the Basic Principles of Economics. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1914.

King, Willford Isbell—Employment, Hours, and Earnings in Prosperity and Depression, United States, 1920-1922. New York: NBER, 1923.

Foster, William T. and Waddill Catchings—Money. Publications of the Pollak Foundation for Economic Research, No. 2. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1923.

H.B. Hastings—Costs and Profits: their Relations to Business Cycles. Publications of the Pollak Foundation for Economic Research, No. 3. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1923.

*Lavington, F.—The Trade Cycle. An Account of the Causes Producing Rhythmical Changes in the Activity of Business. London: P. S. King & Son, 1922.

Edie, Lionel D. (ed.)—The Stabilization of Business. New York, Macmillan, 1923.

Jordan, David F.—Business Forecasting. New York: Prentice-Hall, 1921.

Pell, Charles Edward—The Riddle of Unemployment and its Solution. London: Cecil Palmer, 1922.

Klein, Philip—The Burden of Unemployment. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1923.

Moore, Henry Ludwell. “Generating Cycles of Products and Prices.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 35, no. 2 (1921): 215-39.

Moore, Henry Ludwell. “Generating Cycles Reflected in a Century of Prices.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 35, no. 4 (1921): 503-26.

Moore, Henry Ludwell. “The Origin of the Eight-Year Generating Cycle.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 36, no. 1 (1921): 1-29.

Ingraham, Mark H. “On Professor H. L. Moore’s Mathematical Analysis of the Business Cycle.” Journal of the American Statistical Association 18, no. 142 (1923): 759-65.

Frank, Lawrence K. “A Theory of Business Cycles.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 37, no. 4 (1923): 625-42.

Oct. 4

Bullock, Charles J. “Prefatory Statement.” The Review of Economics and Statistics 1, no. 1 (1919).
“General Considerations and Assumptions.” The Review of Economics and Statistics 1, no. 1 (1919): 6-8.
“Measurement of Secular Trend.” The Review of Economics and Statistics 1, no. 1 (1919): 8-18.

Oct. 9

Moore, Henry Ludwell. Generating Economic Cycles. New York, 1923.

Oct. 11

Persons, Warren M. “The Revised Index of General Business Conditions.” The Review of Economics and Statistics 5, no. 3 (1923): 187-95.

Oct. 16

Persons, Warren M., and Eunice S. Coyle. “A Commodity Price Index of Business Cycles.” The Review of Economics and Statistics 3, no. 11 (1921): 353-69.

Oct. 18

Frickey, Edwin. “An Index of Industrial Stock Prices.” The Review of Economics and Statistics 3, no. 8 (1921): 264-77.

Maxwell, W. Floyd, and Ada M. Matthews. “A Monthly Index of Bond Yields, 1919-23.” The Review of Economics and Statistics 5, no. 3 (1923): 212-17.

Oct. 23

Persons, Warren M. “An Index of Trade for the United States.” The Review of Economics and Statistics 5, no. 2 (1923): 71-78.

Day, Edmund E. “Cyclical Fluctuations of the Volume of Manufacture.” The Review of Economics and Statistics 5, no. 1 (1923): 30-60.

Day, Edmund E. “The Physical Volume of Production in the United States for 1922.” The Review of Economics and Statistics 5, no. 3 (1923): 196-211.

Day, Edmund E. “An Index of the Physical Volume of Production: I. Agriculture, 1879-1920.” The Review of Economics and Statistics2, no. 9 (1920): 246-59.

Day, Edmund E. “An Index of the Physical Volume of Production: II. Mining, 1879-1919.” The Review of Economics and Statistics 2, no. 10 (1920): 287-99.

Day, Edmund E., and Warren M. Persons. “An Index of the Physical Volume of Production: III. Manufacture, 1899-1919.” The Review of Economics and Statistics 2, no. 11 (1920): 309-37.

Day, Edmund E. “An Index of the Physical Volume of Production: III. Manufacture, 1889-1912 (concluded).” The Review of Economics and Statistics 2, no. 12 (1920): 361-67.

Day, Edmund E. “An Index of the Physical Volume of Production: IV. Agriculture, Mining, and Manufacturing Combined, 1899-1919.” The Review of Economics and Statistics 3, no. 1 (1921): 19-22.

Oct. 30

Persons, Warren M. “II. The Method Used.” The Review of Economics and Statistics 1, no. 2 (1919): 117-39.

Nov. 20
Bibliography for reports:

Dewey, Davis Rich—Financial History of The United States (5th ed.). New York: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1915.

Lincoln, Edmond E. List of References in Economics 2. Economic History of Europe since 1800, and of the United States (Revised, Enlarged, and Rearranged). Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University, 1920.

Sumner, William Sumner—A History of Banking in the United States. Vol. I in A History of Banking in All the Leading Nations. New York: Journal of Commerce and Commercial Bulletin, 1896.

Davis, Joseph Stancliffe—Essays in Earlier History of American Corporations. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1917. Volume I;  Volume II.

Holdsworth, John Thom—The First Bank of the United States. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Pennsylvania, 1910.

Callender, G. S. “The Early Transportation and Banking Enterprises of the States in Relation to the Growth of Corporations.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 17, no. 1 (1902): 111-62.

Dec. 11

1923 Harvard Ph.D. Thesis by Joseph L. Snider directed by Warren M. Persons.

Snider, Joseph L. “Wholesale Prices in the United States, 1866-91.” The Review of Economics and Statistics 6, no. 2 (1924): 93-118.

THEORIES OF BUSINESS CYCLES

Oral reports were presented on the theories of the following authors:

Dec. 18

Veblen, Thorstein. The Theory of Business Enterprise. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1904.

  1. Alford
  2. Allen
  3. Fetter

Dec. 20

See Veblen’s new book:

Veblen, Thorstein. Absentee Ownership and Business Enterprise in Recent Times: The Case of America. New York: B. W. Huebsch, 1923.

Jan. 3

Hobson, John A. Economics of Unemployment. London: George Allen & Unwin. 1922.
ch 5, pp. 73-83; ch 10, pp. 146-151.

Commons, John R. “Hobson’s “Economics of Unemployment” The American Economic Review 13, no. 4 (1923): 638-47.

  1. Gilbert, D.W.
  2. Maxwell
  3. Nakakawagu [Tseng]

Jan. 5

*Aftalion, Albert (2 vol.). Les Crises Périodiques de Surproduction. Paris: Livrairie des Sciences Politiques et Sociales, Marcel Rivière et Companie, 1913. Volume I; Volume II.

  1. Gilbert, R. V.
  2. Stern [Sherrin?]
  3. Silbert

Jan. 8

Bouniatian, Mentor. Les Crises Économiques: Essai de Morphologie et Théorie des Crises Économiques Périodiques et de Théorie de la Conjuncture Économique. Paris. Marcel Giard, 1922.

  1. Smith, W.B.
  2. Taber
  3. Woolfson

Jan.10

Hawtrey, Ralph George. Good and Bad Trade: An Inquiry into the Causes of Trade Fluctuations. London: Constable & Company Limited, 1913.

Hawtrey, Ralph George. Monetary Reconstruction. London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1923.

Keynes, J. M. “Review of Currency and Credit by R. G. Hawtrey.” The Economic Journal 30, no. 119 (1920): 362-65.

Article by Mitchell reviewing business in 1923 in annual number of N.Y. Evening Post.

  1. Opie
  2. Smith, D.B.

Jan. 12

Hawtrey, Ralph George. Currency and Credit. London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1919.  ch 9 + 10.

Young, Allyn A. “Hawtrey, Currency and Credit; Fisher, Stabilizing the Dollar.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 34, no. 3 (1920): 520-32.

Report by Taber on:

Foster, William T. and Waddill Catchings—Money. Publications of the Pollak Foundation for Economic Research, No. 2. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1923.

Jan. 15

Robertson, Dennis Holme. A Study of Industrial Fluctuation: An Enquiry into the Character and Causes of the so-called Cyclical Movements of Trade. London: P.S. King & Son, Ltd., 1915.

  1. Silbert
  2. Stern
  3. Smith, W.B.

Jan. 15

Mitchell, Wesley Clair. Business Cycles. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1913: ch. 14.

  1. Taber
  2. Miss Bacon
  3. Miss Freudenthal

Jan. 17, 19, 22

The Methods of Stabilization of Industry as outlined in:
Business Cycles and Unemployment. Report and Recommendations of a Committee of the President’s Conference on Unemployment, including an Investigation made under the Auspices of the National Bureau of Economic Research. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1923.

 

Jan. 22
[appears to be suggestions for final examination preparation]

See Day’s article in Jan. 1923 Review [1].

Know statistical analysis used in Harvard method; lag, sequence of movements, correlation between different indices, etc. etc.

British business conditions, June 1922 [2] and Oct 1923 Supplement [3]. Index of Physical Production of Manufactures. Articles for Feb. 1921 [4], Dec. 1921 [5] and Oct. 1923 [6] for relation between production and price fluctuations.

It here typical business cycle, do crises and financial panics always occur; international nature.

Extended knowledge of author treated and general knowledge of all authors.—Present status of subject and its probably developments, a philosophy of the subject of business cycles.

Methods of forecasting. The three curves and their relations.— [7] Mitchell’s book. Ch. 6 by King is important contribution P. says.

Index of Trade—April, 1923  [8].

 

[1] Day, Edmund E. “Cyclical Fluctuations of the Volume of Manufacture.” The Review of Economics and Statistics 5, no. 1 (1923): 30-60.

[2a] Bowley, Arthur L. “An Index of British Economic Conditions: 1919-22.” The Review of Economics and Statistics 4 (1922): 145-56.

[2b] Persons, Warren M., Norman J. Silberling, and William A. Berridge. “An Index of British Economic Conditions: 1903-14.” The Review of Economics and Statistics 4 (1922): 157-75.

 [3]  “[An Index of British Economic Conditions: 1903-14]: Appendix.” The Review of Economics and Statistics 4 (1922): 176-89.

 [4] “Physical Production in 1920.” The Review of Economics and Statistics 3, no. 2 (1921): 37-39.

 [5] Persons, Warren M. “The Iron and Steel Industry During Business Cycles.” The Review of Economics and Statistics 3, no. 12 (1921): 378-83.

 [6] Blackett, O. W. “Pig Iron and Scrap Prices during Business Cycles.” The Review of Economics and Statistics 5, no. 4 (1923): 272-78.

 [7] Business Cycles and Unemployment. Report and Recommendations of a Committee of the President’s Conference on Unemployment, including an Investigation made under the Auspices of the National Bureau of Economic Research. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1923. Includes Wesley Clair Mitchell (ed.), “The Relation of Business Cycles to Unemployment” with articles by many economists.

 [8] Persons, Warren M. “An Index of Trade for the United States.” The Review of Economics and Statistics 5, no. 2 (1923): 71-78.

 

Source: Duke University, Rubenstein Library. Frank Whitson Fetter Papers, Box 49, Folder “Student Papers, Graduate Courses (Harvard University) Ec 37—Corporation Finance Notes, Report 1923-24.”

Image Source: Harvard Class Album, 1920.

Categories
Columbia Curriculum Fields

Columbia. J. M. Clark on Teaching “modern tools of economic thinking”, 1942

In my examination of department archives I have been somwhat surprised at the relative scarcity of paper traffic with regard to curriculum reform. Here a short note from Maurice Clark to the executive officer of the economics department (i.e. chairman) Robert M. Haig about Columbia’s hiring strategy and whether two “math. Ec’ist[s]” aren’t enough for the task of teaching the “modern tools of economic thinking.” Looking at the faculty list for that year, I presume Clark meant Harold Hotelling and Abraham Wald. The note sounds as though Clark is looking for a way to get out of the “Current types of economic theory” course that he had taken over from Wesley Clair Mitchell and to teach instead a core theory course again.

_____________________________________

 

COPY

January 9, 1942

Dear Bob [R. M. Haig]:

I heard Lange’s paper. Impressions very favorable per se: but he’s one more high-power mathematical economist, and with three, wouldn’t we be unbalanced? And if it takes a math. Ec’ist to do the job of “modern tools of economic thinking” we had in mind, aren’t two enough?

