Author: Irwin Collier

Categories
Faculty Regulations Fields Harvard

Harvard. Rules for Economics PhD Exams. 1941 or 1942

 

Starting in 1942 the administrative task of tracking the progress of Harvard economics Ph.D. candidates was delegated to the departmental level from the Division of History, Government and Economics*. A typewritten memo was prepared that described in detail the procedures in use by the Division up to that time, along with an explicit list of examiners’ names by field used for putting together committees for the general and special examinations.

The graduate records for Paul Samuelson and Gardiner C. Means have been transcribed earlier and are typical cases of the procedures described here.

The internal memo transcribed below appears to be a draft with some hand-marked deletions, substitutions, and additions. But it might be the case that the changes were noted on the memo over the course of time. I include the original text that has been marked for deletion (crossing out that text) and use italics to designate revisions/additions.

Fun facts: Joseph Schumpeter and John D. Black were not to be put on the same examination committee. The sociologist Sorokin was not to be named as an examiner for the field of sociology, but instead Talcott Parsons was much preferred. Also of interest is the fact that Harvard professors were paid a modest honorarium for examining Radcliffe Ph.D. candidates. 

* The records up through 1942 are found in Harvard University Archives, Division of History, Government and Economics: Ph.D. Material [1873-1942], 20 Boxes (UAV. 453.270).

Degree Rulings (October 25, 1930) have been transcribed and were posted already in May 2015! The fourth artifact of Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

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[Handwritten comment at top of page:
Notes taken by CCTDik[?] when Division office closed and each Dept took over responsibility for PhD. Examinations 1941 or 1942.]

When someone wants a general examination, get Plan of Study. Approval of Plan of Study: Follow the rules as set up in Economics. Be sure Economic Theory, History, and Statistics are in the plan. Ask for a month’s notice for scheduling an examination. First, send for transcript of record at Graduate School Office. Write to members of committee asking if they can serve on that date two and one-half weeks in advance. Mimeographed sheet giving details. Also send postcard I can or I cannot serve. Be sure to put name of Professor on card so that you will know who returns it.

Send reminder so that they will receive it about four days in advance.

Look through Plan and pick a preliminary Committee.

Theory: Schumpeter, Chamberlin, Haberler, Triffin, Monroe (use on an examination where everyone else is directly in his own field), Sweezy, Leontief (interchangeable),

Mason, Taylor (particularly for Economic Policy)

Economic History: Usher and Cole if have to.

Statistics: Frickey, Staehle, Crum

Money and Banking: Hansen, Williams, Harris, Schumpeter, Goodwin, Bennion, Haberler

Economic Fluctuations and Forecasting: Schumpeter, Haberler, Hansen, Harris, Laursen

Transportation: Cunningham, Chamberlin

Industrial Organization: Dunlop, Sweezy, Mason if here.

Public Finance: Burbank, Butters. (If chiefly Fiscal Policy Seminar, Hansen)

International Trade: Laursen, Harris, Haberler, Leontief. Schumpeter for specials.

Agriculture: Black, Usher, Hansen. (Consult Black in advance for schedule)

Labor: Slichter, Dunlop, Healy, Staehle, Harris,

Socialism and Social Reform: Sweezy, Leontief, Taylor

Economic History before 1750: Usher

Commodity Distribution and Prices: Staehle, Black, Sweezy

Public Utilities: Chamberlin, Mason, or Business School people.

Land Utilization: Black

(Do not use Black and Schumpeter together on a board if possible)

Get schedules from Hansen, and others, who are away a great deal from secretary before scheduling examinations.

Sociology: Do not use Sorokin. Anyone else. Parsons good because was in Economics.

Economic Policy: O.H. Taylor, Sweezy, Chamberlin used chiefly.

For Chairman of the Committee if at all possible pick the men with whom he is to write the thesis. In Theory pick the man with whom candidate has had course work. If do not know about thesis, pick senior member or Theory man.

Check with Miss Loftus for fields in Government.

Check on languages. Be sure that they have passed one before the generals.

Check the fields with the candidate. Write-off does not need to be completed until time of special examination. Check grade to be sure it is sufficiently good.

Schedule examinations all the time, concentrated in Reading Periods if possible. Ordinarily at 4 o’clock; sometimes at 11; and once in a while to suit the committee.

Write candidate about four or five days before examination.

“Dear Mr. ——

The arrangements have been completed for your general examination for the degree of Ph.D. in Economics. It is to be held on Tuesday, May 5, at 4 o’clock in Littauer M-10.

Sincerely yours,
Secretary

Material for examination: Send to chairman the Plan of Study, back side filled in by this office. Mimeographed form. Transcript of course record. The examination report if already taken general. On mimeographed sheet write everything in full, —Full name, Tuesday, May 5, 1942, at 4 o’clock. Department of Economics. Fields examined: 1, 2, 3, 4, following order on Plan of Study. The committee certifies that the general (cross out special).

Committee: Professor ——, chairman, and list rest in order of fields as far as possible. Be careful about titles (Professor, and Dr.). This must be signed by every member of the examining board.

For special: Full name, etc. Special field: —— Follow the fields for titles as listed in the pamphlet. Thesis: —— (Give full title as on bound thesis) Three people on special examination board.

Pro-seminar: Follow Department rules.

Check on write-off field. Bracket in red pencil.

After the examination: Chairman returns the papers, then write letter to Miss Gifford Priest in the Graduate School of Arta and Sciences.

Dear Miss Gifford Priest: I wish to report the following examinations for the degree of Ph.D. in Economies:

Robert Brown General for Economics May 26 Passed

(In case of failure — Failed, no bar to reexamination)

If Public Administration, write same letter to Miss Bourneuf Mrs. Bright Miss Hunter.

On back of Plan of Study put date of general examination, passed, and initials of Chairman of the committee.

Keep a check-list of examinations for the degree of Ph.D. in Economies 1941-42. Candidate’s name, date, board, grade, in red pencil, when reported to Miss Gifford Priest. If special comment say, “See comment” after grade.

[No longer since the new arrangement between Harvard and Radcliffe]

Radcliffe — report examination to Miss Davenport — same letter.

In account with Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Massachusetts]

And also send a bill to the Business Office.

For serving on the general examination for the degree of Ph.D. in Economics of Miss Penelope C. Hartland, May 19, 1942,

Edward H. Chamberlin

$6.25

Arthur H. Cole

$6.25

Alvin H. Hansen

$6.25

Edwin Frickey

$6.25

$25.00

(On special the chairman gets $8.34; the others $8.33)

For a room call Miss Gilpatrick for a room in Longfellow.

Excuses from final examinations in courses. After December 1 (9½ wks out of 13 weeks of lectures) Jan. 5 and after April 1 May 11. (Will send copy of rule later)

If take general examination during your first year as graduate student here (1G) cannot be excused unless have a grade of good or better on the generals. Second year graduate students (2G) may be if pass the general with any grade in particular courses excused from usually pretty clear, — Courses in the fields in which examined. Ec. 117 Karl Marx  — excused for Theory.

If a man passes the general for Ph.D. with a vote of 3 to 1 (if passed but did very poorly in one field) it is up to the committee to decide whether he must take the final examination in that course. Check with the committee.

Division rule for Committee of Seven (Chamberlin and Monroe from Economics). Recommendations for Ph.D. degrees sent by Committee of Seven probably. [Sent by Dept. to Dean Jones, 24 Univ. Hall and a carbon to Secretary of the Faculty, 5 Univ [?] Hall.]] If a man fails two examinations, either general or special, in order to have a third examination he has to have special permission from the Academic Board of the Graduate School and the Division Committee of Seven. The candidate petitions the Committee of Seven asking permission to come up for a third examination.

Make clear to candidate that he must check with this office to find out whether he is excused from final course examinations.

If a man fails once and comes up again, ask whether he wants the same board as far as possible. Most of time they request the same.

Special examinations: much the same. Due date on thesis December 1 Jan. 10 and April 1 May 8 and July 15 Sept. 8. Will accept on due date unbound. This year accepted unbound and sent to the Harvard Bindery and bill sent to the student care of the Department and then sent on. Harvard Bindery will call for it. If student has thesis in on due date, but has not corrected for typographical errors, or if chart is left out, or something, it has to go to reader as it was handed in, and then afterwards, before going to the Library, the candidate will be expected to fix it up. (Professor Taylor’s ruling.) Get theses out to readers as fast as they come in.

Readers: Every student expected to work with a particular man on a thesis. Ask student with whom he wrote the thesis. That person chairman of the examination. Second reader usually pretty obvious from material. In that case, where second reader not obvious, then consult the man with whom thesis was written. Then check with chairman of the Department.

Do not have to report on thesis until five days before the scheduled date of examination. Ask candidate when he wants the examination. Consult readers over the telephone are they willing,  — The examination will be about May 29,  — and then make arrangements for the examination as if it will be held, but tentative until have approval on the thesis. Check a week before to see if they will accept. Theses approval slip in front of thesis. Have both signatures on one slip. Paste in front of A copy before sending to Dean Mayo’s  [Jones’] office.

Third reader: In the case where disagreement, pick a third reader — a person of some authority. If not passed, ask the men with whom the thesis was written to write candidate giving the reasons. If thesis is rejected keep one copy forever. Return B copy to the student.

Card file for every thesis that comes in. Author’s name, title, Note two copies of thesis, two copies of summary. Date thesis handed in. Date approved. A copy, reader. B copy, reader. Grade in special examination.

