Author: Irwin Collier

Harvard. Economics Ph.D. alumnus. Paul McCracken, 1948

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2022-05-11

Just as I dream of a digitized data base with a complete historical series of syllabi, examination, and problem sets for the economics courses taught at major universities/colleges from ca. 1870 to the present, I also imagine having a convenient collection of c.v.’s, obituaries, oral histories of members of the overlapping generations of economics graduate students as well as the faculty members who have taught them through the years. Of course there is an overwhelming amount of material out there and Economics in the Rear-view Mirror, thus far, only has the capacity to conduct artisanal scholarship for a prototypical project patiently waiting for generous funding sponsors to help this project grow in scale and scope.

In the meantime, incremental progress for the blog includes occasional additions to its series “Meet an Economics Ph.D.” This post provides information about a 1948 Harvard Ph.D., a former chair of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, and professor of business economics at the University of Michigan, Paul W. McCracken.

Research Tip: The University of Michigan’s Faculty History Project is a fabulous resource!

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Harvard Ph.D., 1948

Paul Winston McCracken, A.B. (William Penn Coll.) 1937, A.M. (Harvard University.) 1942.

Subject, Economics. Special Field, Economic Fluctuations and Forecasting.
Thesis, “Cyclical Implications of Wartime Liquid Asset Accumulation.”

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1947-1948, p. 181.

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Paul W. McCracken
Classroom Profile
(October 21, 1950)

Paul W. McCracken, a member of the faculty of the School of Business Administration since 1948, was promoted to full Professor this summer. He teaches business conditions, but aside from his academic duties, he serves as a Consultant for the Committee for Economic Development, on Monetary and Debt Management Policy. He is also a member of the Economic Policy Committee of the United States Chamber of Commerce, and is Chairman of the Subcommittee on International Commercial Policy, American Economic Association.

Other professional organizations of which he is a member are the Econometric Society, Royal Economic Society (U.K.), Minneapolis Economic Roundtable, Minnesota Economic Club, Midwest Economic Association, Minneapolis Foreign Policy Association, and the Detroit Economic Club. In addition, he is a Trustee of the First Presbyterian Church.

Professor McCracken was born December 29, 1915, in Richland, la. and received his high school education there before entering William Penn College at Oskaloosa, La., and earning the B.A. degree in 1937. From 1937 to 1940, he served as an Instructor in English at Berea College, Ky., and then he studied at Harvard University, being granted the A.M. degree in 1942. For the next year he was an Associate Economist for the United States Department of Commerce at Washington, and this was followed by a position as Financial Economist for the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. He was Director of Research there from 1945 to 1948, and he was granted the Ph.D. degree at Harvard in 1948. Professor McCracken is the author of “Hypothetical Projection of Commodity Expenditures,” “Northwest in Two Wars,” “Future of Northwest Bank Deposits,” “Rising Tide of Bank Lending,” various articles on the “Business Outlook,” and “The Present Status of Monetary and Fiscal Policy,” in the Journal of Finance, March,1950 (a paper which was presented to the joint meeting of the American Finance Association in December, 1949.)

Professor McCracken is married to the former Ruth Siler, a graduate of Berea College, and they have two children, Linda Jo, five, and Paula Jeanne, seven months old.

Source: The Michigan Alumnus 43

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Memoirs, Comments, Discussion
Prof. Emeritus Paul W. McCracken
with Prof. Emeritus Herbert W. Hildebrandt

October 24/31, 2008

What follows are the subjective, human comments of Professor Paul McCracken in an interview on the above date in his office, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan. The purpose is to collect his personal comments on the years he has spent at the University of Michigan and his reflections in working in Washington DC along with five Presidents: Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, Kennedy, Johnson.

While drafted by Prof. Emeritus Herb Hildebrandt, all of the following comments have been approved after editing by Prof. McCracken.

We are quick to admit there is relatively loose organization of the comments inasmuch as at aged 92 both the respondent and questioner let the ideas flow as they wish. We occasionally will move from the first to third person in the discussion.

General Reflections, Prof. McCracken

1) On a personal level, it is interesting and laudable that the University of Michigan in its long history can maintain its high academic standing when a major public University gives extraordinary publicity to athletics rather than academics. Newspapers shout loudly, and vociferously, when the football team, above all other academic achievements, participates in or leads other teams in a winning season.

Of course major research achievements are noted, sotto voce on an inside newspaper page, as compared with blaring headlines of sports achievements; academic achievements rarely seem to surpass the gridiron success of a football team.