Another unmatured impression: that part of the gap we’re thinking of would be met by a development and more up-to-date and adequate treatment of the sort of thing I used to do in the course I quit giving when I took Mitchell’s “Types” course:–more specifically, the second half-year where I dealt with the concepts of demand, supply and cost curves in an attempt to relate them to actual behavior. I adumbrated the possibility of treating the distinction between competition and monopoly in terms of slopes of “individual demand schedules” (before Chamberlin’s book). Had ‘em read Foster & Catchings to get the “Income-flow” approach, before Keynes’ books appeared. (I note Neisser of Penn. still finds use for F. & C. in teaching.) Suggested the discrepancy between saving and investment (without, I freely admit, seeing the significances that Keynes developed). And of course I had played with “multipliers”.

A course in which I ruthlessly condensed what used to be my first half-year into two or three lectures, and developed the other kind of material more adequately and systematically, might be considered, while we’re considering things.

Yours,

J. M. Clark

_____________________________________

 

January 13, 1942

Professor John Maurice Clark,
Fayerweather Hall.

Dear Maurice:

Many thanks for your note of January 9th. I am assuming that you have no objection to my showing it to Mitchell, Angell, and Goodrich.

Faithfully yours,

[R.M. Haig]

_____________________________________

January 13, 1942

Memorandum to Professors Angell, Goodrich and Mitchell
from Professor R. M. Haig:

You will be interested in the enclosed comments from Maurice Clark

_____________________________________

 

Source: Columbia University Libraries. Manuscript Collections. Columbiana. Department of Economics Collection. Faculty. Box 2. Folder “Department of Economics—Faculty Beginning January 1, 1944 (sic)”.

Image Source:  John Maurice Clark at The History of Economic Thought Website.

Categories
Harvard Syllabus

Harvard. Economics of Transportation. Chamberlin, 1931

______________________________

Every year from 1927/28 through 1931/32, Edward Chamberlin taught a semester-long course on the economics of transportation. He took over the course that had been previously taught by Professor William Zebina Ripley, who continued teaching the next semester course in the sequence on the economics of corporations. In the following year these two courses morphed into the full-year course “Monopolistic Industries and their Regulation” co-taught by Chamberlin and Edward S. Mason.

The final examination questions for 1932 have been transcribed for this course.

______________________________

 

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 4a 1hf. Asst. Professor Chamberlin.—Economics of Transportation.

Total: 149. 5 Graduates, 46 Seniors, 85 Juniors, 7 Sophomores, 6 Other.

 

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College and Reports of Departments, 1931-1932. p. 71.

______________________________

 

ECONOMICS 4a
1931-32

Lectures: Section Meetings:
Oct. 1-17 inclusive

Nov. 3-19 inclusive

Dec. 8-15 inclusive

Oct. 19-27 inclusive.

Nov. 20-Dec. 1 incl.

Dec. 16-22 inclusive

Assignments
Before Oct. 20

Chapter

Historical Sketch
Taussig—Principles of Economics

62, 63
Ripley—Railroads, Rates and Regulation

1
Ripley—Railroad Problems 

1,2

Rates
Jones—Principles of Railroad Transportation

4-9 inclusive
Jones and Vanderblue—Railroads, Cases & Selections

VIII

Traffic Geography
Jones and Vanderblue—Railroads, Cases & Selections

II
Daggett—Principles of Inland Transportation

8-14 inclusive

Finance
Jones

2, 16, 18
Jones and Vanderblue

XX, Section 1

Hour Examination October 29
Before Nov. 21

History of Regulation to 1917
Ripley—Railroads, Rates and Regulation

13-17 inclusive
Jones

14
Sharfman—American Railroad Problem

pp. 51-64

Federal Operation During the War
Sharfman

3, 4, 5
 

Nationalization
Sharfman

6

The Act of 1920
Sharfman

pp. 347-357
Sharfman

11

Valuation
Jones

15
Jones and Vanderblue

IV

Motor Truck Transport
Daggett

6, 34
Peterson—“Motor Carrier Regulation and Its Economic Basis”—Quarterly Journal of Economics—Aug. 1929

Inland Water Transport
Daggett

2, 33

Hour Examination December 3
Before Dec. 17

Consolidation
Jones

17
Daggett

22, 23, 24
Jones and Vanderblue

XXIV Sections 1 and 2
Foreign Experience
Daggett

30, 31

 

Reading Period

Read one of the following:

  1. Rates

Vanderblue and Burgess—Railroads, Rates, Service, Management. Chs. 5-12 inclusive.
Clark—Economics of Overhead Costs. Chs. 13, 14

  1. Valuation

Glaeser—Outlines of Public Utility Economics. Chs. 14, 19, 21. 
I.C.C. Finance Docket #3908 (O’Fallon Case)
Sup. Ct. Opinion #131, 132. October, 1928.

  1. Waterways

Moulton—St. Lawrence Navigation and Power Project. pp. 1-240
Journal of Political Economy—Feb. 1930, pp. 86-107; June 1930, pp. 345-353
Moulton—Waterways vs. Railways. Chs. 2, 3, 20.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1931-1932”.

Image Source:  Edward Chamberlin, Harvard Class Album 1932.

Categories
Chicago Fields Regulations

Chicago. Doctoral Field Exams Schedule for the Friedmans, Stigler, Wallis. 1935

Milton Friedman, Rose Friedman née Director, George Stigler, and W. Allen Wallis all took some of their doctoral field examinations at the University of Chicago in the Spring Quarter of 1935. The names of the examiners and the other examinees can be seen from the mimeographed page I found in George Stigler’s papers at the University of Chicago Archives. I have included in this post the field examination requirements for doctoral students in economics from the annual Announcements published for the 1934-35 academic year.

______________________

 Three Field Examinations for Doctorate

“The candidate is expected to have general training in the important fields listed below and to specialize in three fields, one of which must be Economic Theory, including Monetary and Cycle Theory, and another must be the field of his thesis. The fields to be chosen (in addition to Economic Theory) may be taken from (1) Statistics; (2) Accounting; (3) Economic History; (4) Finance and Financial Administration; (5) Government Finance; (6) Labor and Personnel Administration; (7) Trusts and Public Utilities; (8) International Economic Relations; (9) some other field proposed by the candidate. A field proposed by the candidate may be in Economics or in another social science, the arrangement in either case being made with the Department of Economics. It is desired to develop that program of work which best meets the needs of the individual student. This usually involves the election of some courses in other departments and possibly the development of a field in another social science as a substitute for one of the fields in economics.

“The candidate’s grasp of his three fields of specialization is tested by preliminary written examinations which must be passed to the satisfaction of the Department before admission to candidacy. The final oral examination is on the field of concentration and on the thesis. The written examinations can be taken in one quarter or they can be divided between two quarters, not necessarily consecutive quarters, at the option of the candidate. The written examinations are given in the sixth, seventh, and eighth weeks of the Autumn, Spring, and Summer quarters. The written examination in general economic theory, including monetary and cycle theory, is in two parts and will require five hours in all. The written examination in each of the other fields requires from three to four hours. Notice of intention to take any written examination must be filed with the Department at least three weeks before the examinations begin. In written examinations for the doctorate the questions cover both the theoretical and administrative aspects of the field.”

 

Source: Announcements. The University of Chicago. The College and the Divisions for the Sessions of 1934-35, pp. 283-4.

______________________

 

DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

SCHEDULE FOR PRELIMINARY EXAMINATIONS FOR THE DOCTORATE

Spring Quarter, 1935

The schedule below shows the preliminary examinations requested for the current quarter. Will the Chairman of each Committee please be responsible for turning in the complete examination by at least one week before the date on which it is to be given?

Dates Examinations Committees Students Enrolled
Saturday, May 11
8:30, S.S.R. 417		 Economic Theory
(New Plan)		 Viner, Chairman
Schultz
Yntema
Knight		 Friedman, M.
Shohan, C.J.
Stigler, G.J. (Brookings)
Wallis, W.A.
1:30, S.S.R. 417 Monetary and Cycle Theory Mints
Cox
Saturday, May 18
8:30, S.S.R. 417		 Financial System and Financial Administration Mints, Chairman
Cox
Meech
Gideonse		 Curtis, C.H.
Shohan, C.J.
Saturday, May 18
8:30, S.S.R. 417		 Government Finance Leland, Chairman
Simons		 Stigler, G.J. (Brookings)
Saturday, May 18
8:30, S.S.R. 417		 Statistics Schultz, Chairman
Cover
Yntema		 Director, R.
Friedman, M.
Jacoby, N.H. (Springfield)
Saturday, May 25
8:30, S.S.R. 417		 Economic History Wright, Chairman
Nef
Knight		 Ostrander, F.T. (Williams)
Shohan, C.J.

 

Source: University of Chicago Archives, George Stigler Papers Addenda, Box 33, Folder “1935 Univ. of Chicago, Class Notes (Gray binder)”.

Image Source: Rose and Milton Friedman. From The Prodos Blog.

 

Categories
Uncategorized

Swarthmore. Economic Theory Honors Exam Questions by Samuelson. 1943

____________________________________

Harvard economics alumnus Wolfgang Stolper (Ph.D. 1938)  was able to leverage his friendships and connections from graduate school to obtain a flow of external examiners for Swarthmore College’s honors examinations in economics. For today’s post I have transcribed the examination questions in economic theory provided by Paul Samuelson.

I find particularly interesting the early use by Samuelson of the term “neoclassical synthesis” under which he grouped “Marshall, Walras, Wicksell, Cassel or the Austrians” and that he considered distinct from the later synthesis of “orthodox economic thought” by Hicks.

I have also attached to this post a most delightful artifact, Paul Samuelson’s remembrance sent to the seventieth birthday celebration for James Tobin’s wife, Elizabeth (a.k.a. Bess, Betty) Ringo, who had been a graduate student of Samuelson’s at M.I.T. after having been one of his (probably January) examinees that year at Swarthmore.

____________________________________

Samuelson’s Remembrance of Being a Swarthmore External Examiner

“Success has a thousand fathers. Failure is an orphan.” John F. Kennedy said that, and so before him did Mussolinis son-in-law. I claim some credit for bringing Bess Ringo to Cambridge and into Jim Tobin’s orbit.

It was Wolfi Stolper who persuaded me to be an external Swarthmore examiner. I never worked a harder weekend. Janet Goodrich and John Chapman, Peter and Freddie Kuh, Bess, and many more were part of that intense honors group. Even the faculty lobbied our Olympian outside group.

No good deed goes unrewarded. My booty from the countryside was Ringo’s promise to come to MIT’s new graduate program in economics, which was starved for draft-proof students. Nuns cannot be trusted except in pairs and to Betty’s indignation we admitted a female from Hunter College to be her buddy.

The rest is history.

Blessed history—for Betty and Jim and theirs have enriched the lives of us happy many.

[signed] Paul Samuelson

Paul Samuelson (and, by proxy, Marion Crawford Samuelson)

1 August 1992

 

Source: Duke University, Rubenstein Library. Papers of Paul A. Samuelson, Box 73, Folder “Tobin, James”

____________________________________

 

SWARTHMORE COLLEGE
1943
Department of Economics

 

Honors Examination                       Division of the
Thursday, January 28                     Social Sciences

ECONOMIC THEORY

Examiner: Professor Paul A. Samuelson
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Answer one question from each of four sections.

Section I

Write an hour essay on one of the following subjects.

  1. The use of a pricing system in a completely planned and socialized society.
  2. The difficulties faced in the classification of monopoly and competition, with a provisional, constructive solution of them.
  3. The significant meanings of the term “exploitation of a factor of production.”
  4. The marginal productivity theory and its difficulties.
  5. The relationship between firms and industry, between cost and supply, in the long and in the short run.
  6. Conflicting views as to the true nature of profit.