When get report on thesis write to student:

Dear Mr. ——

I am happy to inform you that your thesis for the Ph.D. degree in Economics has been approved by Professor —– and Professor —– and that the arrangements have been completed for your special examination. It is to be held on Monday, May 26, at 4 o’clock in Littauer M-10.

(Can tell student the readers. Do not tell him the third member of the board.)

Keep mimeographed list of examination committees for this year for reference.

Card for those who receive Ph.D. degrees for Division office.

Name
Degrees: Where, when
Economics — Special field
Thesis title:                                           Readers:
Languages: Date passed
Generals Passed: (date)
Special Passed: (date)
Fields on general  — committee  — grade
Special field  — committee  — grade

Keep separate cards of those who have handed in theses and are yet to come up for special. Hold on to both copies of thesis.

Report results of special to Miss Gifford Priest. Do not let them accumulate.

On special fields of specials

On Plan of Study it will be noted. Let him know that it is approved for general fields only, and will be rechecked for special later.

By December 1 for degree at mid-years and January 15 for Commencement should file application for degree. Check special field with Plan of Study if special field disagrees it must be approved by Chairman.

For own protection:

Keep a sheet when they come in  — name, address, special field (check with chairman), to Graduate School, and date signed when sent.

Applications for doctorate mid-year 1942

Name, address, Department, special field to Graduate School. If do not take it then, Miss Gifford Priest transfers forward to next list. When offer same field as on the general   — Sometimes take an extra half hour on another field if decided by the Department,  — special field and then other field too.

When do you have four on the special examination committee?

Recommendations for degrees through the Committee of Seven Department.

Check on residence at time of application. Two years (four terms)  — 8 courses  —

with at least one full year two full terms here. Check languages. Check write-off.

Check pro-seminar if used B+. Passed generals. Thesis approved. Special passed. Then send recommendations to Graduate School (they will notify of the date) and a carbon to Secretary of the Faculty.

[Now done by the Departments]

For Committee of Seven make up list of those who have completed all requirements or about to, and they will vote to recommend these men for the Ph.D. On list star those provided he passed the special examination. You will check, before sending to Dean Mayo.

Dear Dean Mayo:

The Division of History, Government and Economics, at its meeting of May 23, 1942 recommended the following students for the degree of Ph.D. in Economics at Commencement 1942:

List and star (provided that he satisfies his language requirements).

Sincerely yours,
E. H. Chamberlin

Send copy to Miss B. Woodward, University 5.

On theses handed in late Committee of Seven to decide whether they will accept it or not even if late. In any case can send it out for reading and give examination, but would not receive degree until next time.

A.E.A. thesis list. Send duplicated form to each of the men to find out who are writing theses. Faculty members for those who are working on theses under them. Get a copy of the August issue, pick out the titles of Harvard, and then write to Professor  —— I find the following student writing his thesis under you. (Give title and name) Is this correct?

Send A + B copies of thesis to Graduate School just before voted the degree.

The B copy to Archives. Fill in on Plan of Study the date when degree was awarded — get from Gazette.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics, Correspondence and Papers 1930-1961. Robertson —Schumpeter. Box 21, Folder “Rules for arranging Ph.D., Examinations 1941-42.”

Image Source: From the cover of Harvard Class Album 1946.

Categories
Distribution Exam Questions Harvard Theory

Harvard. Distribution of Wealth. Course Description and Final Exam. Carver, 1908-1909

Thomas Nixon Carver’s teaching portfolio included economic theory, agricultural economics, social reform schemes (critically examined), and sociology. Like Irving Fisher, Carver was anti-alcohol. His autobiography Reflections of an Unplanned Life (1949) makes dry reading but as a dusty chest of anecdotes, it is a link worth archiving. 

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From earlier semesters

1904-05
1905-06
1907-08

The course content is undoubtedly captured in Carver’s 1904 book The Distribution of Wealth which was reprinted several times during his lifetime.

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Course Enrollment
1908-09

Economics 14a 1hf. Professor Carver. — The Distribution of Wealth.

Total 56: 5 Graduates, 19 Seniors, 18 Juniors, 11 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1908-1909, p. 67.

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Course Announcement
1908-09

Economics 14a 1hf. The Distribution of Wealth. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., at 1.30. Professor Carver. —

This course begins with a survey of the most noteworthy attempts to formulate a general theory of value. The economic systems of Ricardo, Mill, Böhm-Bawerk, and Clark are specially reviewed. The attempt is then made, in the light of these criticisms, and of industrial conditions, to formulate a positive theory of distribution helpful in explaining the actual incomes of the various classes of producers. Finally the question of justice in distribution is considered.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. V, No. 19
(1 June 1908). History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government, and Economics, 1908-09, p. 49.

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ECONOMICS 14a1
Mid-year Examination, 1908-09

  1. Assuming that the value of an exchangeable thing depends upon how much it is wanted in comparison with other exchangeable things, what determines how much an article of consumption is wanted? What determines how much an agent of production is wanted? Explain and give reasons.
  2. What, in last analysis, is cost of production, and how is it related to value?
  3. Exactly what do you understand by the standard of living?
  4. How and for what reason does interest arise? Illustrate by means of a diagram or by means of arithmetical figures.
  5. If risk-taking were pleasurable, would there be any pecuniary gains for risk-takers as a class? How would it be if risk-taking were disagreeable? Is risk-taking actually pleasurable or is it disagreeable, and do risk-takers actually make pecuniary gains as a class?
  6. Assuming that the labor of a man and team, with the appropriate tools, costs a farmer the equivalent of 7 bushels a day, how many days could he most profitably devote to the cultivation of each of the four fields described in the following table:—
Number of days’ labor of a man and team with the appropriate tools. Total product, in bushels, of each of four fields under
varying applications of labor.

Field A

 Field B Field C

Field D

5

 50 45 40 35
10 150 140 130

125

15

 270 255 240 220
20 380 360 300

270

25

 450 420 350 310
30 510 470 390

340

35

 560 510 420 360
40 600 540 440

375

45

 630 560 450 385
50 650 575 455

390
  1. Assuming that the relation of the labor supply to the land supply is such that for four fields like those assumed in the table there are 150 days labor of the kind assumed, what, in bushels, would be the normal rate of wages — e., what is the highest rate of wages at which the farmers could find it more to their advantage to employ all the labor than to leave some of it unemployed?
  2. Comment upon the following:—
    “The final utility theory of value rests on the same principle as does the theory of diminishing returns from agriculture; and this principle has a far wider range of new applications. One law, therefore, governs economic life, and theories old and new contain partial expressions of it. The theory of value rests upon one application of the general law, and the theory of rent on another.” — CLARK: Distribution of Wealth, p. 208.
  3. Explain the following:—
    “The Division of labor may be classified, for the present purpose, as of two sorts, contemporaneous and successive.” — TAUSSIG: Wages and Capital, p. 6.
  4. What does Böhm-Bawerk mean by the technical superiority of roundabout processes of production?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1908-09; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1909), pp. 44-45.

Image Source: Portrait of Thomas Nixon Carver from the Harvard Class Album 1913. Colorized and enhanced by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Statistics

Harvard. Exams for Statistics. Ripley, 1908-1909

William Zebina Ripley taught at Harvard from 1901/02 through 1932/33. He was a statistician in the time of pre-mathematical statistics but he truly made his mark as an expert on the institutions of organized labor, industrial organization, and transportation. 

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Statistics (Econ 4), previous years

1901-02.
1902-03.
1903-04.
1904-05.
1905-06 [omitted]
1906-07. [offered but no printed exam found]
1907-08. [only mid-year exam found]

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Course Description
1908-09

[Economics] 4. Statistics. — Theory, method, and practice. Tu., Th., at 11. Professor Ripley.

This course is intended rather as an analysis of methods of research and sources of information than as embodying mere results. A brief history of statistics will be followed by an account of census and other statistical methods in the United States and abroad, with the scientific use and interpretation of results. The main divisions of vital statistics, relating to birth, marriage, morbidity, and mortality, life tables, etc.; the statistics of trade and commerce, such as price indexes, etc.; industrial statistics relating to labor, wages, and employment; statistics of agriculture, manufactures, and transportation, will be then considered in order. Laboratory work, amounting to not less than two hours per week, in the preparation of charts, maps, and diagrams from original material, will be required.

Course 4 is open to students who have taken Economics 1; and it is also open to Juniors and Seniors who are taking Economics 1.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. V, No. 19
(1 June 1908). History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government, and Economics, 1908-09, p. 49.

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Course Enrollment
1908-09

Economics 4. Professor Ripley. — Statistics. Theory, method, and practice.

Total 24: 5 Graduates, 9 Seniors, 5 Juniors, 4 Freshmen, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1908-1909, p. 67.

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HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 4

Mid-year Examination, 1908-09

  1. What is the nature of Hoffman’s statistical data on negro mortality? Does the census of 1900 throw any light upon it? Criticise the evidence.
  2. Criticise the statement, “the average age at death is discussed at greater length than it would seem proper to give to a practically discarded subject per vital statistics.”
  3. —
 

Conjugal condition.

Color.
White.

Colored.

Males

 Females. Males.

Females.
Registration area:
Single

16.6

 13.7 32.7

29.6
Married

16.4

 13.1 23.8

20.3
Widowed

62.6

 43.6 49.1

34.4

The above figures give death rates per thousand. What do they show and what do they not show?

  1. Discuss the inter-relation between birth, marriage, and death rates. Show how they affect one another.
  2. Comment upon the following figures showing the average number of children born in certain places: —

Native born mothers

Foreign born mothers
Persons included

19,478

26,544
Average age of mothers

42.23

42.98
Child bearing period (years)

5.41

8.39
Years married

17.64

19.08
Average children born

2.77

4.83
Average children born by mothers of preceding generation

6.47

7.75
  1. State the main statistical laws relating to the phenomena of marriage and divorce.
  2. Compare conditions in the United States respecting registration of births and deaths.
  3. What are the principal difficulties and defects in statistics of pauperism?
  4. Compare the arithmetical and geometrical methods of estimating populations as applied to the United States in 1800 and at the present time. 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 8, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1908-09.

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HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 4

Year-end Examination, 1908-09

  1. Explain and illustrate the following proposition concerning the tendency toward concentration of wealth: “by imagining a group of persons having incomes represented by 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, etc., in the first epoch, and by 2, 6, 10, 14, 18, 22, etc., in the second epoch. Of course, as the income of each individual has doubled, the distribution of wealth is the same in both epochs. Yet if we arrange these ten individuals in fixed classes, and reason about the ‘concentration of wealth’ from the rate of increase in the higher and lower classes, we should probably conclude that some great change had taken place.” Can you suggest any better way to show the real facts than by the use of such “fixed classes”?
  2. What is available officially as to statistics of strikes and lockouts? Point out the limitations upon the value.
  3. Indicate the special field of statistics of as many as possible of the following authorities, viz.: Engel, Dewey, Rowley, Quetelet, Jevons, North, Wright, Hoffman, Willcox, Newsholme.
  4. What is the principal source of weakness in all statistics of the U. S. Department of Agriculture as to crop conditions? How have they met it?
  5. In what manner are statistics of profits in manufactures commonly computed? Point out sources of error in the process.
  6. What is the principal argument in favor of weighted averages in price statistics? How may this be best controverted?
  7. Set forth the main criticisms against the Aldrich Committee Report on Wages.
  8. What does a logarithmic curve show, which may not be properly shown otherwise?
  9. Define the following terms used in statistics, viz.: “improvement trade,” “quet,” decile, mode, fecundity.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1908-09; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1909), pp. 34-35.

Image Source: Harvard University Archives.  William Zebina Ripley [photographic portrait, ca. 1910], J. E. Purdy & Co., J. E. P. & C. (1910). Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Categories
Harvard Regulations

Harvard. Economics Ph.D. Established. Degree requirements as of 1904-05

While there were not a few Ph.D. degrees awarded at Harvard nominally in political science at the turn of the 20th century that were in fact Ph.D. degrees in economics, starting with the academic year 1904-05 the economics Ph.D. degree became officially separated from the Ph.D. in political science “in accordance with the general practice of universities”. It would take another couple of decades for a Ph.D. in sociology to split off from the Ph.D. in economics, but that is a story for another post.

In this post I have transcribed the cover memo submitted by a committee of the Division of History, Government, and Economics that recommended the establishment of a distinct economics Ph.D. This memo is followed by the explicit requirements to be satisfied by candidates for the Ph.D. in economics at Harvard as of 1904-05. Links to the rules and regulations from other years have been included as well.

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Previously transcribed requirements for the Ph.D. in Harvard University’s Division of History, Government, and Economics

Degree Requirements for 1897-98.
Full 1897-98 Division Announcement
Degree Requirements for 1911-12.
Degree Requirements for 1921-22
Degree Requirements for 1934-35.
Degree Requirements from 1947.
Degree Requirements from 1958.
Degree Regulations from 1968.

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Members of the Committee to Review the Requirements for the Ph.D. Degree

Chairman Charles H. Haskins, Professor of History
Albert Bushnell Hart, Professor of History
Abbott Lawrence Lowell, Eaton Professor of the Science of Government.
William Zebina Ripley, Professor of Political Economy and Chairman of the Department of Political Economy
William Frank Taussig, Henry Lee Professor of Economics

_________________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY.

Cambridge, Mass., March 5, 1904.

To the Division of History and Political Science: —

The Committee of the Division of History and Political Science appointed to consider the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy submits herewith its report in the form of a revised statement of the regulations governing the degree. No fundamental changes have been made, nor has it been the purpose of the committee to make the attainment of the degree materially harder or easier than at present. The changes proposed arise partly from the necessity of giving fuller recognition to the instruction now offered in economics and government, and partly from the attempt to correct certain tendencies which have appeared in connection with the general examination.

It is the opinion of the committee that the time has come for distinguishing the degrees offered to the student of economics and the student of government, in accordance with the general practice of universities; and the establishment of the degrees of Doctor of Philosophy in Economics is accordingly recommended. A list of subjects suitable for candidates in economics has been drawn up, and the list in political science has been revised and expanded. Unimportant changes are also suggested in the list of subjects in history.

It seems to have been the original intention, of the Division that the general examination should come comparatively early in the course of the candidate’s studies and should serve not only as a guarantee of comprehensive study but also as a sort of “qualifying round,” a test of general eligibility for the subsequent study for the degree. In practice the general examination has become the principal examination, the tendency being more and more evident for students to postpone this examination to the third or even the fourth year of study and to put off further preparation for the doctorate until after this examination. The result is that for most students the greater part of their graduate study is a continuous and avowed cram for the general examination. Their choice of courses and reading is determined by this, and many take no seminary or research courses and get no start in independent work before their last year of study. The committee believes that the general examination should come earlier, so that the weak may be discouraged before they have gone too far, and the strong may be ready as soon as possible to work freely and independently. It is not easy to suggest any legislation which can be trusted to accomplish this end, but the proposed reduction in the number of subjects from seven to six and the allowance suggested for honors at graduation ought to have some influence in this direction. More, however, will depend on the spirit in which the general examination is conducted.

On the other hand there is a constant tendency to narrow unduly the field for the special examination, and the committee recommends that the special field be not less in extent than one of the subjects offered for the general examination. If the period between the general and the special examination be lengthened, it will not be unreasonable to expect somewhat better preparation for the special examination.

The requirement of a reading knowledge of French and German has existed on paper only; it is proposed that each candidate shall satisfy the Division on this point by a special examination or otherwise.

This statement has been drawn up for the convenience of the Division by the chairman of the committee: the report has the approval of the whole committee, consisting of Messrs. Hart, Lovell, Ripley, Taussig, and Haskins.

Charles H. Haskins, chairman.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Division of History, Government & Economics. PhD. Material through 1917. Box 2, in an unlabeled folder.

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DEGREE OF PH.D.
[Division requirements, 1904-05]

For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy not less than two years devoted to advanced studies, approved as affording suitable preparation for the degree, are required of graduates of colleges of good standing. This degree is not usually taken in less than three years after the attainment of the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Harvard College, or an equivalent. A graduate of another college may ascertain by writing to the Dean of the Graduate School whether any special conditions will be imposed upon him. In order to be admitted to the degree the candidate must show a general training in the whole field of study, firm grasp of his special subject within the field, and independent research in some portion of that subject. He must present a thesis, showing original treatment or investigation, and must pass such examination or examinations as may be required by the Division. The degree is given on the ground of thorough study and high attainments. Appropriate studies carried on in the Graduate School of any other university may be recognized as a part of the candidate’s preparation for the degree. The minimum period of residence at Harvard University is one year.

The University confers the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History; in Political Science; and in Economics. Candidates for the degree under any of these heads are subject to supervision and examination by the Division of History and Political Science. In order to indicate the grounds on which it is prepared to recommend candidates for the degree, the Division has adopted the following statements and suggestions.

[…]

GENERAL PREPARATION

Every candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy is required, at an early stage in his preparation, to submit to the Division, through its chairman, evidence of the extent and quality of his general studies. A command of good English, spoken and written, the ability to make free use of French and German books, and a fair acquaintance with general history are expected in all cases. On the evidence presented, the Division will decide, provisionally, as to the sufficiency of the candidate’s general training. No set examinations will be held at this stage, but the candidate’s ability to use French and German will be specially tested in connection with the general examination described below. Candidates may be required to make up deficiencies by pursuing specified College courses, or in such other way as the Division may designate. The provisional acceptance of a candidate, as regards this portion of his preparation, does not preclude the Division from rejecting him later, if, in the examination on specific subjects, it shall appear that his general education is insufficient.

Candidates must ordinarily pass two examinations: the first general, the second (after the acceptance of the thesis) on a special field, defined in each case by vote of the Division.

I. GENERAL EXAMINATION

The first examination will be held not later than the beginning of the last year of study for the degree, and candidates are recommended to present themselves for this examination in the course of the preceding academic year. The object of this test is to ascertain the applicant’s attainments within a considerable range of subjects in the field of History, Political Science, or Economics. He will ordinarily be examined in six subjects in all, chosen from the groups defined below under the respective departments of study. Candidates are not required, however, to follow the details of these plans. They may present, for the consideration of the Division, reasonable substitutes for any of the topics named, and may offer appropriate combinations of parts of the separate subjects. They are advised in all cases, to submit their plans of study for approval at an early date. In judging of the candidate’s fitness for the degree, regard will be had to the general grasp and maturity shown, as well as to the range and accuracy of his attainments in the specific subjects of examination.

The scope of the general examination may be reduced by one of the three following methods:—

  1. Graduates of Harvard College of distinguished excellence, shown by taking highest honors on oral examination, may by special vote of the Division be excused altogether from this examination.
  2. Graduates of Harvard College of high excellence, shown by taking honors on oral examination, may be excused from examination in not more than three of the six subjects, by a vote of the Division.
  3. Students from other institutions, bringing credentials of high excellence, may on entering the Graduate School submit themselves to a special oral test, similar to the honor examinations, in not more than three of the six subjects.