Section II

  1. Discuss price determination and allocation of supply between more than one market, under simple and discriminating
  2. “Edgeworth is wrong when he says that Giffen’s Paradox, positively inclined demand curve, is highly unrealistic and not to be found in practice. I have often observed that poor people eat more bread and potatoes than the wealthy, precisely because their income is less.” (Marshall) Comment upon this quotation bringing out the analytical point at issue.
  3. Why is it said that price is indeterminate under oligopoly and duopoly?
  4. Why has the Marshallian concept of consumer’s surplus been under attack? What did it attempt to do and under what conditions was it valid?

Section III

  1. “It is illogical that the Keynesians should speak of a future possibility of inadequate investment relative to saving since they insist on the necessary equality of these magnitudes.” Examine the issue raised here, making reference to other schools of thought. If you dare, attempt a synthesis of divergent theories and definitions.
  2. “Labor is like any other commodity. If its supply is excessive relative to its demand, lower its price and you will clear the market.” Comment.
  3. “I deny the very existence of a business cycle, and challenge anyone to produce evidence of its reality.” Meet this challenge.
  4. “The business cycle is monetary in origin, being nothing more than the ‘dance of the dollar’.” Comment.
  5. “The interest rate is a purely monetary phenomenon.” Comment.

Section IV

  1. Discuss the revolution in population outlook after World War I, and the economic problems raised.
  2. Will our major post-war problem be that of controlling a boom or combating a depression? Defend your stand.
  3. Disillusioned with monetary controls, governments have turned to fiscal policy to combat the business cycle. Give reasons and implications.
  4. When we have solved the problem of unemployed resources, there will arise the necessity to allocate resources in their optimal What are the criteria by which correct decisions are made in this sphere, and how is the perfection of competition involved?

____________________________________

 

Professor Paul A. Samuelson
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

SWARTHMORE COLLEGE

            Honors Examination                        May 19, 1943                       Division of the
Department of Economics               Social Sciences

 

ECONOMIC THEORY

Answer one question from each of four sections.

Section I

Write an hour essay on one of the following subjects.

  1. The relationship between firms and industry, between cost and supply, in the long and in the short run, under perfect and imperfect competition.
  2. The scope and method of economics.
  3. We have had at last four syntheses of orthodox economic thought: (a) that of Smith; (b) that of John Stuart Mill; (c) the neo-classical synthesis (Marshall, Walras, Wicksell, Cassel or the Austrians); (d) Hicks. Write a critical contrast of at least two of these.

Section II

  1. Discuss discriminatingly the multitude of meanings of the term “excess capacity.”
  2. What bearing does the use of indifference curves have upon
    1. the problem of the measurability of utility
    2. the definition of complementarity, independence, competitiveness; joint demand and substitutability
    3. Giffen’s paradox and “inferior” goods?
  3. “Since each worker is paid the productivity of the last worker, (marginal productivity), a really smart and unscrupulous employer would hire so many workers as to cause the wage to be zero, or at least only enough above zero to support a physiological minimum of existence.” Comment.

Section III

  1. “Everybody talks about the disparity between saving and investment, but nobody attempts to measure it.” Discuss the theoretical and statistical problems involved here.
  2. “There is an inherent instability in the banking system, and this gives rise to the business cycle which is essentially ‘the dance of the dollar.’” Analyze.
  3. Describe the “multiplier doctrine,” its fields of application, its validity and shortcomings.

Section IV

  1. Weigh the arguments for and against secular stagnation.
  2. Defend or attack the thesis that there will be a post-war boom. Give your characterization of the post-war economy.
  3. “The business cycle is a misnomer; it is a question of many cycles not of one.” Discuss the historical, statistical, and theoretical issues raised by this statement.
  4. Describe the cyclical behavior and importance of
    1. the building industry or
    2. consumers credit and installment institutions.

 

Source: Duke University, Rubenstein Library. Papers of Wolfgang Stolper, Box 22, Folder1.

Image Source: Elizabeth Fay Ringo from Swarthmore’s Halcyon 1943. Paul Samuelson (1940) from M.I.T. Memorial.

Categories
Chicago Economists Exam Questions

Chicago. Price and Distribution Theory. Taught by Viner and attended by Samuelson, 1935.

The graduate economics course at the University of Chicago “Price and Distribution Theory” as taught by Jacob Viner was often referred to by Paul Samuelson. From the Paul A. Samuelson papers at Duke University we have a copy of the examination questions for that course together with a copy of Jacob Viner’s evaluation of his “with one possible exception, the most promising undergraduate I have ever encountered since I began teaching some twenty years ago”. Any clues as to who might have claimed the status of the “one possible exception”? Viner’s cover note to Samuelson and the latter’s gracious response are included for the sake of completeness.

I have already posted the reading list for the 1932 vintage of the course.

___________________________________

Course Description

[Economics] 301. Price and Distribution Theory.—A study of the general body of economic thought which centers about the theory of value and distribution and is regarded as “orthodox theory,” including the critical examination of some modern systems of this character. Prerequisite: Economics 209 or its equivalent and the Bachelor’s degree. Summer, 9:00 Knight; Winter, 10:00, Viner.

 

Source: Announcements. The University of Chicago. The College and the Divisions for the Sessions of 1934-35, p. 286. (Note the 1936-37 course description Announcements is identical to that of 1934-35, so we can assume the course announcement in the 1935-36 Announcements would too.)

___________________________________

 

[Samuelson’s handwritten note and the copy of the 1935 examination for Economics 301]

My Final Exam for Viner’s famous course. Only 3(a) caused me trouble (no wonder!)
PAS 6/30/72

Examination in Economics 301
Winter Quarter, 1935-

  1. Discuss the relationship of marginal cost to prices:
    1. under short-run competitive equilibrium;
    2. under long-run competitive equilibrium

when (1) the industry is subject to external diseconomies of large production; (2) the industry operates under conditions of constant cost.

  1. In order that an industry shall operate at constant costs as its output is varied, what conditions must hold as to:
    1. the definition of “industry”;
    2. the supply curves, general and partial, of the factors used by that industry;
    3. the mode of operation of the law of diminishing returns in that industry;
    4. the presence or absence of internal diseconomies of large-scale firms in that industry;
    5. the size of the changes in output?
  2. Comment briefly on the following statements:
    1. “If labor has effective occupational mobility, the prices of all commodities under competitive conditions will tend to equal their marginal labor costs.”
    2. “Labor is paid out of current product, and if advances are made, they are made by laborer to employer, rather than vice versa.”
    3. “Saving is necessary only in an expanding economy. No one need wait for the product of his labor or property in a stationary economy.”
    4. “Any increase in investment lengthens the production period, and the production period cannot be lengthened unless more investment takes place.”

___________________________________

 

Jacob Viner’s Handwritten Note to Paul Samuelson, 1963

Jacob Viner
13 Newlin Road
Princeton, New Jersey

Aug. 7, 1963

Dear Paul,

I have just run across my carbon copy of a 1935 appraisal of you by me and am sending you a reproduction of it not to raise your ego but to raise mine. I recall your report at Pittsburg of a less perspicacious appraisal of about the same period by Paul Douglas. In this instance at least I showed skill apparently as a forecaster.

Cordially yours,
Jack

___________________________________

 

Jacob Viner’s Recommendation for Paul Samuelson to SSRC, 1935

The Social Science Research Council
230 Park Avenue
New York City

Mr. Paul A. Samuelson, although an undergraduate, did distinctly better work than any other member of my graduate course in Economic Theory during the past Quarter. He is a sober, careful and extremely able student, equipped with extensive mathematical technique, zealous, original and independent, without the belligerence and the arrogance that so often marks young men with keen minds and the knowledge that they are superior in mental capacity to their classmates. Mr. Samuelson shows all the signs of having it in him to become a very distinguished economic theorist, and is, with one possible exception, the most promising undergraduate I have ever encountered since I began teaching some twenty years ago. I have only known him for some four months, but I do not think that this is a too hasty judgment.

Jacob Viner
Professor of Economics
Chicago, Illinois

April 15, 1935
University of Chicago

___________________________________

 

Paul Samuelson’s response to Jacob Viner, 1963
Carbon copy

August 23, 1963

Dear Jack:

I had to be flattered by your August 19 note and the enclosed carbon of your 1935 evaluation of me. I feel as proud of that young man as if he had been my son and prouder still after your early discernment of his “growth-stock” potential.

Your 1935 graduate course certainly stimulated me. It sent me to Harvard well-prepared—over-prepared some of my teachers may have thought!

Last June I basked in the reflected glory of your Harvard degree.

Our love to Frances,

___________________________________

 

Source: Duke University.   Rubenstein Library. Paul A. Samuelson Papers, Box 74, Folder “Viner, Jacob (corresp) 1935-1990”.

Image Source: University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf1-08490, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

 

Categories
Economic History Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Economic History of Europe Since 1800. Edmund E. Lincoln, 1920.

_____________________

This post provides a transcription of over thirty printed pages from the List of References in Economics 2 at Harvard published in 1920 by Edmund Earle Lincoln (1888-1958). These pages include all the bibliographic references for the first semester course “Economic History of Europe since 1800” along with an introductory note and a short list of titles recommended for students who wish to build a personal library in European and U.S. economic history. The final examination questions and a course description have also been transcribed. The list of references for Economics 2b, “Economic History of the United States” will be posted sometime in the near future.

Edmund Earle Lincoln was born February 5, 1888 in McCook, Nebraska. He received an A.B. from Ohio Wesleyan in 1909; a B.A. from Oxford in 1910; M. A. from Oxford in 1914; Ph.D. from Harvard in 1917 with the thesis, “The Results of Municipal Electric Lighting in Massachusetts.” He was appointed Instructor in Economics and Tutor at Harvard in 1915 (where he stayed at least until the 1920 U.S. Census). As of the 1930 U.S. Census Lincoln worked as an executive with International Telephone & Telegraph Co. in New York City. From 1931 to his retirement in 1953 Lincoln was an economist with E. I. Du Pont Nemours & Co. He died May 15, 1958 in Wilmington, Delaware.

Apparently his 1950 published translation of Dangers of Inflation: An Address by Pierre Samuel du Pont, 1790, is still available from the Harvard Business School for $20 as Kress Collection Publication No. 7.

_____________________

Economics 2: Course Enrollment, 1920-21

[Economics] 2a 1hf. Dr. E. E. Lincoln, assisted by Mr. Hyde.–European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century

Total 70: 18 Graduates, 8 Seniors, 17 Juniors, 11 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 15 Others.

[Economics] 2b 2hf. Dr. E. E. Lincoln, assisted by Mr. Hyde.–Economic History of the United States.

Total: 148: 13 Graduates, 34 Seniors, 47 Juniors, 26 Sophomores, 3 Freshmen, 25 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Reports of the President and the Treasurer of Harvard College 1920-21, p. 95.

_____________________

LIST OF REFERENCES IN ECONOMICS 2
ECONOMIC HISTORY OF EUROPE SINCE 1800,
AND OF THE UNITED STATES

Revised, Enlarged, and Rearranged

CAMBRIDGE, MASS.
PUBLISHED BY HARVARD UNIVERSITY
1920

 

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

The following list of readings is a rearrangement, revision and extension of the references originally prepared by Professor E. F. Gay for use in connection with the courses in European and American Economic History at Harvard College. The changes and additions have been such as to make this practically a new list. It in no way purports to be a complete bibliography of the subject, nor is it necessarily definitive in form. It is intended simply to serve as a guide to reading on the topics of the course, especially on those subjects which are not covered by the lectures, and should prove particularly useful to graduate students who wish to pursue their studies independently.

The aim has been to include only the more authoritative readings on a given topic, though on such questions as are admittedly mooted an attempt is made to cite the more representative writers on either side. Occasionally, also, in lieu of any work treating of a given subject in a more satisfactory manner, books have been listed of which the compiler thoroughly disapproves. In such cases, however, there are good reasons for the inclusion: As the list is itself a careful selection, it does not seem necessary for present purposes to add critical comments on the various authors.

Each section (indicated by Roman numerals) maps out a week’s work. The required reading for the present year (tested by means of fortnightly papers) is marked with an asterisk. There has, however, been such an arrangement of topics that the requirements can readily be varied from year to year. The bibliographies cited at the end of each section give further references on the topics under discussion; they are also useful as starting points in the thesis work of the course.

Edmond E. Lincoln, M.A. (Oxon), Ph.D.

 

SUGGESTIONS TO STUDENTS

Although no text-books are required in the course, most of the books in which reading is assigned are recommended for purchase by those who wish to start a library on the subject, and the following titles are suggested for those who desire to purchase a few inexpensive and rather general but thoroughly useful books:

Economics 2a
(European Economic History in the last century.)

Ashley, P., Modern Tariff History (ed. 1910).

Ashley, W. J., Economic Organization of England.

Ashley, W. J., British Industries.

Barker, J. Ellis, Economic Statesmanship (ed. 1920).

Dawson, W. H., The Evolution of Modern Germany.

Day, Clive, History of Commerce. (Useful also in Economics 2b. Good bibliography.)

Hobson, J. A., Evolution of Modern Capitalism.

Marshall, A., Industry and Trade.

Morley, Life of Cobden.

Ogg, Economic Development of Modern Europe. (Bibliography at end of each chapter.)

Perris, G. H., The Industrial History of Modern England.

Prothero, R. E., English Farming, Past and Present.

Raper, Railroad Transportation. (Useful also in Economics 2b.)

Robinson, E. van D., Commercial Geography; or Smith, J. R. Commerce and Industry. (Useful also in Economics 2b.)

Toynbee, Industrial Revolution.

Usher, A. P., Introduction to the Industrial History of England.

Wallace, D. M., Russia (ed. 1912).

 

Economics 2b
(Economic History of the United States.)

Bishop and Keller, Industry and Trade.

Bogart, Economic History of the United States. (“Selected Readings” by Bogart and Thompson is also useful.)

Callender, Economic History of the United States. (Selected readings before 1860.)

Dewey, Financial History of the United States. (Bibliography.)

Jenks and Clark, The Trust Problem.

Johnson and Van Metre, Principles of Railroad Transportation.

Noyes, Forty Years of American Finance.

Taussig, Some Aspects of the Tariff Question.

Taussig, Tariff History (ed. 1914).

 

General Bibliographical Aids in Thesis Writing

American Economic Review (Contains conveniently classified lists of recent books and magazine articles from 1911 to date. Earlier lists are to be found in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1886-1907, and the Economic Bulletin, 1908-1911.

Catalogue of Parliamentary Papers, 1801-1900; and Decennial Supplement, 1901-1910.

Encyclopaedia Britannica (11th ed.), Bibliographies.

Harvard College Library, Subject Catalogue by names of countries.

Library of Congress, Bibliographies on special topics.

Poole’s Index of Periodical Literature.

Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature (1900-).

University of Chicago, Bibliography of Economics.

_____________________

ECONOMICS 2a
FIRST HALF-YEAR

ECONOMIC HISTORY OF EUROPE SINCE 1800

SUGGESTIONS TO STUDENTS AND AIDS TO THESIS WORK IN ECONOMICS 2a

 

Official Publications

Annuaire Statistique.

Berichte über Handel und Industrie.

Parliamentary Papers, particularly Commercial Reports (annual); Statistical Abstract of Foreign Countries.

Statistisches Jahrbuch.

U. S. Dept. Commerce and Labor, Bureau of Statistics, Statistical Abstract of Foreign Countries (1909).

U. S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, Consular Reports (formerly published by the State Department); Special Agent’s Series, and Bulletins.

 

Periodicals

Annual Register.

Archiv für Socialwissenschaft und Socialpolitik.

Bankers’ Magazine (London).

Economic Journal.

Journal des Économistes.

Journal of the Royal Statistical Society.

London Economist. (A weekly financial paper, well indexed, with valuable information on commercial and industrial subjects.)

London Times, with Russian and South American Supplements.

Revue d’ Économie Politique.

Schriften des Vereins fur Socialpolitik.

 

Encyclopedias, Yearbooks, Dictionaries, etc.

Bartholomew, J. G., Atlas of the World’s Commerce.

Dictionary of National Biography.

Encyclopaedia Britannica (11th ed.).

Handwörterbuch der Staatswissenschaft.

Jahrbücher fur Nationalökonomie.

McCulloch, Commercial Dictionary (ed. 1856).

Palgrave, Dictionary of Political Economy (including 1909 supplement).

Statesman’s Year-Book.

Wörterbuch der Volkswirtschaft (ed. Elster).

 

General Books

Bland, Brown, and Tawney, English Economic History: Select Documents.

Cunningham, Growth of English Industry and Commerce, Part 2, Vols. II, III. (A carefully arranged, exhaustive bibliography at the end of Vol. III.)

Dawson, Evolution of Modern Germany.

Day, History of Commerce. (Useful bibliography with each chapter.)

Levasseur, Histoire des Classes Ouvrières en France depuis 1789; Questions Ouvrières et Industriélles en France sous la Troisième République.

Levi, L., History of British Commerce, 1763-1878.

Macpherson, D., Annals of Commerce, Vol. IV.

Mavor, Economic History of Russia.

Page, Commerce and Industry. (Based on Hansard’s Debates. Vol. II,’ ‘Tables of Statistics for the British Empire from 1815,” is useful.

Porter, Progress of the Nation. (Hirst edition, 1912. Contains some interesting data for Great Britain.)

Smart, Economic Annals of the Nineteenth Century, Vols. I and II, 1801-1830. (A convenient digest of economic materials in annuals and official publications of the time.)

Smith, J. R., Industrial and Commercial Geography.

Sombart, Die deutsche Volkswirtschaft im Neunzehnten Jahrhundert.

Traill, ed., Social England. (Includes contributions by leading authorities on economics and economic history. Vols. V, VI cover the period of this course. Useful bibliography with each chapter.)

Wallace. D. M., Russia (ed. 1912. Still probably the best general book on Russian economic conditions.)

Webb, Trade Unionism (ed. 1911); Industrial Democracy. (These two volumes contain the best bibliographies on English labor problems.)

Williams, J. B., Guide to English Social History, 1750-1850. (Contains some useful though frequently inaccurate bibliographies.)

 

Text-Books

Economic histories of England are legion. Among these may be mentioned the following:

Perris, G. H., The Industrial History of Modern England (covers the period of this course); Rogers, J. E. T., Industrial and Commercial History of England; Tickner, Social and Industrial History of England; Usher, Introduction to the Industrial History of England; Warner, G. T., Landmarks in English Industrial History.

Probably Dawson’s Evolution of Modern Germany and Wallace’s Russia are the most satisfactory books on these countries. Russia: Its Trade and Commerce, by Raffalovich, is a useful recent book on Russia. For more general reading, Ogg’s Economic Development of Modern Europe covers parts of the field of this course and has some useful bibliographies at the end of each chapter. Rand’s Economic History since 1763 (a collection of readings) is still of some service.

Slater, G., Making of Modern England, and Hayes, C. J. H., Political and Social History of Modern Europe, attempt to link up political and economic development.

_____________________

Required reading is indicated by an asterisk (*). Large Roman numerals indicate volumes; Arabic numerals pages. References in brackets [ ] are recommended but not required.

 

I. THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

General Reading

*Hobson, Evolution of Modern Capitalism (ed. 1902), 10-82, or ed. 1910 and 1917, 30-102.

*Toynbee, Industrial Revolution (ed. 1908), 22-96.

Ashley, Economic Organization of England, 140-172.

Bücher, Industrial Evolution, 150-184, 282-314.

Cheyney, Readings in English History, 610-616.

Cunningham, Growth of English Industry and Commerce, III, 620-668.

Lewinski, L’Évolution Industrielle de la Belgique.

Mantoux, Révolution Industrielle, 179-502.

Rappard, La Révolution Industrielle en Suisse.

Traill, ed., Social England, V, 301-357.

Veblen, Imperial Germany and the Industrial Revolution, 168-270.

Wood, H. T., Industrial England in the Middle of the Eighteenth Century.

 

The Factory System

Bland, Brown, and Tawney, English Economic History: Select Documents, 545-643.

Engels, Condition of the Working Classes in 1844.

Hutchins and Harrison, History of Factory Legislation (ed. 1911), 1-42.

Marx, Das Capital, Vol. I, passim.

Cooke-Taylor, The Modern Factory System, 44-225.

Villermé, L’État Physique et Moral des Ouvriers.

Wallas, Life of Francis Place, 197-240.

Webb, History of Trade Unionism, 24-101.

Woolen Report of 1806; reprinted in Bullock, Selected Readings in Economics, 114-124.

 

Introduction of Textile Machinery

Babbage, The Economy of Machinery and Manufactures.

Chapman, The Lancashire Cotton Industry, 1-112.

Clapham, “Transference of the Worsted Industry,”Economic Journal, XX, 195-210.

Guest, R., Compendious History of the Cotton Manufacture (1823).

Radcliffe, W., Origin of the New System of Manufacture (1828).

Walpole, “The Great Inventions,” in History of England, I, 50-76; reprinted in Bullock, 125-145, and Rand, Selections illustrating Economic History, ch. ii.

 

Bibliographies

Cannon, References for English History, 399-400.

Cunningham, III, 944-946, 990-996.

Hunt, W., Political History of England, 1760-1801 (Hunt and Poole Series, X), 468-469.

Traill, ed., Social England, V, 364-365, 627.

 

II. AGRARIAN MOVEMENT — CONTINENT

Germany

*Dawson, Evolution of Modern Germany, 255-294.

*Morier, “Agrarian Legislation of Prussia,” in Probyn, Land Tenure in Various Countries, 267-275; also in Rand, 98-108.

*Seeley, Life and Times of Stein, I, 287-297; in Rand, 86-98.

Brentano, “Agrarian Reform in Prussia,” Econ. Jour., VII, 1-20 (March, 1897).

Knapp, Bauernbefreiung in Preussen.

Preuss, Die wirtschaftliche und soziale Bedeutung der Stein-Hardenbergschen Reform.

Probyn, ed., Land Tenure in Various Countries, 243-287.

Von der Goltz, Agrarwesen und Agrarpolitik, 40-50; also Geschichte der deutschen Landwirtschaft.

 

France

*Dumas, “French Land System,” Econ. Jour., XIX, 32-50 (March, 1909).

*Von Sybel, French Revolution, in Rand, Selections, 55-85.

Cliffe Leslie, The Land System of France, in Carver’s Selected Readings in Rural Economics, 410-432.

De Foville, Le Morcellement, 52-89.

Flour de St. Genis, La Propriété Rurale, 80-164.

Levasseur, Histoire des Classes Ouvrières (ed. 1867), 23-42.

Young, A., Travels in France.

 

Other Countries

Chlapowski, Belgische Landwirtschaft.

Faucher, J., Russian Agrarian Legislation of 1861, in Probyn, Land Tenure in Various Countries, 309-346.

Laveleye, Économie Rurale de la Belgique.

Leroy-Beaulieu, The Empire of the Czars, I, 403-580; II, 1-57.

Mavor, Economic History of Russia, I.

Schulze-Gaevernitz, Volkswirtschaftliche Studien aus Russland, 308-383.

Simkhovitch, Feldgemeinschaft in Russland.

 

Bibliographies

Cambridge Modern History, X, 795, 884, 886.

Lavisse et Rambaud, Histoire Générale, IX, 417, 622; X, 472.

 

III. AGRARIAN MOVEMENT — ENGLAND

General Agricultural Conditions

*Prothero, R. E., English Farming Past and Present, 148-189, 207-252, 290-315.

Caird, English Agriculture in 1850, 473-528.

Curtler, Short History of English Agriculture, 190-270.

Garnier, English Landed Interests.

Levy, H., Large and Small Holdings (1911 transl.), 3-54.

Levy, Entstehung und Rückgang des landwirtschaftlichen Grossbetriebs in England.

Parliamentary Reports: 1816, Committee on Mendicity and Vagrancy; 1821, IX, Committee on Agriculture; 1822, V, Committee on Agricultural Distress.