II. THESIS

The thesis must be in the hands of the Chairman of the Division on or before April 1 of the year in which the degree is sought. It must be accepted as satisfactory before the candidate can be admitted to the final examination. It must show an original treatment of the subject, or give evidence of independent research, and must also be in good literary form and suitable for publication.

III. SPECIAL EXAMINATION

The second examination will be on a single limited subject agreed upon in advance. It is intended that each candidate should have, as far as possible, freedom of choice in selecting his subject, but it is expected that he will submit, for approval, an outline of work to be presented in satisfaction of this requirement. It is desirable that this outline should be submitted a year in advance of the examination. Ordinarily the ground covered by the special examination will not be greater in extent than one of the subjects offered by the candidate at his general examination, and may be identical with one of these subjects. Or the candidate may limit his more special preparation to an approved portion of this field, which will regularly include the period or topic within which the thesis lies. At the final examination, the candidate will be expected to show such a mastery of his special field, and such an acquaintance with the literature, general and special, bearing on it, as would qualify him to give instruction to mature students.

[…]

THE DEGREE OF PH.D. IN ECONOMICS
[1904-05]

GENERAL PREPARATION

Candidates for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Economics must meet the requirements stated on p. 56. They should also be well grounded in the main outlines of European and American history, and should have had a general view of the nature and growth of political institutions and constitutional law.

GENERAL EXAMINATION

This examination (the general conditions of which are stated on p. 56) will include six subjects, chosen from the following list. Of the six subjects, at least one must be taken from each of the groups A, B, C, and D, the first three of these groups being purely economic, while the fourth, more general in character, is intended to secure a somewhat broader basis of preparation. In all cases at least one of the subjects chosen must be historical in character, either economic history under group B or one of the historical fields defined under Group D

Group A

  1. Economic Theory and its History.

Group B

  1. Economic History to 1750.
  2. Economic History since 1750.
  3. Sociology and Social Reform.
  4. Statistics (Literature, Methods, and Results).

Group C

  1. Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises.
  2. Public Finance and Financial History.
  3. Transportation and Foreign Commerce.
  4. Labor Problems and Industrial Organization.

Group D
Selected topics from one or more of the following fields:—

  1. History of Political Institutions in Mediaeval Europe, including England.
  2. History of Political Institutions since 1500 in Europe, including England.
  3. History of American Institutions.
  4. Modern Government and Comparative Constitutional Law.
  5. Jurisprudence.
  6. Philosophy.
  7. Anthropology

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. University Publications, N.S. 129.  Division of History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History & Government and Economics,1904-05 (Cambridge, Mass.: May 16, 1904), pp. 55-58, 61-62.

Image Source: The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, The New York Public Library. “Sever Hall, Harvard Univ., Cambridge, Mass.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1898 – 1931. Also see Library of Congress (image dated 1904).

Categories
Harvard Regulations

Harvard. Instructions for PhD General Exam Committee Members, ca. 1915

Harvard Square in 1915

Some of the artifacts worth putting into the digital record here at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror are found printed on humble random pieces of paper discovered in files stuck in folders buried in archival boxes. 

While there is nothing truly surprising in the following five point instructions to examiners (ca. 1915) in Harvard’s Division of History, Government, and Economics tasked with performing the General Examination of Ph.D. candidates, tablets with explicit commandments were indeed intended by some administrative spirit to guide the practice of such important rituals.

______________________

An Analogous Artifact
from Columbia University

Columbia. Memo on Doctoral Exams in the Faculty of Political Science, 1946

______________________

DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS

INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMMITTEES CONDUCTING THE GENERAL EXAMINATION FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
  1. Special attention is called to the following statements, of which the first forms part of the requirements formulated by the Division for the general examination; while the second, quoted from the requirements in History, expresses (mutatis mutandis) the purpose of the general examination throughout the Division.

In judging of the candidate’s fitness for the degree regard will be had to the general grasp and maturity shown, as well as to the range and accuracy of his attainments in the specific subjects of examination. […]
The object of the examination is to ascertain the applicant’s acquirements within a considerable range of historical knowledge. He will not be expected to show an encyclopaedic command of minute details; but he must give evidence of thorough study, and an understanding of the significance and relations of historical events and institutions within the limits of his field of study.

  1. Each Committee should meet fifteen minutes in advance of the examination, in order that its members may familiarize themselves with the candidate’s record and plan the examination.
  2. An engagement as member of an Examining Committee should have precedence over all other university engagements, and the number of examiners present at any time during the examination should not fall below four.
  3. The Chairman of the Examining Committee is responsible for the general conduct of the examination and shall report in writing to the Chairman of the Division the result and the quality of the examination.
  4. The candidate passes or fails upon the examination as a whole.
 Conditions in individual subjects are contrary to the policy of the Division.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Division of History, Government & Economics. PhD. Exams. 1917-18 to 1920-21. Box 3.  Printed instructions for the conduct of a General Examination in the Division of History, Government and Economics found in the records of Hebert Knight Dennis who took the General Examination in economics twice May 21, 1915 (not passed) and 29 Feb 1916 (passed).

Image Source:  Harvard Square 1915 from Brookline Public Library’s Photograph Collection at Digital Commonwealth (Non-Commercial, Creative Commons license).

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Industrial Organization

Harvard. Economics of Corporations. Final Exam, Course Description, Enrollment. Ripley, 1908-1909

Down the line we can expect to have decades worth of field exam questions for Harvard. But between there and here Economics in the Rear-view Mirror needs to continue the unsung work of transcribing the course exams. But it has the virtue of being steady work.

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Other Corporations/Industrial Organization Related Posts
for William Z. Ripley

Problems of Labor and Industrial Organization, 1902-1903.

Economics of Corporations, 1903-1904.

Economics of Corporations, 1904-05 (with Vanderveer Custis)

Economics of Corporations, 1906-07 (with Stuart Daggett)

Economics of Corporations, 1907-08 (with Stuart Daggett)

Economics of Corporations, 1914-1915.

________________________

Course Enrollment
1908-09

Economics 9b 2hf. Professor Ripley, assisted by Mr. [Edmund Thornton] Miller. — Economics of Corporations.

Total 132: 8 Graduates, 35 Seniors, 51 Juniors, 29 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 8 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1908-1909, p. 68.

________________________

Course Description
1908-09

[Economics] 9b 2hf. Economics of Corporations. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 10. Professor Ripley.

This course will treat of the fiscal and industrial organization of capital, especially in the corporate form. The principal topic considered will be industrial combination and the so-called trust problem. This will be broadly discussed, with comparative study of conditions in the United States and Europe. The development of corporate enterprise, promotion, and financing, accounting, liability of directors and underwriters, will be described, not from their legal but from their purely economic aspects; and the effects of industrial combination upon efficiency, profits, wages, prices, the development of export trade, and international competition will be considered in turn.
The course is open to those students only who have taken Economics 1. Systematic reading and report work will be assigned from time to time.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. V, No. 19
(1 June 1908). History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government, and Economics, 1908-09,
p. 55.

________________________

ECONOMICS 9b
Year-end Examination, 1908-09

  1. Name an eminently successful industrial combination, and an unfortunate one, stating in each case the principal feature of its career.
  2. What has been the principal difficulty in interesting the workmen of the U.S. Steel Corporation in ownership of its stock? What was the leading motive in adoption of the plan?
  3. Describe at least four causes of the financial reorganization of industrial combinations.
  4. What provisions in either the English or German laws regulating corporations would have prevented the financial losses in (a) the U. S. Shipbuilding Co.; (b) the Asphalt Companies Collapse; (c) the American Malting Co.?
  5. What is the lesson of the recent history of the American tin plate industry?
  6. Outline four proposed remedies for the present unsatisfactory situation under the existing Federal law regulating industrial combinations.
  7. What are some of the practical obstacles in the enforcement of the Sherman Act?
  8. What does the balance sheet (see below) show as to the form of organization of the company concerned?
  9. What was the main economic conclusion reached as a result of your thesis work in this course?
ASSETS
Cash $1,616,114.78
Due by Customers 5,930,735.70
Bills Receivable 90,629.21
Doubtful Debtors, valued at 16,473.94
Sundry other Debtors and Book Accounts 117,412.52
Goods on hand and in process 10,810,368.50
Drawbacks Due 462,201.37
Raw materials 1,282,097.23
Sundry Personal Property 291,603.39
Advances to other Companies 14,521,552.90
Plants and Lands 7,197,600.27
Stocks of other Companies 35,678,044.98
Railroad Mortgage 100,000.00
Treasury Stock 100,000.00
Unexpired Insurance Policies 9,875.40
Good Will Account and Organization Expenses $62,832,300.01
 

$141,057,010.20

  

$78,224,710.19

$62,832,300.01
LIABILITIES
Accrued Interest $58,530.00
Current Accounts 328,411.95
Bills Payable 1,557,391.66
Exchange (not due) 1,798,370.74
Bonds.  $6,680,000.00
     Less in Treasury. $1,400,000.00 5,280,000.00
Reserve for Fire Insurance 383.379.88
Preferred Stock 62,282,300.00
Common Stock $62,882,300.00
Surplus—as January 1st, 1903 $6,486,325.97
 

$141,057,010.20

  

$78,174,710.20

  

$62,882,300.00

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1908-09; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1909), pp. 42-43.