Smart, Economic Annals of the Nineteenth Century, 1801-20, chs. vi, xx, xxii.; 1821-30, chs. i, v, x, xii.

Young, A., Tour through the Southern Counties (1768).

 

The Small Holder

Broderick, English Land and English Landlords, 65-240.

Colman, European Agriculture (2d ed.), I, 10-109, 133-174.

Green, F. E., The Small Holding.

Hasbach, History of the English Agricultural Labourer, 71-147.

Johnson, A. H., Disappearance of the Small Land Holder in England, 7-17, 107-164.

Prothero, R. E., English Farming, Past and Present, 190-206.

Taylor, Decline of the Land-owning Farmers in England, 1-61.

 

Bibliographies

Cambridge Modern History, X, 884-885.

Garnier, English Landed Interests, II, 536, 553.

Levy, H., Large and Small Holdings, 230-235.

Traill, ed., Social England, V, 513; VI, 110.

 

III. AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION AND RECENT AGRARIAN HISTORY

England and Ireland

*Prothero, R. E., English Farming Past and Present, 316-331, 346-418.

Adams, “Small Holding in the United Kingdom,” Roy. Stat. Soc. Jour., 1907, 412-437.

Arch, Autobiography, 65-144, 300-345.

Barker, E., Ireland in the Last Fifty Years, 69-141.

Bastable, “Economic Movement in Ireland,” Econ. Jour., XI, 31-42.

Besse, P., L’Agriculture en Angleterre de 1875 à nos jours.

Caird, in Ward, Reign of Queen Victoria, II, 129-153.

Caird, English Agriculture in 1850.

Curtler, Short History of English Agriculture, 271-322.

Curtis, C. E., and Gordon, Handbook upon Agricultural Tenancies.

Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland, Report on Agricultural Credit in Ireland (1915).

Gray, H. L., War Time Control of Industry, 249-269, “Agriculture.”

Green, F. E., History of the English Agricultural Labourer, 1870-1920.

Haggard, Rural England, II, 536-576.

Hasbach, English Agricultural Labourer, 274-353.

Herrick, M. T., Rural Credits, 148-160.

Levy, H., Large and Small Holdings, 55-213.

Parliamentary Tariff Commission, III, Report of the Agricultural Committee, 1906.

Plunkett, Ireland in the New Century (ed. 1905), 175-209.

Royal Commission of 1897, Report on Agricultural Depression, 6-87.

Thompson, “Rent of Agricultural Land in England and Wales,” Roy. Stat. Soc. Jour., 1907, 587-611.

Turner, E. R., Ireland and England, 188-225.

 

Other Countries

Brentano, Die deutschen Getreidezölle (ed. 1911).

Chlapowski, Belgische Landwirtschaft.

Dawson, Evolution of Modern Germany, 226-293.

Ely, R. T., “Russian Land Reform,” Am. Econ. Rev., VI, 61-68.

Goulier, Commerce du Blé en France.

Haggard, Rural Denmark and its Lessons.

Herrick, M. T., Rural Credits, 34-147, 161-186.

Imbart de la Tour, Le Crise Agricole, 24-34, 127-223.

King and Okey, Italy To-day, 156-192.

Mavor, Economic History of Russia, II, 251-357.

Méline, J., Return to the Land, 83-144, 185-240.

Morman, J. B., Principles of Rural Credits, 3-141.

Rowntree, Land and Labour, Lessons from Belgium.

Simkhovitch, “Agrarian Movement in Russia,” Yale Rev., XVI, 9-38.

Wallace, D. M., Russia.

 

Bibliographies

Besse, P., L’Agriculture en Angleterre.

Cambridge Modern History, XII, 856-862, 866-867, 872-873.

Levy, Large and Small Holdings, 235-242.

Traill, ed., Social England, VI, 452.

 

V. THE FREE TRADE MOVEMENT — ENGLAND

*Armitage-Smith, G., Free Trade and its Results, (ed. 1898), 39-60, 130-163.

*Morley, Life of Cobden, chs. vi, vii, xvi.

Ashworth, Recollections of Cobden and the League, 32-64, 296-392.

Cambridge Modern History, XI, 1-21.

Cheyney, Readings in English History, 702-716.

Cunningham, Rise and Decline of the Free Trade Movement, 27-99.

Curtler, Short History of English Agriculture, 271-293.

Day, History of Commerce, 354-372.

Levi, History of British Commerce, 218-227, 261-272, 292- 303; in Rand, 207-241.

McCulloch, J. R., Dictionary of Commerce (ed. 1850), 411-449, 1272-1289.

Mongredien, History of the Free Trade Movement.

Morley, Life of Gladstone, I, 247-303, 443-476; II, 18-69.

Nicholson, J. S., History of the English Corn Laws.

Northcote, Twenty Years of Financial Policy.

Parker, Sir Robert Peel from his Private Letters, II, 522-559; III, 220-252.

Parliamentary Reports: 1840, Committee on Import Duties; 1843-1845, Commission on the Health of Towns; 1842-1843, 1863-1868, Committees on Employment of Children, Young Persons, and Women in Mines, Manufactures, and Agriculture.

Prentice, History of the Anti-Corn Law League, I, 49-77.

Schulze-Gaevernitz, Britischer Imperialismus, 243-375.

Tooke, History of Prices, 1839-1847, V, 391-457.

Trevelyan, G. M., Life of John Bright, 45-153.

 

Bibliographies

Arnauné, Le Commerce Extérieur, 199-226, notes.

Cambridge Modern History, X, 868-870; XI, 869, 871-872.

Cannon, References for English History, 423-424.

Morley, Life of Cobden (ed. 1908), II, 495-504.

N. Y. State Library, Bulletin, May, 1902, “Bibliography of the Corn Laws.”

 

VI. TARIFF HISTORY — CONTINENT

General Reading

*Ashley, P., Modern Tariff History (ed. 1910), 3-73, 359-372.

Bastable, Commerce of Nations.

Day, History of Commerce, 342-352, 391-417.

Fisk, G. W., “Middle European Tariff Union” (Johns Hopkins Univ. Studies, November-December, 1902).

 

Germany

*Bowring, “Report on Prussian Commercial Union,” Parl. Doc., 1840, in Rand, Selections, 170-196.

Bigelow, P., German Struggle for Liberty, III, ch. 17.

Dawson, W. H., Protection in Germany.

Lang, Hundert Jahre Zollpolitik, 168-230.

Weber, W., Der Deutsche Zollverein.

Worms, L’Allemagne Économique, 57-393.

 

France

Amé, Les Tarifs de Douanes, I, 21-34, 219-316.

Arnauné, Le Commerce Extérieur et les Tarifs de Douane, 90-269.

Meredith, H. O., Protection in France.

Morley, Life of Cobden, ch. xxix.

Perigot, Histoire du Commerce Français, 77-185.

 

Bibliographies

Ashley, P., Modern Tariff History (ed. 1910), 165-166, 437-438.

Cambridge Modern History, X, 832; XI, 878.

Lavisse et Rambud, Histoire Générale, X, 472, 668.

 

VII. RECENT TARIFF HISTORY

Return to Protection; France and Germany

*U. S. Tariff Commission, Reciprocity and Commercial Treaties, 461-510.

Ashley, P., Modern Tariff History (ed. 1910), 80-121, 145-154, 373-436.

Arnauné, Le Commerce Extérieur, 247-350.

Dawson, Protection in Germany, 26-160.

Dijol, La France sous la Régime Protectionniste de 1892.

Meredith, Protection in France, 54-129.

Zimmermann, Deutsche Handelspolitik, 218-314.

 

English Controversy; Imperial Federation

*Ashley, W. J., Tariff Problem, 114-167.

Armitage-Smith, Free Trade Movement and its Results, 188-203.

Balfour, Economic Notes in Insular Free Trade, 1-32; Fiscal Reform, 71-95, 97-113, 266-280.

Caillard, V. H. P., Imperial Fiscal Reform.

Chamberlain, Imperial Union and Tariff Reform, 19-44.

Coates, G., Tariff Reform Employment and Imperial Unity.

Cunningham, Rise and Decline of the Free Trade Movement, 100-168.

Drage, G., Imperial Organization of Trade.

Marshall, Fiscal Policy of International Trade, 30-82.

Pigou, Protective and Preferential Import Duties, 1-117. (See also his Riddle of the Tariff, 1-107.)

Root, J. W., Trade Relations of British Empire.

Smart, Return to Protection, 27-44, 136-185.

Tariff Reform League, Speakers’ Handbook.

 

Bibliographies

U. S. Library of Congress, Foreign Tariffs (1906); British Tariff Movement (1904).

Cambridge Modern History, XI, 878, 969; XII, 872.

Lavisse et Rambaud, Histoire Générale, XII, 788.

 

VIII. COMMERCE AND SHIPPING

England

*Bowley, England’s Foreign Trade in the Nineteenth Century, (ed. 1905), 55-96, 141-147.

*Grosvenor, G. M., Government Aid to Merchant Shipping, 45-61, 75-86, 135-165.

Bourne, S., Trade, Population, and Food.

Cornewall-Jones, British Merchant Service, 252-260, 306-317.

Ginsburg,”British Shipping,” in Ashley, British Industries, 173-195.

Glover, “Tonnage Statistics of the Decade, 1891-1900,” Roy. Stat. Soc. Jour., 1902, 1-41.

Kirkaldy, British Shipping: its History, Organization, and Importance.

Lindsay, Merchant Shipping, IV.

Meeker, History of Shipping Subsidies, 1-67, 79-95.

Porter, Progress of the Nation (Hirst, ed.), 473-546.

Root, “British Shipping Subsidies,” Atlantic Monthly, LXXXV, 385-394 (1900).

Root, J. W., Trade Relations of the British Empire.

Smith, J. Russell, Influence of the Great War on Shipping, 153-184, 244-265.

Smith, J. R., The Ocean Carrier.

Taylor, “British Merchant Marine,” Forum, XXX, 463-477 (1900-1901).

U- S. Dept. of Commerce and Labor, Bureau of Statistics, Statistical Abstract of Foreign Countries (1909).

Ward, T. H., Reign of Queen Victoria, II, 111-118.

 

Other Countries

Arnauné, Le Commerce Extérieur, 425-460.

Austin, O. P., Effects of the War on World Trade and Industry.

Bracq, J. C., France under the Republic, ch. 3.

Charles-Roux, L’Isthme et le Canal de Suez, II, 287-339.

Dawson, Evolution of Modern Germany, 65-74.

Hauser, H., Germany’s Commercial Grip on the World.

Le Roux de Bretagne, Les Primes à la Marine Marchande, 93-224.

Marx, A., Französische Handelsgesetzgebung.

Snow, C. D., Germany’s Foreign Trade Organization (U. S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, miscellaneous series, no. 57).

Von Halle, Volks-und Seewirtschaft, 136-219.

 

Bibliographies

Cambridge Modern History, XII, 872-873.

Day, History of Commerce, 380, 398, 407-408, 417.

Lavisse et Rambaud, Histoire Générale, X, 472.

Van der Borght, Handel und Handelspolitik.

 

IX. TRANSPORTATION — PRIVATE OWNERSHIP

*Cunningham, W. J., “Characteristics of British Railways,” New Eng. R.R. Club, 8-60.

*Hadley, Railroad Transportation, 187-202.

*Raper, Railway Transportation, 14-60.

 

General Reading

Hendrick, Railway Control by Commissions, chs. ii, vii.

Johnson, American Railway Transportation, 322-334.

Parliamentary Papers, Reports of Board of Trade Railway Conference: 1909, Germany, Austria, and Hungary; 1910, Belgium, France, and Italy.

Sterne, “Railway Systems in Europe,” U. S. Sen. Misc. Doc., 66, II, 1886-1887.

U. S. Industrial Commission, Report, IX, 946-949, 955-957.

 

England

Acworth, Railways of England, 1-56.

Acworth, Elements of Railway Economics, 61-74, 131-159.

Cohn, G., Englische Eisenbahnpolitik.

Dixon, F. H., and Parmelee, War Administration of the Railroads in the United States and Great Britain, 71-127.

Edwards, “Railways and the Trade of Great Britain,” Roy. Stat. Soc. Jour., 1908, 102-131.

Evans, A. D., “British Railways and Goods Traffic,” Econ. Jour., 1905, 37-46.

Forbes and Ashford, Our Waterways, 107-177, 215-252.

Francis, J., History of the English Railway.

Gordon, W. J., Our Railways.

Gray, H. L., War Time Control of Industry, 1-13, “The Railways.”

Grindling, “British Railways as Business Enterprises,” in Ashley, British Industries, 151-172.

Jackman, W. T., The Development of Transportation in Modern England, particularly II.

Johnson and Van Metre, Principles of Railroad Transportation, 385-414.

McDermott, Railways, 1-149.

McLean, “English Railway and Canal Commission of 1888,” Quar. Jour. Econ., XX, 1-55 (1905); also in Ripley, Railway Problems, 602-649 (ed. 1907).

Moulton, Waterways versus Railways, 98-169.

Porter, Progress of the Nation (ed. 1851), 287-339.

Pratt, Railways and their Rates, 1-184.

Protheroe, E., The Railways of the World, 1-528.

Stephens, E. C., English Railways; their Development and their Relation to the State.

Thompson, H. G., Canal System of England, 1-73.

Ward, Reign of Queen Victoria, II, 83-129.

France

Buckler, “Railway Regulation in France,” Quar. Jour. Econ., XX, 279-286 (1906); also in Ripley, Railway Problems, 652-659 (ed. 1907).

Colson, Legislation des Chemins de Fer, 3-20, 133-182.

Colson, Railway Rates and Traffic, 53-111.

Guillamot, L’Organisation des Chemins de Fer, 82-120.

Kaufmann, Die Eisenbahnpolitik Frankreichs, II, 178-284.

Leon, Fleuves, Canaux, et Chemins de Fer, 1-156.

Lucas, F., Voies de Communication de la France.

Monkswell, French Railways.

Picard, A., Traité des Chemins de Fer, 5 vols.

Raper, Railway Transportation, 61-101.

 

Bibliographies

Hadley, Railroad Transportation, 146-202, notes.

Johnson, American Railway Transportation, 334.

Lavisse et Rambaud, Histoire Générale, X, 472; XI, 876-877.

U. S. Library of Congress, Government Regulation of Railways in Foreign Countries (1905-1907).

 

X. TRANSPORTATION — STATE OWNERSHIP

General Reading

*Raper, Railway Transportation, 278-305.

Acworth, W. M., Historical Sketch of Government Ownership of Railways in Foreign Countries.

Acworth, “Relation of Railways to the State,” Econ. Jour., 1908, 501-519.

Archiv fur Eisenbahnwesen. (Best general periodical for all aspects of continental railway problems and history.)

Dunn, Government Ownership of Railways, 14-36.

Hadley, Railroad Transportation, 236-258.

Jevons, The Railways and the State.

Johnson, American Railway Transportation, 336-348.

McPherson, L. G., Transportation in Europe, 149-175.

Pratt, Railways and their Rates, 185-236; Railways and Nationalization, 1-120, 253-293.

 

Germany

*Cunningham, “Administration of the State Railways of Prussia-Hesse,” Proceedings N. Y. Railroad Club, XXIII, 3124-3127, 3146-3155.

*Raper, Railway Transportation, 134-177.

Cohn, G., “State Railway Administration in Prussia,” Jour. Pol. Econ., I, 172-192.

Dawson, Evolution of Modern Germany, ch. xi.

Johnson and Van Metre, Principles of Railroad Transportation, 415-434.

Lotz, Verkehrsentwicklung in Deutschland, 2-47, 96-142.

Lenshau, Deutsche Wasserstrassen, 9-56, 95-161.

Mayer, Geschichte und Geographie der deutschen Eisenbahnen, 3-41.

Meyer, B. H.,”Railroad Ownership in Germany, Ann. Am. Acad. Pol. Sci., X, 399-421, also in Ripley’s Railway Problems (ed. 1913), 803-825.

Meyer, H. R., Government Regulation of Railway Rates, 3-33, 69-92.

Moulton, Waterways versus Railways, 170-323.

 

Other Countries

*Holcombe, A. N., “The First Decade of the Swiss Federal Railways,” Quar. Jour. Econ., XXVI, 341-362.

Cucheval-Clarigny, “Les Chemins de Fer Italiens,” Rev. des Deux Mondes, July 1, 15, 1884.

Hadley, Railroad Transportation, 203-235.

Peschaud, “Belgian State Railways,” in Pratt, State Railways, 57-107.

Raper, Railway Transportation, 102-133.

Tajani, “Railway Situation in Italy,” Quar. Jour. Econ., XXIII, 618-651.

 

Bibliographies

Cambridge Modern History, XII, 872-873, 883-884.

U. S. Library of Congress, Government Ownership of Railroads; Railroads in Foreign Countries.

 

XI. INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT: ENGLAND

*Ashley, W. J., British Industries, 2-38.

*Clapham, J. H., Woollen and Worsted Industry, 1-24, 125-173.

Ashley, W. J., Adjustment of Wages, 185-229, 268-311.

Chapman, S. J., The Lancashire Cotton Industry.

Cox, British Industries under Free Trade, 2-84, 142-175, 235-276.

Gray, H. L., War Time Control of Industry, 61-100, “The Coal Mines.”

Great Britain: Coal Industry Commission (1919), Interim Report and Final Report (“Sankey Report”).

Great Britain: Final Report of the Committee on Commercial and Industrial Policy after the War, Parl. Doc. 9035 (1918).

Helm, E., “Survey of the Cotton Industry,” Quar. Jour. Econ., XVII, 417-437.

Jeans, J. S., Iron Trade of Great Britain, 1-72, 100-111.

Jevons, H. S., The British Coal Trade.

Jones, J. H., The Tinplate Industry.

Lloyd, Cutlery Trades, 30-63, 171-208.

Macrosty, Trusts and the State.

Marshall, A., Industry and Trade, 32-106.

Pollock, Shipbuilding Industry.

Porter, Progress of the Nation (Hirst, ed.), 213-432.

Schoenhof, History of Money and Prices, 148-173, 215-323.

Spicer, A. D., Paper Trade.

U. S. Dept. Commerce and Labor, English Cotton Industry (1907); British Iron and Steel Industry (1909).

Ward, ed., Reign of Queen Victoria, II, 153-196 (Slagg, Cotton Trade); II, 197-238 (Bell, Iron Trade).

 

XII. INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT: THE CONTINENT

General Reading

*Copeland, Cotton Manufacturing Industry, 275-332.

Beck, Die Geschichte des Eisens.

Brauns, Samt- und Seiden Industrie.

Marshall, A., Industry and Trade, 107-139.

Schultze, Die Entwicklung der chemischen Industrie.

U. S. Dept. of Commerce and Labor, Special Agents Series, 1909-13; continued in publications of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce.

 

Germany

*Helfferich, Germany’s Economic Progress, 1888-1913, 13-85.

Barker, J. E., Modern Germany.

Berglund, A., “The Iron Ore Problem of Lorraine,” Quar. Jour. Econ., XXXIII, 531-554.

Blondel, L’essor industriel et commercial du peuple allemande (3d ed.), 1-114, 272-412.

Dehn, R. M. P., The German Cotton Industry.

Dawson, Evolution of Modern Germany, 37-65.

Farrington, F. E., Commercial Education in Germany.

Von Halle, “Die deutsche Volkswirthschaft an der Jahrhundertwende,” Volks- und Seewirthschaft, 13-219.

Haskins and Lord, Some Problems of the Peace Conference, 117-152, “The Rhine and the Saar.”

Hauser, Germany’s Commercial Grip on the World; also Les Méthodes Allemandes d’Expansion Économique.

Howard, Recent Industrial Progress in Germany, 51-109.

Keynes, The Economic Consequences of the Peace, 56-251.

Laughlin, J. L., Credit of the Nations, 1-38.

Schumacher, H., Die westdeutsche Eisenindustrie.

Sombart, Die deutsche Volkswirthschaft im neunzehnten Jahrhundert.

Sombart, “Industrial Progress of Germany,” Yale Rev., XIV, 6-17, 134-154.

Williams, E. E., “Made in Germany.”

Wolfe, A. J., Commercial Organization in Germany (U. S. Dept. of Commerce, Sp. Ag. Ser. No. 98).

 

Other Countries

Aftalion, Le Développement de la Fabrique dans les Industries de l’Habillement.

Fischer, Italien und die Italiener (ed. 1901), 240-267.

The Industries of Russia, prepared by Department of Trade and Manufactures, Ministry of Finance, St. Petersburg, for the Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893.

Kennard, The Russian Year Book (1911- ).

La Belgique, 1830-1905, 397-617.

Levasseur, Questions ouvrières et industrielles en France sous la troisième République, 27-166.

Machat, Le Développement Économique de la Russie, 157-229.

Raffalovich, Russia: its Trade and Commerce.

U. S. Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, Russia: A Handbook of Commercial and Industrial Conditions, (U. S. Consular Report, No. 61, 1913).

Wolfe, A. J., Commercial Organization in France (U. S. Dept. of Commerce, Sp. Ag. Ser., No. 98).

 

Bibliographies

Cambridge Modern History, XI, 931; XII, 866, 872, 883, 903, 960.

Howard, Industrial Progress in Germany, x-xiii.

U. S. Library of Congress, Iron and Steel in Commerce (1907).

 

XIII. INDUSTRIAL COMBINATION

*British Ministry of Reconstruction, Report of Committee on Trusts (1919), 15-30.

*Marshall, A., Industry and Trade, 544-635.

Baumgarten und Meszleny, Kartelle und Trusts, 83-152.

Brodnitz, “Betreibskonzentration in der englischen Industrie,” Jahrb. fur Nat. Oek., 1908-1909, XC, 173-218; XCII, 51-86, 145-184.

Carter, G. R., The Tendency toward Industrial Combination.

Chastin, Les Trusts et les Syndicats, 13-127.

Davies, J. E., Trust Laws and Unfair Competition, 529-662.

Deutsches Kartell-Jahrbuch.

Hauser, “La Syndicalisation Obligatoire en Allemagne,” Revue d’Économie Politique, XXXII, 230-265.

Kartell Rundschau.

Liefmann, Kartelle und Trusts (ed. 1910).

Liefmann, Beteiligungs- und Finanzierungsgesellschaften.

Liefmann, R., Die Kartelle in und nach dem Kriege.

Macrosty, Trust Movement in British Industry, 24-56, 81-84, 117-154, 284-307, 329-345.

Macrosty, “Trust Movement in Great Britain,” in Ashley, British Industries, 196-232.

Notz, W., “Kartels during the War,” Jour. Pol. Econ., XXVII, 1-38.

Passama, Formes Nouvelles de Concentration, 1-171.

Paul, L., Histoire du Mouvement Syndical en France (1789-1910).

Tosdal, ” Kartell Movement in the German Potash Industry,” Quar. Jour. Econ., XXVIII, 140-180.

Tosdal, “The German Steel Syndicate,” Quar. Jour. Econ., XXXI. 259-306.

Tschierschky, Kartelle und Trusts.

U. S. Industrial Commission, Report, XVIII, 7-13, 75-88, 101-122, 143-165.

U. S. Federal Trade Commission, Report on Coöperation in the American Export Trade, I, 98-127, 272-279, 285-292.

Utsch, Kartelle und Arbeiter.

Walker, Combinations in the German Coal Industry, 38-111, 175-289, 322-327.

Walker, “German Steel Syndicate,” Quar. Jour. Econ., XX, 353-398.

 

Bibliographies

Cambridge Modern History, XII, 960-961.

Carter, G. R., The Tendency toward Industrial Combination, xi-xv.

Chastin, Les Trusts, 13-127, notes.

Liefmann, Beteiligungs- und Finanzierungsgesellschaften, ix-x.

Passama, Formes Nouvelles de Concentration, xxi-xxiii.