Image Source: 1903 stock certificate of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad from Wikimedia.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Labor

Harvard. Labor economics. Enrollment, Course Description, Final Exam. Ripley, 1908-1909

Labor economics was already an established applied field in the Harvard economics department at the dawn of the twentieth century. William Zebina Ripley covered big labor and big business in separate courses. 

The photo above shows my grandfather (left), seen here working on the railroad.

__________________________

Problems of Labor:
previous semesters

1902-03
1903-04
1904-05
1905-06
1906-07
1907-08
(Some information about Lauren Carroll,
Ripley’s teaching assistant for this course)

__________________________

Course Description
1908-09

9a  1hf. Problems of Labor. Half-course (first half-year). Tu.,
Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 1.30. Professor Ripley.

This course will deal mainly with the economic and social relations of employer and employed, with especial reference to legislation. Among the topics included will be, —collective bargaining; labor organizations; factory legislation in the United States and Europe; strikes, strike legislation and legal decisions; conciliation and arbitration; employers’ liability and compulsory compensation; compulsory insurance with particular reference to European experience; the problem of the unemployed; apprenticeship, and trade and technical education.

Each student will make at least one report upon a labor union, from the original documents. Two lectures a week, with one recitation, will be the usual practice.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. V, No. 19
(1 June 1908). History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government, and Economics, 1908-09,
p. 54-55.

__________________________

Course Enrollment
1908-09

Economics 9a 1hf. Professor Ripley, assisted by Mr. Carroll. — Problems of Labor.

Total 80: 4 Graduates, 24 Seniors, 30 Juniors, 13 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 8 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1908-1909, p. 68.

__________________________

ECONOMICS 9a1
Mid-Year Examination, 1908-09

  1. If A does only two-thirds of a full day’s work for a day’s pay, is not a corresponding amount of work left over for B? What is the economic fallacy involved?
  2. What are the main arguments against the principle of the Workmen’s Compensation Acts? State these in the form of propositions, with the counter argument in each case.
  3. What was the justification in the then-existing conditions for the adoption by the courts of the “fellow servant” doctrine? Wherein does it fail to harmonize with present-day conditions?
  4. State the main characteristics of the legislation which has resulted from the Taff Vale decision.
  5. How far does the non-union man resemble the independent voter in politics in status? What, if any, is the defect in the parallel?
  6. State in brief sentences, the differences between the New Zealand and the Victorian types of labor legislation.
  7. Describe the main features of American trade union finance, contrasting it with British conditions.
  8. In the unions concerning which you have most information, what seem to you the most serious evils or abuses? What remedy do you suggest?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1908-09; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1909), pp. 41-42.

Image Source: An old family photo colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror. My maternal grandpa is the man on the left.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Public Finance

Harvard. Undergraduate public finance exam. Bullock, 1908-1909

Another project and some travel have kept me busy since the last post. At last I have some time to get back to producing a flow of new content for Economics in the Rear-view Mirror. I’ll pick up where I left off posting exam questions for courses at Harvard in the academic year 1908-09.

________________________

Charles J. Bullock’s earlier public finance exams at Harvard

1901-02. Economics 7a and 7b. Financial administration; taxation [undergraduate]

1903-04. Economics 16.  Financial history of the United States

1904-05. Economics 7a. Introduction to public finance [undergraduate]

1904-05. Economics 7b. Theory and methods of taxation [undergraduate]

1904-05. Economics 16. Financial history of the United States.

1905-06 Economics 7.  Public finance [undergraduate]

1905-06 Economics 16. Public finance [advanced]

1906-07 Economics 16. Public finance and taxation

1907-08  Economics 16. Public finance and taxation

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

From 1906: Selected Readings in Public Finance edited by Charles Jesse Bullock (Boston: Inn & Company).

From 1910: Short bibliography on public finance “for serious minded students” by Bullock

________________________

Course Enrollment
1908-09

Economics 7 2hf. Professor Bullock, assisted by Mr. Harrison. — Public Finance considered with special reference to the Theory and Methods of Taxation.

Total 110: 22 Seniors, 38 Juniors, 41 Sophomores, 5 Freshmen, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1908-1909, p. 67.

________________________

Course Description
1908-09

7 2hf. Public Finance, considered with special reference to the Theory and Methods of Taxation. Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 10. Professor Bullock.

This course is for undergraduates exclusively, and cannot be elected by graduates. As stated in the title, much attention is given to the subject of taxation, which will occupy about one half of the time of the course and will be studied with special reference to federal, state, and local taxation in the United States. The remainder of the time will be given to such topics as governmental expenditures, governmental industries (including some study of the relation of the state to railways and other public-service industries), public debts, and financial administration.

The course may, with the consent of the instructor, be elected by students who are taking Economics 1 in the same year.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. V, No. 19
(1 June 1908). History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government, and Economics, 1908-09,
p. 48.

________________________

ECONOMICS 7
Year-end Examination, 1908-09

  1. What causes are tending to increase municipal expenditures in the United States?
  2. What can be said for and against the proposition that increasing public expenditures are a sign of advancing civilization?
  3. In what actual cases has public ownership and operation of industries tended to reduce the burden of taxation? What do you consider the probable financial result of public ownership and operation?
  4. Describe the experience of the United States with income taxes.
  5. Write a brief history of the federal tax on spirits in the United States.
  6. By what criteria would you determine the justice of a proposed tax law?
  7. Why should a national debt be paid?
  8. Give a detailed account of the present method of taxing personal property in Massachusetts.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1908-09; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1909), p. 39.

Categories
Economists Harvard Transcript

Harvard. Economics Graduate Record of Paul Samuelson. PhD 1941

Joseph Schumpeter chaired the general economics Ph.D. exam and the special Ph.D. exam of Paul Samuelson. In the course transcript of the Graduate School of Arts and Science, we see that Schumpeter awarded Samuelson the presumably maximum maximorum grade of “A plus plus” in his course.

By the end of the 1930s the individual student records of Ph.D. candidates in Harvard’s Division of History, Government, and Economics were little more than the three page application for candidacy for the Ph.D. degree along with a fourth page on which the completion of degree requirements was duly recorded: the satisfaction of French and German reading skills, passing grades for the general and special Ph.D. exams, acceptance of the thesis by readers and a transcript of Harvard coursework (presumably to satisfy residency requirements). The grade reports for the general and special exams include little more that the grade awarded, the members of the examination committee, and occasionally a sentence or two remark on the candidate’s performance.

_______________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS

Application for Candidacy for the Degree of Ph.D.

[Note: Boldface used to indicate printed text of the application; italics used to indicate the handwritten entries]

I. Full Name, with date and place of birth.

Paul Anthony Samuelson, May 15, 1915; Gary, Indiana.

II. Academic Career: (Mention, with dates inclusive, colleges or other higher institutions of learning attended; and teaching positions held.)

University of Chicago — 1932-35

III. Degrees already attained. (Mention institutions and dates.)

A.B. — 1935 — U. of C.

IV. General Preparation. (Indicate briefly the range and character of your under-graduate studies in History, Economics, Government, and in such other fields as Ancient and Modern Languages, Philosophy, etc. In case you are a candidate for the degree in History, state the number of years you have studied preparatory and college Latin.)

Econ. Theory, 5 quarters; Econ Stat, 2; Acc’ting, 1; Labor Problems, 2; Public Finance; Econ. Hist. 2; Money & Banking, 1; Sociology, 3; Pol. Science, 4; History 7;
Reading Knowledge Exam in French and German for Ph.D., U. of C.
Anthrop. 1; Educ. 1; Mathematics, 3 quarters

V. Department of Study. (Do you propose to offer yourself for the Ph.D., “History,” in “Economics,” or in “Political Science”?)

Economics

VI. Choice of Subjects for the General Examination. (State briefly the nature of your preparation in each subject, as by Harvard courses, courses taken elsewhere, private reading, teaching the subject, etc., etc.)

  1. Economic Theory. – Econ. 11, 15b, 18
  2. Economic Statistics – Econ 32b Econ 31a
  3. Money and Banking – Econ 50
  4. Mathematical Economics Econ 8a, 18
  5. [Note: this field has a red bracket] Economic History – Econ 23
  6. Theory 

VII. Special Subject for the special examination.

Economic Theory

VIII. Thesis Subject. (State the subject and mention the instructor who knows most about your work upon it.)

[Left blank]

IX. Examinations. (Indicate any preferences as to the time of the general and special examinations.)

[Left blank]

X. Remarks

[Left blank]

Signature of a member of the Division certifying approval of the above outline of subjects.

[signed] H. H. Burbank

*   *   *   [Last page of application] *   *   *

[Not to be filled out by the applicant]

Name: Paul Anthony Samuelson

Approved: February 25, 1936

Ability to use French certified by November 5, 1935.Dr. A. E. Monroe.

Ability to use German certified by November 4, 1936. Dr. A. E. Monroe.

Date of general examination May 18, 1936. Passed. J.A.S.

Thesis received  November 12, 1940.

read by Professors Schumpeter and E. B. Wilson.

approved November 26, 1940.

Date of special examination December 4, 1940. Passed, J.A.S.

Recommended for the Doctorate 2/4/41

Degree conferred 2/17/41

Remarks.  [Left blank]

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

General examination,
Departmental Report

DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS
Report on Examinations for Graduate Degrees

Name of Candidate: Paul Anthony Samuelson

Date of Examination: Monday, May 18, 1936.

Department of Economics

Fields Examined: 1. Economic Theory, 2. Statistics, 3. Money and Banking, 4. Mathematical Economics

The Committee certifies that the General Special Examination of the candidate was

Excellent
Good
Fair
Unsatisfactory

Committee: Professors Schumpeter (chairman), Harris, Leontief, Dr. Gordon

Further comments may be made below.