 

XIV. BANKING AND FINANCE IN RELATION TO INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT

*Hobson, C. K., Export of Capital, 95-163.

*Riesser, The German Great Banks and their Concentration, 703-750.

Andréadès, History of the Bank of England, 331-369, 381-388.

Bastable, Public Finance (3d ed.), 629-657.

Bagehot, Lombard Street (ed. 1910).

Burrell, “Historical Survey of the Position Occupied by the Bank of England,” etc., Journal of the Institute of Bankers, XXXVI (1915), 405-425.

Dunbar, History and Theory of Banking (ed. 1917), 132-219.

Giffen, Economic Inquiries, I, 75-97, 121-228.

Giffen, Growth of Capital, 115-134.

Huth, W., Die Entwickelung der deutschen und französischen Grossbanken.

Jevons, Investigations in Currency and Finance, 34-92.

Juglar, Crises Commerciales.

Liesse, Credit and Banks in France (in Nat. Mon. Com. Reports).

McLeod, Theory and Practice of Banking (4th ed.), I, 433-540; II, 1-197.

Patron, Bank of France (in Nat. Mon. Com. Reports).

Powell, E. T., The Evolution of the Money Market, 243-705.

Van Antwerp, The Stock Exchange from Within, 323-412.

Vidal, History and Methods of the Paris Bourse (in Nat. Mon. Com. Reports).

Warburg, P. M., The Discount System in Europe (in Nat. Mon. Com. Reports).

Withers, Meaning of Money, 85-106, 138-172.

Withers, War Time Financial Problems, 15-30, 76-90, 163-179.

 

 

XV. LABOR PROBLEMS

General Reading

*Cole, G. D. H., World of Labor, 101-127.

*Dawson, Evolution of Modern Germany, 106-134 [135-169].

*Hammond, M. B., British Labor Conditions and Legislation during the War, 3-21.

*Webb, “Social Movements,” in Cambridge Modern History, XII, 730-765.

Ashley, W. J., German Working Classes, 1-141.

Board of Trade Report, 1909, Cost of Living of the Working Classes in the United Kingdom, Germany, France.

Board of Trade Report, 1911, Cost of Living of the Working Classes in American Towns (comparisons with English conditions).

Booth, Life and Labor of the People in London.

Bowley, Wages in the United Kingdom, 22-57, 81-127.

Cole, “Recent Development in the British Labor Movement,” Am. Econ. Rev., VIII, 485-505.

Cole, G. D. H., The World of Labor.

Dawson, German Workman, 1-245.

Engels, Condition of the Working Class in 1844.

Gray, H. L., War Time Control of Industry, 14-60, “Munitions and Labor.”

Hammond, J. L., and Barbara, The Village Labourer (1760-1832); The Town Labourer (1760-1832); The Skilled Labourer (1760-1832).

Hammond, M. B., British Labor Conditions and Legislation during the War (passim).

Hayes, C., British Social Politics.

Herkner, Arbeiterfrage.

Hutchins, Women in Industry (ed. 1920).

Kirkup, History of Socialism.

Lecky, Democracy and Liberty, II, 224-503.

Levasseur, Questions Ouvrières et Industrielles en France, 523-600.

Macrosty, Trusts and the State (passim).

Nicholls, G., History of the English Poor Law, II, chs. xi-xii; III (supplementary vol., 1834-1898, by Thos. Mackay).

Rogers, Six Centuries of Work and Wages (one vol. ed., 1884), 468-575.

Schloss, Methods of Industrial Remuneration.

Shadwell, Industrial Efficiency (ed. 1906), II, 307-350; or in ed. 1909, 533-568.

U. S. Commissioner of Labor, 15th Ann. Report (1900), Wages in Commercial Countries.

U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bulletin 237, Industrial Unrest in Great Britain.

U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Monthly Labor Review, April, 1918, 63-83, “Social Reconstruction Program of the British Labor Party.”

U. S. Commission of Labor, 21st Annual Report (1906), Strikes and Lockouts, 775-916.

Wallas, G., Life of Francis Place, ch. viii.

Ward, ed., Reign of Queen Victoria, II, 43-83 (Mundella and Howell, Industrial Association).

Webb, English Poor Law Policy.

Wood, “Real Wages since 1860,” Roy. Stat. Soc. Jour., 1909, 91-101.

 

Labor Organizations

Ashley, Adjustment of Wages, 160-183.

Kulemann, Die Gewerkschaftsbewegung.

Levasseur, Questions Ouvrières et Industrielles en France sous la Troisième République, 642-741.

Levine, Labor Movement in France.

Webb, S. and B., History of Trade Unionism (ed. 1920).

Webb, Industrial Democracy.

 

Factory Legislation

Barrault, La Réglementation du Travail à Domicile en Angleterre.

Commons and Andrews, Principles of Labor Legislation.

Hutchins and Harrison, History of Factory Legislation (ed. 1911).

Pic, Traité Élémentaire de Législation Industrielle (ed. 1912).

Plener, English Factory Legislation.

Taylor, R. W. C., Factory System and Factory Acts.

U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bulletin 146, Administration of Labor Laws and Factory Inspection in Certain European Countries.

 

Coöperation and Profit-sharing

Aves, E., Coöperative Industry.

Corréard, J., Des Sociétés coopératives.

Dawson, Evolution of Modern Germany, 294-307.

Fay, C. R., Cooperation at Home and Abroad (ed. 1920).

Herrick, M. T., Rural Credits, 247-455.

Holyoake, Cooperation in England (ed. 1908), I, 32-162; II, 361-396.

Maxwell, W., History of Cooperation in Scotland, 43-114.

Potter, B. (Mrs. Webb), Cooperative Movement in Great Britain.

Report of U. S. Commission to investigate and study agricultural credit and coöperation in Europe (1914): 63d Cong., 2d Sess., Senate Doc. 380.

Valleroux, La Coopération.

(See also topic no. IV of this list)

 

Workingmen’s Insurance and Unemployment

Beveridge, Unemployment.

Dawson, Social Insurance in Germany.

Frankel and Dawson, Workingmen’s Insurance in Europe.

Gibbon, I. G., Unemployment Insurance.

Willoughby, Workingmen’s Insurance, 29-87.

U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bulletin 206, The British System of Labor Exchanges.

 

Population and Emigration

Bullock, Selected Readings in Economics, 255-286.

Dawson, Evolution of Modern Germany, chs. xvi, xvii.

Duval, Histoire de L’Émigration au XIXe Siècle.

Foerster, R. F., Italian Emigration of Our Times, 3-202, 415-525.

Godwin, Wm., Of Population.

Gonnard, L’Émigration Européenne au XIXe Siècle.

Leroy-Beaulieu, P., La Question de la Population.

Leroy-Beaulieu, P., De la Colonisation chez les Peuples Modernes, II, 435-522.

Malthus, Essay on Population.

Nitti, Population and the Social System.

Philippovich, “Auswanderung und Auswanderungspolitik in Deutschland,” in Schriften des Vereins für Socialpolitik, LII bd.

Wakefield, E. G., The Art of Colonization.

 

Bibliographies

Adams and Sumner, Labor Problems, references.

Cambridge Modern History, XII, 960-966.

Commons and Andrews, Principles of Labor Legislation, 465-488.

Frankel and Dawson, Workingmen’s Insurance, 435-443.

Gibbon, Unemployment Insurance, 337-342.

Harvard University, Dept. of Social Ethics, Guide to Reading in Social Ethics, 68-163, 183-209.

Hutchins and Harrison, Factory Legislation, 279-284.

Ogg, Economic Development of Modern Europe, at the end of chs. xvi-xx, inclusive.

Taylor, F. I., Bibliography of Unemployment.

Webb, Trade Unionism (ed. 1911), 499-543.

Webb, Industrial Democracy, 879-900.

Wright, Practical Sociology, references.

 

Image Source: Edwin Francis Gay and Edmund E. Lincoln from Harvard Class Album 1920.

Categories
Columbia Economists Harvard UCLA

Columbia. Ph.D. alumnus (1911) Benjamin M. Anderson, Obituary

_____________________

Benjamin McA. Anderson, Economics: Los Angeles

by Earl J. Miller, Marvel Stockwell, John Clendenin, Vern O. Knudsen

BENJAMIN MCALESTER ANDERSON (May 1, 1886-January 19, 1949), son of Benjamin McLean and Mary Frances (Bowling) Anderson, was born in Columbia, Missouri. He married Margaret Louis Crenshaw May 27, 1909. He is survived by his wife and three children, John Crenshaw, William Bent, and Mary Louise (Brown). A fourth child, Benjamin M. Anderson III, died in 1919.

Professor Anderson received the A.B. at the University of Missouri in 1906, the A.M. at the University of Illinois in 1910, and the Ph.D. in Economics at Columbia in 1911. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and an active member of the American Economic Association, in which he served as vice-president and a member of the Executive Committee. He served as Professor of History in the State Normal School at Cape Girardeau, Missouri, in 1905; Professor of English Literature and Economics at Missouri Valley College, Marshall, Missouri, in 1906; Professor of History and Economics at the State Teachers College, Springfield, Missouri, from 1906 to 1911; Instructor in Economics at Columbia from 1911 to 1913; Assistant Professor of Economics at Columbia, 1913; Assistant Professor of Economics, Harvard, 1913-1918; economic advisor in the National Bank of Commerce in New York, 1918-1920; economist for the Chase National Bank of New York, 1920-1939; Professor of Economics in the University of California at Los Angeles, 1939-1949 (Connell Professor of Banking, 1946-1949).

Professor Anderson enjoyed a rich experience as a youth in his home at Columbia, Missouri. His father was for many years a prominent member of the Missouri State Legislature. Their home was the scene of innumerable political conferences to which Dr. Anderson was invited and from which he developed a keen interest in the then current political and economic problems.

Dr. Anderson’s publications were extensive, including four books and many articles and reviews. Outstanding among them were his books, Social Value, 1911; The Value of Money, 1917; Effects of the War on Money, Credit and Banking in France and the United States, 1919; Financing American Prosperity (coauthor with J. M. Clark, Columbia; A. H. Hansen, Harvard; S. H. Slichter, Harvard; H. S. Ellis, California at Berkeley; and J. H. Williams, Harvard), 1945. Much of his time during the last few years of his life was devoted to the writing of another book entitled Economics and the Public Welfare, a financial and economic history of the United States, 1914-1946. This extensive work was ready for proofreading at the time of his death. The book has now been published. It is a further major contribution to the field of economic literature comparable in quality to the high standard set in his previous works.

He contributed articles to many magazines and journals. Among them were the American Economic Review; Annals of the American Academy; Political Science Quarterly; Quarterly Journal of Economics; The New York Times; The Commercial and Financial Chronicle; The Bankers Magazine (London); The London Times; and the Wall Street Journal. During the past ten years he has published eight issues of the Economic Bulletin under the sponsorship of the Capital Research Company of Los Angeles. He associated himself for many years with a group of well-known economists in the organization known as the Economists’ National Committee on Monetary Policy, and served as President of that organization. Several of his articles were reprinted and circulated on a wide basis by that organization.

While economist for the Chase National Bank of New York, Professor Anderson published over two hundred issues of theChase Economic Bulletin, which was distributed and read extensively in government, banking and educational circles in many countries. Representing the Chase National Bank he traveled extensively in foreign countries to conduct negotiations with leading government and banking officials. He was called on numerous occasions to testify before committees of the U.S. Congress and the New York State

Legislature on questions of state, national and international policy relating to the fields of money and banking. These activities together with the wide circulation of his books, and of his articles in professional and financial journals and magazines, made him one of the best-known and most distinguished economists of his generation in both the national and international fields.

The firsthand contact with practical banking, with American and foreign banking officials, and with government agencies concerned with our economic and monetary affairs, which Dr. Anderson had enjoyed through many years, greatly enriched the content of his teaching and enabled him to provide for his students a sound and thoroughly practical experience. He originally possessed a scholarly command of history, literature, and languages which added impressively to his work, and he brought to his teaching and advisory tasks a broad perspective and keen judgment which made his pronouncements on economic affairs surprisingly accurate and wise.