A remarkable showing in economic theory but less strong in the applied field

Chairman
[signed]
Joseph Schumpeter

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

Transcript of Paul A. Samuelson in the
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

24 UNIVERSITY HALL,
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS

November 21, 1940

Transcript of the record of Mr Paul Anthony Samuelson

1935-36
COURSE GRADE
Economics 11 (1 course) A plus (mid-year grade)
Economics 121 (½ course) A minus
Economics 31a1 (½ course) A plus
Economics 50 (1 course) Excused
Economics 15b2 (½ course) A plus plus [sic]
Economics 32b2 (½ course) A minus
1936-37
COURSE GRADE
Economics 133 (1 course) A
Economics 143 (1 course) A
Economics 151 (1 course) A
Economics 145a1 (½ course) A plus
Economics 145b2 (½ course) A plus

Mr. Samuelson received the degree of Master of Arts in June, 1936.

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

Notice of Time and Place
of Special Examination

9 Holyoke House
November 26, 1940

Dear Mr. Samuelson:

The arrangements have been completed for your special examination for the degree of Ph.D. in Economics. It is to be held on Wednesday, December 4, at 4. p.m. in Littauer Center M-10.

Sincerely yours,
[unsigned copy]
Secretary.

Mr. Paul A. Samuelson
11 Ware Street
Cambridge, Massachusetts

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

Special examination,
Division Report

DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS
Report on Examinations for Graduate Degree

Name of Candidate: Paul Anthony Samuelson

Date of Examination: Wednesday, December 4, 1940, at 4 o’clock

Department of Economics

Fields Examined: Special Field: Economic Theory

Thesis: “Foundations of Analytical Economics: The Observational Significance of Economic Theory.”

The Committee certified that the General Special Examination of the candidate was

Excellent
Good
Fair
Failed, no bar to re-examination
Failed, recommended not to request re-examination

Committee: Professors Schumpeter (chairman), Wilson, Chamberlin, Dr. Taylor

Further comments may be made below.

The performance was excellent not only in mathematical but also in general economic theory.

[signed]
Josef Schumpeter
E.B. Wilson
O.H. Taylor
E.H. Chamberlin

Source: Harvard University Archives. Division of History, Government & Economics. PhD. Material 1939-42, Box 20.

__________________________

Course Names and Instructors
(1935-36)

Economics 11
Economic Theory		 Prof. William F. Taussig
Economics 121
Monopolistic Competition and Allied Problems in Value Theory		 Prof. Edward H. Chamberlin
Economics 31a1
Theory of Economic Statistics, I		 Prof. William L. Crum and
Asst. Prof. Edward Frickey
Economics 50
Principles of Money and Banking		 Prof. John H. Williams
Economics 15b2
Selected Problems in Advance Economic Theory		 Prof. Joseph A. Schumpeter
and an assistant
Economics 32b2
Topics in Statistical Theory		 Prof. E. B. Wilson

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1935-36, pp. 82-84.

Course Names and Instructors
(1936-37)

Economics 133
Recent Economic History		 Prof. Abbott Paysan Usher
Economics 143
International Trade		 Prof. Gottfried Haberler
Economics 151
Public Finance		 Professor Harold H. Burbank
Economics 145a1
Business Cycles and Economic Forecasting		 Prof. Joseph A. Schumpeter
Economics 145b2
Seminar. Business Cycles and Economic Forecasting		 Prof. Joseph A. Schumpter and Assoc. Prof. Gottfried Haberler

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1936-37, pp. 93-94.

Image Source: Original black-and-white photo of Samuelson from the slideshow at the M.I.T. Memorial Service (April 10, 2010).  Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Categories
Economic History Exam Questions Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. European and U.S. Economic History. Reading Lists and Exams. Gay, 1908-09

This post provides the double dose of economic history taught by Professor Edwin Francis Gay at Harvard in the 1908-09 academic year. I have transcribed the reading lists and final exams for the courses covering 19th century European economic history and United States economic history below.

A short bibliography for “serious students” of economic history assembled by Gay and published in 1910 was posted earlier.

__________________________

Economic History Materials
Posted Earlier

Economic History of the United States

1901-02. Economics 6. Economic History of the United States. [O.M.W. Sprague and J.H. Patten]

1902-03. Economics 6. Economic History of the United States. [O.M.W. Sprague]

1903-04. Economics 6. Economic History of the United States. [O.M.W. Sprague]

1904-05. Economics 6. Economic and Financial History of the United States. [O.M.W. Sprague]

1905-06. Economics 6. Economic and Financial History of the United States [with Frank W. Taussig]

1906-07. Economics 6b. Economic and Financial History of the United States. [E.F. Gay]

1907-08. Economics 6b. Economic and Financial History of the United States. [E.F. Gay]

European Economic History

1902-03. Economics 10. The Mediaeval Economic History of Europe. [E.F. Gay]

1904-05. Economics 10. The Mediaeval Economic History of Europe. [E.F. Gay, only one student enrolled, no printed exam available]

1905-06. Economics 10. Mediaeval Economic History of Europe. [E.F. Gay]

1906-07. Economics 6a. European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century. [E.F. Gay]

1907-08. Economics 6a. European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century. [E.F. Gay]

1908-09. Economics 6a. European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century. [E.F. Gay]

1902-03. Economics 11. Economic History of Europe since 1500. [E.F. Gay]

1903-04. Economics 11. Modern Economic History of Europe. [E.F. Gay]

1904-05. Economics 11. Modern Economic History of Europe. [E.F. Gay]

1905-06. Economics 11. Modern Economic History of Europe. [E.F. Gay]

1907-08. Economics 11. Modern Economic History of Europe. [E.F. Gay]

Other Economic History Material

1903-04. Economics 24. General Outlines of Agrarian History. [E.F. Gay]

E.F. Gay and A. P. Usher’s economic history exams from 1930 through 1949.

__________________________

Course Enrollment
19th Century European Economic History, 1908-09

Economics 6a 1hf. Professor Gay, assisted by Mr. M. T. [Melvin Thomas] Copeland — European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century.

Total 109: 11 Graduates, 28 Seniors, 48 Juniors, 19 Sophomores, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1908-1909, p. 67.

__________________________

Reading List
19th Century European Economic History, 1908-09

ECONOMICS 6a (1908)

Required Reading is indicated by an asterisk (*)

  1. GENERAL CONDITIONS. – COLONIAL POLICY.

*Smith, Colonial Policy of Europe, in Rand (4th ed.), pp. 1-30.

*Seeley, Expansion of England (ed. 1883), pp. 98-160.

Warner, Landmarks in English Industrial History, pp. 281-300.

Mantoux, La Révolution Industrielle, pp. 73-125.

  1. THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION.

*Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, pp. 32-93,

*Hobson, Evolution of Modern Capitalism, pp. 10-82.

Cunningham, Growth of English Industry and Commerce, Vol. III, pp. 609-619.

Walpole, History of England, Vol. I, pp. 50-76. (Rand, pp. 31-54.)

Wallas, Life of Francis Place, pp. 197-240.

Hutchins and Harrison, History of Factory Legislation, pp. 14-42.

Webb, History of Trade Unionism, pp. 1-101.

Mantoux, La Révolution Industrielle, pp. 349-502.

  1. AGRARIAN MOVEMENT. – CONTINENT.

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

*Seeley, Life and Times of Stein, Vol. I, pp. 287-297. (Rand, pp. 86-98.)

*Morier, Agrarian Legislation of Prussia, in “Systems of Land Tenure,” pp. 267-275. (Rand, pp. 98-108.)

Colman, European Agriculture (2d ed.), Vol. I1, pp. 371-394.

Flour de St. Genis, La Propriétée Rurale, pp. 80-164.

De Foville, Le Morcellement, pp. 52-89.

Goltz, Agrarwesen und Agrarpolitik, pp. 40-50.

  1. AGRARIAN MOVEMENT. – ENGLAND.

*Taylor, Decline of Land-Owning Farmers in England, pp. 1-61.

Brodrick, English Land and English Landlords, pp. 65-240.

Prothero, Pioneers and Progress of English Farming, pp. 64-103.

Caird, English Agriculture in 1850, pp. 473-528.

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

  1. THE FREE TRADE MOVEMENT. – ENGLAND.

*Levi, History of British Commerce, pp. 218-227, 261-272, 292-303. (Rand, pp. 207-241.)

*Morley, Life of Cobden, Vol. I, pp. 140-172, 355-389.

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

296-392.

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

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

  1. THE TARIFF. – CONTINENT.

*Ashley, Modern Tariff History, pp. 3-62, 301-312, [267-300]

Worms, L’Allemagne Economique, pp. 57-393.

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

Perigot, Histoire de Commerce Français, pp. 77-185.

  1. FINANCE.

*Cunningham, Growth of English Industry and Commerce, Vol. III (ed. 1903), pp. 689-703, 822-829, 833-840.

*Hobson, Evolution of Modern Capitalism, pp. 167-219.

Tugan-Baranowsky, Studien zur Theorie und Geschichte der Handelskrisen in England, pp. 38-54, 62-121.

Giffen, Growth of Capital, pp. 115-134.

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

Bastable, Public Finance, Bk. V, chaps. 3 and 4 (3d ed.), pp. 629-657

  1. THE NEW GOLD.

*Cairnes, Essays, pp. 53-108. (Rand, pp. 242-284.)

*Chevalier. On Gold (3d English ed.), pp. 1-9, 40-71, 99-106.

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

Leroy-Beaulieu, Traité d’Economie Politique, Vol. III, pp. 192-238.

Giffen, Economic Inquiries and Studies, Vol. I, pp. 75-97.

  1. TRANSPORTATION. – ENGLAND AND FRANCE.

*Hadley, Railroad Transportation, pp. 146-202, 236-258.

Ross, British Railways, pp. 1-36.

—— The Railway Clearing House, pp. 7-28.

Findlay, Working and Management of an English Railway (6th ed.), pp. 262-322.

Meyer, Governmental Regulation of Railway Rates, pp. 123-132.

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

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

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

Forbes and Ashford, Our Waterways, pp. 107-137.

Colson, Transports et Tarifs, pp. 80-145.

Léon, Fleuves, Canaux, Chemins de Fer, pp. 1-70.

  1. TRANSPORTATION. – GERMANY AND RUSSIA.

*Meyer, Governmental Regulation of Railway Rates, pp. 93-122, 133-188.

Hadley, Railroad Transportation, pp. 203-235.

Mayer, Geschichte und Geographie des Deutschen Eisenbahnen, pp. 3-14.

Leuschau, Deutsche Wasserstrassen, pp. 9-56, 95-162.

De Koulomzine, Le Transsibérien, pp. 1-53, 261-312.

  1. COMMERCE AND SHIPPING.

*Meeker, History of Shipping Subsidies, pp. 1-95.

*Bowley, England’s Foreign Trade in the Nineteenth Century (ed. 1905), pp. 55-107.

Fry, History of North Atlantic Steam Navigation, pp. 55-106, 207-249.

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

Day, History of Commerce, pp. 373-379, 399-405.

LeRoux de Bretagne, Les Primes à la Marine Marchande, pp. 93-224.

Rossignol, Le Canal de Suez, pp. 23-148.

  1. AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION.

*Report on Agricultural Depression, 1897, pp. 6-87.

Pratt, Organization of Agriculture, pp. 1-104, 269-391.

Haggard, Rural England, Vol. I1, pp. 536-576.

Channing, Truth about the Agricultural Depression, pp. 1-59, 311-320.

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

Fillmore, Agricultural Laborer, pp. 12-24.

Winfrey, Progress of Small Holdings Movement, Econ. Jour., Vol. XVI, pp. 222-229.

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

Bastable, Some Features of the Economic Movement in Ireland, Econ. Jour., Vol. XI, pp. 31-42.

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

Bretano, Agrarian Reform in Prussia, Econ, Jour., Vol. VII, pp. 1-20, 165-184.

  1. RECENT TARIFF HISTORY.

*Smart, Return to Protection, pp. 7-44, 136-185, 284-259.

Ashley, W. J., Tariff Problem, pp. 53-167.

Ashley, P., Modern Tariff History, pp. 78-112, 313-358.

Dawson, Protection in Germany, pp. 17-160.

Dietzel, German Tariff Controversy, Q.J.E., Vol. XVII, pp. 365-417.

Zimmermann, Deutsche Handelspolitik, pp. 218-314.

Fisher, Protectionist Reaction in France, Econ. Jour., Vol. VI, pp. 341-355.

Meredith, Protection in France, pp. 54-129.

  1. INDUSTRIAL COMBINATION.

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

*Report of Industrial Commission, Vol. XVIII, pp. 7-13, 75-88, 101-122, 143-165.

Report of Industrial Commission, Vol. XVIII, pp. 14-38.

Smith, New Trades Combination Movement, pp. 1-96.

Walker, Monopolistic Combinations in Europe, Pol. Sci. Quart., Vol. XX, pp. 13-41.

———, Combinations in German Coal Industry, pp. 38-111, 175-289, 322-327.

Liefmann, Kartelle und Trusts, pp. 22-32.

Baumgarten und Meszlény, Kartelle und Trusts, pp. 83-152.

  1. LABOR, COÖPERATIVE MOVEMENT.

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

*Ashley, W. J., Progress of German Working Classes, pp. 60-65, 74-141, [1-52].

Shadwell, Industrial Efficiency, Vol. II, pp. 307-350.

Giffen, Essays in Finance (2d series), pp. 372-474.

Howell, Labor Legislation, pp. 447-499.

Webb, Trade Unionism, pp. 344-478.

Willoughby, Workingmen’s Insurance, pp. 29-87.

Gide, Productive Coöperation in France, Q.J.E., Vol. XIV, pp. 30-66.

Bertrand, Le Mouvement Coopératif en Belgique, Rev. d’Econ. Pol., Vol. XIII, pp. 668-694.

Adams and Sumner, Labor Problems, pp. 394-397, 407-413.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics 1895-2003. Box 1, Folder “Economics, 1908-1909”.

__________________________

ECONOMICS 6a
19th Century European Economic History
Mid-year Examination, 1908-09

  1. Toynbee says concerning the English yeomanry: “It was not till about 1760 that the process of extinction became rapid. … It was the political conditions of the age, the overwhelming importance of land, which made it impossible for the yeoman to keep his grip upon the soil.”
    Von Sybel states that in France prior to the Revolution “a middle class of proprietors, substantial enough to derive from their land a sufficient livelihood, and yet humble enough to be bound to constant and diligent labor, was entirely wanting. … But what the movement of 1789 did produce is this middle class of proprietors.”
    Comment on these statements. How, furthermore, do you account for the divergence of development between French and English agrarian conditions
  2. (1) Criticise the following statements:
    “Il est évident que nous serious plus riches si nos exportations avaient été plus considérables et nos importations moines fortes.” — Méline.
    “It is a mathematical truth that if imports come into this country of manufactured goods which we can make as well as any other nation, they must displace labor.” — Mr. Chamberlain.
    (2) “What brings great changes of policy is the shifting and readjustments of interests, not the discovery of new principles.” — John Morley.
    Illustrate this from the tariff history of Germany, France, and England.
  1. “Ability to compete in the world’s market is a vital matter for Germany. …To this achievement the State railways have contributed in the past practically nothing. … Nor will the railways be able to do much more in the future than they have done in the past.” Who says this? Give the arguments for and against this view.
  2. Discuss the recent agricultural depression in England.
  3. (1) Compare concisely the trust movement in England, Germany, and France.
    (2) What were the provisions of the Austrian bill of 1897 to regulate industrial combinations?
  4. The Report of the Industrial Commission says that “France is less developed industrially than England and Germany.” What does this mean? Can such a statement be verified by the comparison of statistics? If so, what statistics would you use? What are the chief factors which have determined industrial development in the nineteenth century, and why, in your opinion, have they not operated equally in the three countries named?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1908-09; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1909), pp. 37-38.

________________________

Course Enrollment
United States Economic History
1908-09

Economics 6b 2hf. Professor Gay, assisted by Mr. M. T. [Melvin Thomas] Copeland — Economic and Financial History of the United States.

Total 198: 15 Graduates, 41 Seniors, 87 Juniors, 41 Sophomores, 7 Freshmen, 7 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1908-1909, p. 68.

________________________

Reading List
United States Economic History
ECONOMICS 6b (1909)

Required Reading is indicated by an asterisk (*)

  1. COLONIAL PERIOD.

*Ashley, Commercial Legislation of England and the American Colonies, Q.J.E., Vol. XIV, pp. 1-29; printed also in Ashley’s Surveys, pp. 309-335.

*Semple, American History and its Geographic Conditions, pp. 36-51.

McMaster, History of the People of the United States, Vol. I, pp. 1-102.

Eggleston, Transit of Civilization, pp. 273-307.

Beer, Commercial Policy of England, pp. 5-158.

Rabbeno, American Commercial Policy, pp. 3-91.

Lord, Industrial Experiments in the British Colonies of North America, pp. 56-86, 124-139.

1776-1860.
  1. COMMERCE, MANUFACTURES, AND TARIFF.

*Taussig, Tariff History of the United States, pp. 68-154.

*Hamilton, Report on Manufactures, in Taussig’s State Papers and Speeches on the Tariff, pp. 1-79, 103-107, (79-103).

Bolles, Industrial History of the United States, Book II, pp. 403-426.

Bishop, History of American Manufactures, Vol. II, pp. 256-505.

Pitkin, Statistical View of the Commerce of the United States (ed. 1835), pp. 368-412.

Gallatin, Free Trade Memorial, in Taussig’s State Papers, pp. 108-213.

Rabbeno, American Commercial Policy, pp. 146-183.

Hill, First Stages of the Tariff Policy of the United States, Amer. Econ. Assoc. Pub., Vol. VIII, pp. 107-132.

  1. INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.

*Callender, Early Transportation and Banking Enterprises, Q.J.E., Vol. XVII, pp. 111-162; printed also separately, pp. 3-54.

Tenth United States Census (1880), Vol. IV, Thos. C. Purdy’s Reports on History of Steam Navigation in the United States, pp. 1-62, and History of Operating Canals in the United States, pp. 1-32.

Chevalier, Society, Manners and Politics in the United States, pp. 80-87, 209-276.

Ringwalt, Development of Transportation Systems in the United States, pp. 41-54, 64-166.

Phillips, History of Transportation in the Eastern Cotton Belt, pp. 46-131.

Bishop, State Works of Pennsylvania, pp. 150-261.

Gallatin, Plan of Internal Improvements, Amer. State Papers, Misc., Vol. I, pp. 724-921 (see especially maps, pp. 744, 762, 764, 820, 830).

Pitkin, Statistical View (1835), pp. 531-581.