Professor Anderson was a modest and distinguished scholar and a man esteemed by his colleagues for his personal qualities of kindly manner, stimulating humor, sympathetic appreciation and helpful cooperation. As a scholar and as a man he made a memorable contribution to the community in which he lived.

 

Source: Academic Senate of the University of California. University of California: In Memoriam 1949, pp. 1-4.

Image Source:  Wikipedia article on Benjamin McAlester Anderson.

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Courses Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Syllabus for Money, Banking & Commercial Crises. Anderson, 1917-18.

Benjamin McAlester Anderson (1886-1949) was awarded a Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University in 1911. His dissertation, Social Value–A Study in Economic Theory Critical and Constructive was published in the Hart, Schaffer & Marx Prize Essays series. From 1913-18 he held the rank of Assistant Professor of Economics at Harvard University. Today I post his syllabus for the course “Money, Banking and Commercial Crises” from 1917-18 that is wonderfully detailed  both with respect to topics and detailed reading assignments. The final examination questions for the second-term of the two-term course have been transcribed and posted too. I have included Anderson’s c.v. as of the publication of his dissertation in November, 1911 below. I’ll next post the University of California’s brief biography of Anderson published in its “In Memoriam” series.

_______________________

VITA
[Benjamin M. Anderson 1911]

The author was born in Columbia, Missouri, May 1, 1886. He was prepared for college in the high
school in Columbia, and attended the State University of Missouri, receiving the A. B. degree from that institution in 1906. His work in economics at Missouri was chiefly with Professor J. E. Pope. He was made a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Alpha of Missouri, in 1905. He filled a temporary vacancy in the chair of history at the State Normal School in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, during the summer session of 1905. He was Professor of Political Economy at Missouri Valley College, Marshall, Missouri, 1906-7, and from 1907 to 1911 was Head of the Department of History and Political Economy in the State Normal School at Springfield, Missouri, though on leave of absence during the years 1909-10 and 1910-11. He was Fellow in Economics at the University of Illinois during the term 1909-10, working in the seminars of Dean Kinley and Professor E. L. Bogart, and, in philosophy, in the seminar of Professor B. H. Bode. He received the A. M. degree at Illinois in 1910. As Garth Fellow in Political Economy at Columbia University, 1910-11, he studied under Professors Seligman, Seager, H. L. Moore, Giddings and John Dewey, doing seminar work with Professors Seligman, Seager and Giddings. He was appointed in 1911 Instructor in Political Economy at Columbia University. In May, 1909, he was married to Miss Margaret Louise Crenshaw, at St. Louis, Mo.

Source: Benjamin M. Anderson, Social Value–A Study in Economic Theory Critical and Constructive, p. i.

_______________________

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 3. Asst. Professor Anderson, assisted by Mr. Laporte.—Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises.

Total 38: 13 Seniors, 15 Juniors, 4 Sophomores, 6 Other.

 

Source: Harvard University. Reports of the President and the Treasurer of Harvard College, 1917-18, p. 54.

_______________________

 

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
1917-18

SYLLABUS FOR ECONOMICS 3

(Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises)
Assistant Professor Anderson

Required reading is marked with an asterisk

 

Part I. MONEY

  1. FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS.
    1. Definitions: money; specie; currency, etc.
    2. Origin of money; origin of gold and silver money; gold as a commodity.
    3. Functions of money; common measure of values; medium of exchange; legal tender; standard of deferred payments; store of value; bearer of options; reserve for credit operations.
    4. Standard and subsidiary money; Gresham’s law and monometallism; the gold standard.
    5. Value of money: preliminary statement.

Reading.

Anderson, Value of Money, pp. 397-427.*
Phillips, Readings in Money and Banking, pp. 1-26.*
Moulton, Money and Banking, Pt. I, pp. 45-62.*
Laughlin, Principles of Money, passim.
Menger, art. “Geld” in Handwörterbuch der Staatswissenschaften.

  1. GOVERNMENT PAPER MONEY.
    1. Colonial and Revolutionary Paper Money.
    2. The French Assignats.
    3. The Greenbacks.
    4. Causes governing the value of inconvertible paper.
      1. Gold premium and index numbers.
    5. Financial results of inconvertible paper.
    6. Social and industrial consequences of inconvertible papers.

Reading.

Moulton, Pt. I, pp. 134-162; 168 (chart); 178-209, 260-66.*
Horace White, Money and Banking, chs. on Revolutionary Bills of Credit, and Greenbacks.*
Phillips, pp. 26-70, 115-120.*
Mitchell, W. C., History of the Greenbacks, and Gold, Wages and Prices under the Greenback Standard.

  1. THE STANDARD QUESTION.
    1. Early history of metallic money.
    2. History of bimetallism.
      1. Mediaeval and early modern times.
      2. England
      3. France
      4. United States.
    3. Theory of bimetallism:
      1. Theory of the ratio:
        1. Gresham’s Law.
        2. The compensatory principle.
      2. The standard of deferred payments: justice between debtor and creditor:
        1. Index numbers: of commodity prices; of wages.
        2. The commodity standard upheld by bimetallists.
        3. The labor standard by monometallists.
      3. Theory of exchanges between gold and silver countries.
    4. The monetary system of the United States.

Reading.

Phillips, Chs. VI and VII.*
Moulton, Pt. I, pp. 66-68, Chs. IV, VI, and VIII.*

    1. The gold exchange standard, and the triumph of the gold standard.
      1. India.
      2. Philippines.
      3. Mexico.
      4. Straits Settlement.
      5. Gold standard in 1914.

Reading.

Phillips, Chs. XII and XIV.*
Kemmerer, Modern Currency Reforms.

  1. THE VALUE OF MONEY.
    1. Economic Value.

Reading.

Anderson, Ch. I.

    1. Must the value of money rest on a commodity basis? Quantity theory doctrine that inconvertible paper may be sustained in value by limitation in supply.
    2. The quantity theory v. Gresham’s Law.

Reading.

Anderson, Chs. VII and XVII.
Fisher, Purchasing Power of Money, pp. 14-32.*

  1. STABILIZING THE GOLD DOLLAR.

Reading.

Moulton, Pt. I, pp. 258-60; 266-71.*
Phillips, Ch. XIII.*

PART II. CREDIT AND BANKING

  1. NATURE OF CREDIT.
    1. Kinds of credit instruments.
    2. Definitions of credit.
    3. Bank-credit—analysis of bank statement.
    4. The mechanism of the modern bank.

Reading.

Moulton, Pt. II, pp. 12-37.*
Anderson, Ch. XXIII.*
Dunbar, Theory and History of Banking, Chs. I-V.*
Fiske, The Modern Bank, pp. 25-260, omitting Chs. XXI, XXVIII, XXX.*
Horace White, ch. on Bank Statement.*

    1. The use of checks in payments in the United States.

Reading.

Phillips, pp. 150-58.*
Kinley, The Use of Credit Instruments in Payments in the United States, National Monetary Commission Report.

    1. The volume of money and credit and the volume of trade,—trade and speculation.

Reading.

Anderson, Ch. XIII.*

  1. BANK-NOTES AND BANK DEPOSITS: “CURRENCY SCHOOL” v. “BANKING SCHOOL.”
    1. Currency School and the quantity theory.
    2. Essential identity of notes and deposits under “assets banking.”
    3. Systems of bank-note issue: Suffolk system; Canada; England; France; Germany; Austria; United States national banking system.

Reading.

Anderson, Ch. XIV.*
Mill, J. S., Principles of Political Economy, Bk. III, Ch. XXIV, pars. 1 and 2.*
Moulton, Pt. II, pp. 225-58.*
Conant, Modern Banks of Issue, passim.

  1. THE ENGLISH BANKING SYSTEM.
    1. History.
    2. Analysis of present system in London: Bank of England; Joint Stock Banks; branches of foreign banks; discount houses; acceptance houses; bill brokers; Stock Exchange; commodity speculation; warehousing system and commission houses; insurance; foreign exchange.

Reading.

Withers and Palgrave, English Banking System, National Monetary Commission Report, pp. 3-110.*
Phillips, pp. 435-442; 464-473.*
Withers, The Meaning of Money.
Bagehot, Lombard Street.
Conant, Modern Banks of Issue.

  1. FOREIGN EXCHANGE.

Reading.

Escher, Foreign Exchange.*
Anderson, Ch. XVI, and Appendix to Ch. XIII.*
Weekly article in Annalist on foreign exchange market.

  1. SPECULATION ON THE STOCK AND PRODUCE EXCHANGES.
    1. Theory of speculation.
    2. The New York Stock Exchange.
      1. Methods of doing business.
      2. Contrasted with London, Paris, and Berlin exchanges.
    3. Investment bankers and underwriters.
    4. Chicago Board of Trade; New York Cotton Exchange.

Reading.

Emery, Speculation on the Stock and Produce Exchanges.
Pratt, Work of Wall Street.
Van Antwerp, The Stock Exchange from Within.
Passages to be assigned.
Weekly articles in Annalist on stock and bond markets.

  1. “COMMERCIAL BANKING” AND SPECULATION; BANK ASSETS AND BANK RESERVES.

Reading.

Fisher, Purchasing Power of Money, pp. 47-54.*
Anderson, Ch. XXIV, and pp. 363-81, and 177-85.
Moulton, Pt. II, pp. 66-89.*

  1. CLEARING HOUSES.
    1. Methods.
    2. Extraordinary functions.
    3. The interpretation of “clearings.”

Reading.

Phillips, Ch. XIX.

  1. THE “MONEY MARKET.”
    1. “Money” v. money.
    2. “Money rates” v. interest rates.
    3. Analysis of causes governing money rates:
      1. General causes.
      2. Causes affecting special types of “paper.”

Reading.

Scott, W. A., Money and Banking, ch. on “Money Market.”* (1910 or later editions.)
Anderson, pp. 375-79; 425-32; 453-58;495-97; 516-27; 529-44.*
Moulton, Pt. II, pp. 120-136.*
Weekly article on “Money” in the Annalist.

  1. BANKING IN GERMANY.

Reading.

Phillips, Ch. XXV.*

  1. BANKING IN CANADA.

Reading.

Phillips, Ch. XXI.*

  1. BANKING IN FRANCE.

Reading.

Phillips, Ch. XXIV.*

  1. BANKING IN THE UNITED STATES.
    1. Before the Civil War.
      1. The two National Banks.
      2. State and private banks.
    2. Origin of the national banking system.
    3. State banks and trust companies; private banks; savings banks, etc.
    4. Comparative growth and present status of different classes of institutions. Geographical distribution.

Reading.

Horace White, Chs. on First and Second National banks, The Bank War, The Suffolk Bank System, The Safety Fund System, The Free Bank System, The National Bank System.*
Phillips, Chs. XV and XX.*
Barnett, State Banks and Trust Companies.

 

PART III. CRISES AND PANICS

  1. THEORY OF CRISES.
  2. FINANCIAL PANICS.

Reading.

Phillips, pp. 644-71.*

  1. HISTORY OF CRISES UNDER THE NATIONAL BANKING ACT.

Reading.

Sprague, History of Crises under the National Banking System, National Monetary Commission Report, pp. 153-320.*

  1. THE ENGLISH BANKING SYSTEM DURING THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. OTHER EUROPEAN COUNTRIES.
  2. NEW YORK AND THE CRISIS OF 1914.

Reading.

Phillips, Ch. XXXII.*

  1. REMEDIES FOR CRISES AND PANICS. BUSINESS BAROMETERS.

 

PART IV. THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM

Reading.

Moulton, Pt. II, pp. 259-337.*

 

PART V. MISCELLANEOUS

  1. AGRICULTURAL CREDIT.

Reading.

Phillips, Ch. XXVII.*

  1. THE “MONEY TRUST.”

Reading.

Phillips, Ch. XXVIII.*
Anderson, pp. 516-20.*
Moulton, Pt. II, pp. 471-95.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003, Box 1, Folder “Economics 1917-1918”.

Image Source: Benjamin M. Anderson in Harvard Album, 1915.