Chittenden, Steamboat Navigation on the Missouri River, Vol. II, pp. 417-424.

  1. AGRICULTURE AND LAND POLICY. — WESTWARD MOVEMENT.

*Hart, Practical Essays on American Government, pp. 233-257 printed also in Q.J.E., Vol. I, pp. 169-183, 251-254.

*Hammond, Cotton Industry, pp. 67-119.

*Semple, American History and its Geographic Conditions, pp. 52-74.

Turner, Significance of the Frontier in American History, in Report of Amer. Hist. Assoc., 1893, pp. 199-227.

Donaldson, Public Domain, pp. 1-29, 196-239, 332-356.

Hibbard, History of Agriculture in Dane County, Wisconsin, pp. 86-90, 105-133.

Sanborn, Congressional Grants of Land in Aid of Railways, Bulletin of Univ. of Wisconsin Econ., Pol. Sci. and Hist. Series, Vol. II, No. 3, pp. 269-354.

Hart, History as Told by Contemporaries, Vol. III, pp. 459-478.

  1. THE SOUTH AND SLAVERY.

*Cairnes, The Slave Power (2d ed.), pp. 32-103, 140-178.

Hammond, Cotton Industry, pp. 34-66.

Russell, North America, its Agriculture and Climate, pp. 133-167.

De Tocqueville, Democracy in America (ed. 1838), pp. 336-361, or eds. 1841 and 1848, Vol. I, pp. 386-412.

Helper, Compendium of the Impending Crisis of the South, pp. 7-61.

Ballagh, Land System of the South, Publications of Amer. Hist. Assoc., 1897, pp. 101-129.

  1. FINANCE, BANKING AND CURRENCY.

*Dewey, Financial History of the United States, pp. 34-59, 76-117, 224-246, 252-262.

*Catterall, The Second Bank of the United States, pp. 1-24, 68-119, 376 map, 402-403, 464-477.

Bullock, Essays on the Monetary History of the United States, pp. 60-93.

Hamilton, Reports on Public Credit, Amer. State Papers, Finance, Vol. I, pp. 15-37, 64-76.

Kinley, History of the Independent Treasury, pp. 16-39.

Sumner, Andrew Jackson (ed. 1886), pp. 224-249, 257-276, 291-342.

Ross, Sinking Funds, pp. 21-85.

Scott, Repudiation of State Debts, pp. 33-196.

Bourne, History of the Surplus Revenue of 1837, pp. 1-43, 125-135.

Conant, History of Modern Banks of Issue, pp. 310-347.

1860-1900.
  1. FINANCE, BANKING AND CURRENCY.

*Mitchell, History of the Greenbacks, pp. 3-43, 403-420.

*Noyes, Thirty Years of American Finance, pp. 1-72, 234-254, (73-233).

Taussig, Silver Situation in the United States, pp. 1-157.

Dunbar, National Banking System, Q.J.E., Vol. XII, pp. 1-26; printed also in Dunbar’s Economic Essays, pp. 227-247.

Howe, Taxation and Taxes in the United States under the Internal Revenue System, pp. 136-262.

Tenth United States Census (1880), Vol. VII; Bayley, History of the National Loans, pp. 369-392, 444-486.

  1. TRANSPORTATION.

*Hadley, Railroad Transportation, pp. 1-23, 125-145.

*Johnson, American Railway Transportation, pp. 24-68, 307-321, 367-385.

Industrial Commission, Vol. XIX, pp. 466-481.

Adams, Chapters of Erie, pp. 1-99, 333-429.

Davis, The Union Pacific Railway, Annals of the Amer. Acad., Vol. VIII, pp. 259-303.

Villard, Memoirs, Vol. II, pp. 284-312.

Dixon, Interstate Commerce Act as Amended, Q.J.E., Vol. XXI, pp. 22-51.

  1. COMMERCE AND SHIPPING.

*Meeker, History of Shipping Subsidies, pp. 150-171.

Meeker, Shipping Subsidies, Pol. Sci. Quart., Vol. XX, pp. 594-611.

Soley, Maritime Industries of the United States, in Shaler’s United States, Vol. I, pp. 518-618.

McVey, Shipping Subsidies, J. Pol. Ec., Vol. IX, pp. 24-46.

Wells, Our Merchant Marine, pp. 1-94.

Day, History of Commerce, pp. 553-575.

  1. AGRICULTURE AND OPENING OF THE WEST.

*Industrial Commission, Vol. XIX, pp. 43-123, 134-167.

*Noyes, Recent Economic History of the United States, Q.J.E., Vol. XIX, pp. 167-187.

Twelfth United States Census (1900), Vol. V, pp. xvi-xlii.

Hammond, Cotton Industry, pp. 120-226.

Quaintance, Influence of Farm Machinery, pp. 1-103.

Adams, The Granger Movement, North American Review, Vol. CXX, pp. 394-424.

Bemis, Discontent of the Farmer, J. Pol. Ec., Vol. I, pp. 193-213.

  1. INDUSTRIAL EXPANSION.

*Twelfth United States Census (1900), Vol. VII, pp. clxx-clxxviii.

*Noyes, Thirty Years of American Finance, pp. 113-152, 182-233.

Industrial Commission, Vol. XIX, pp. 485-519, 544-569.

Twelfth Census, Vol. IX, pp. 1-16; Vol. X, pp. 725-748.

Wells, Recent Economic Changes, pp. 70-113.

Sparks, National Development, pp. 37-52.

  1. THE TARIFF.

*Taussig, Tariff History, pp. 155-229, 321-360.

Stanwood, American Tariff Controversies, Vol. II, pp. 243-394.

Taussig, Iron Industry, Q.J.E., Vol. XIV, pp. 143-170, 475-508.

Taussig, Wool and Woolens, Q.J.E., Vol. VIII, pp. 1-39.

Taussig, Sugar, Atlantic Monthly, Vol. CI, pp. 334-344.

Wright, Wool-growing and the Tariff since 1890, Q.J.E., Vol. XIX, p. 610-647.

Robinson, History of Two Reciprocity Treaties, pp. 9-17, 40-77, 141-156.

Laughlin and Willis, Reciprocity, pp. 311-487.

  1. INDUSTRIAL CONCENTRATION.

*Willoughby, Integration of Industry in the United States, Q.J.E., Vol. XVI, pp. 94-115.

*Noyes, Recent Economic History of the United States, Q.J.E., Vol. XIX, pp. 188-209.

Twelfth Census, Vol. VII, pp. cxc-ccxiv.

Industrial Commission, Vol. XIII, pp. v-xviii.

Bullock, Trust Literature, Q.J.E., Vol. XV, pp. 167-217.

  1. THE LABOR PROBLEM.

*Adams and Sumner, Labor Problems, pp. 502-547.

United States Bureau of Labor Bulletins, No. 18 (Sept., 1898), pp. 665-670; No. 30 (Sept., 1900), pp. 913-915; No. 53 (July, 1904), pp. 703-728.

Levassesur, American Workman, pp. 436-509.

Mitchell, Organized Labor, pp. 391-411.

Twelfth Census, Special Report on Employees and Wages, p. xcix.

National Civic Federation, Industrial Conciliation, pp. 40-48, 141-154, 238-243, 254-266.

  1. POPULATION, IMMIGRATION AND THE RACE QUESTION.

* United States Census Bulletin, No. 4 (1903), pp. 5-38.

*Industrial Commission, Vol. XV, pp. xix-lxiv.

Adams and Sumner, Labor Problems, pp. 68-112.

Mayo-Smith, Emigration and Immigration, pp. 33-78.

Walker, Discussions in Economies and Statistics, Vol. II, pp. 417-451.

Hoffmann, Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro, pp. 250-309.

Tillinghast, The Negro in Africa and America, pp. 102-228.

Twelfth Census Bulletin, No. 8.

United States Bureau of Labor Bulletins, Nos. 14, 22, 32, 35, 37, 38, 48.

Washington, Future of the American Negro, pp. 3-244.

Stone, A Plantation Experiment, Q.J.E., Vol. XIX, pp. 270-287.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics 1895-2003. Box 1, Folder “Economics, 1908-1909”.

________________________

United States Economic History
ECONOMICS 6b
Year-end Examination, 1909

  1. Compare the financial history of the United States during the period 1829-1840 with that of the period 1880-1896.
  2. Trace briefly the relation between tariff legislation and the public revenue since the establishment of the Independent Treasury.
  3. —
    1. Comment on the following (from President Grant’s message of 1870):—
      “Building ships and navigating them utilizes vast capital at home; it creates a home market for the farm and the shop; it diminishes the balance of trade against us precisely to the extent of freights and passage money paid to American vessels, and gives us a supremacy of the seas of inestimable value in case of foreign war.”
    2. Was the balance of trade before 1870 “favorable” or “unfavorable” to the United States? Why?
  4. Sketch the history of wheat-growing in the United States: changes in geographical location, markets, and prices.
  5. What is meant by the integration of industry? How far has it affected, and how far do you think it will affect, the following industries: Cotton; woolen; iron; sugar; tobacco; boots and shoes? Give reasons.
  6. (a) The distribution of immigrants in the different industries as shown by the Industrial Commission report. (b) The alien contract labor law.
  7. State briefly what you consider to be the most significant point brought out in your thesis for this course.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1908-09; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1909), p. 38.

Image Source: John George Brown, The Longshoremen’s Noon, 1879, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase, Gallery Fund), 2014.136.2. From the National Gallery of Art’s web-page “Industrial Revolution.”