Finally, only the monstrosity of the edifice now under construction (Oct. 2008) surrounding the football stadium suggests a diminution in balance between academics and athletics. It was never always so.

2) When I came to the University, under the persuasion of Dean Stevenson to join the Business School, I faced a major decision. At the time of the invitation I was the Director of Research at the Federal Reserve in Minneapolis, a city for which, even today, I have warm affection. There I was happy in my job. It seemed like a positive future and with affection looked forward to a career in the Federal Reserve.

On reflection, in comparing the agonies that Michigan faces today, especially in some of its larger cities, Minneapolis was pleasant, inviting, warm, friendly.

3) I must interject a negative reflection. That said after remembering that I was hired as an Economics Professor in the School of Business. At the time we had outside our Business School a stand-alone Department of Economics with whom I tried to seek an affiliation and cordial relationship.

Today we use the words of a ‘silo mentality’, i.e., some scholars and departments seek to remain cloistered, absenting themselves from others who do not walk or breathe the same academic air of pure economics, or are housed with them in what was then a cold, gray building. It later burned down. A retribution?

Indeed, I was looked upon then as a useless citizen, an outcast. Rarely do I use gentle profanity but my inner Presbyterian self said, “to hell with them”.

But I must stop. The then Chairman, Prof. Sharfman, of the Economics Department was warm, as were some other on the faculty. Slowly, ever so slowly, that animosity faded, but I must say those initial years were personally difficult.

4) I add the following as additional perceptions of my early academic and slowly emerging Washington DC days. Let me, thus, comment on some of my views regarding the political tastes of the early days of the American Economic Association. Early on, in my opinion, there was overt political affection for the Democratic Party. And those of who know me realize my world was/is the Republican Party, a leaning I have held for many years.

Thus, on campus and nationally, there may have been an underground of political concern about my views. I have no overt proof of that statement, but sense my political DNA may have interrupted the natural flow of events, even attitudes toward me as an individual.

As time mutes one’s attitudes, I today soften all of the above comments.

Today it is no mortal sin to be a Republican and a member of the American Economic Association. But I had my doubts years earlier.

5) One of the most often asked questions of me, after holding the position of Head of the Council of Economic Advisors to President Nixon, was “How was he, what is your impression of him?” Let me give a detailed answer, in multiple parts.

Prior to my direct involvement with President Nixon, I was appointed as a member of the CEA (Council of Economic Advisors). There I learned, added to my knowledge of the working of the government. The chairperson of the Council at that time was Herb Stein.

Prior to Mr. Nixon assuming the Presidency, he or his staff, recommended that three of us, Arthur Burns, myself, and one other person who I’ve forgotten, were to meet in NYC to discuss economic matters. Putting together initial thoughts on the US economy. Intrigue, guesses, editorials as to who would be President Nixon’s Sec. of State, and other Cabinet members, ran wild. Hints were given that possibly I would be asked to come back and head the CEA.

A later call from the Washington Post put my hairs on end and I indicated to the caller that no one had spoken with me about the possibility of heading the Council. To be honest, I had little inclination to enter the inevitable world of politics that that position entailed. Orally, I signed off on the idea.

Subsequently I received one of those phone calls one cannot hang up on: the President of the United States, President Nixon was on the line.

“How about it?” he asked.

I knew what he was asking.

“I have a meeting in one hour with the Cabinet and really have nothing to tell them,” he continued.

I said, “I really should talk with my wife.” (“I knew he had talked with Herb Stein and others; he and others had given their assent.”)

“I called my wife. “Ruth agreed for a longer tenure in Washington.”

“…I agreed,” I told President Nixon, “to be his Chief Economic Advisor and Chair that committee. President Nixon had something now to tell his new Cabinet. “I was somewhat relaxed, and unnerved at the same time.”

“Good,” the President said.

I now jump ahead several years.! I repeat the most often asked question asked of me: “How was he, what is your impression of President Nixon?”

Most questions seemingly were couched in a negative tone; they came with an undisguised innuendo of sarcasm similar to the numerous editorial cartoons that depict him in a negative light. Even today.

Time dulls one’s memory and one is inclined to be gentle, never speaking ill of those who have gone before. I’ll try to be unbiased.

He was a master politician, imbued with innate political skills that out-shown many of those around him. My dealings with him were always warm, friendly, on a high level of friendliness. Never did I feel he was condescending. But I did sense he did let our conversations veer off the main topic, letting our thoughts lose a tight focus. He occasionally slipped away, slipstreaming as one would say of a small airplane, into other topics and concerns.

Regardless, I felt he was consistently deeply concerned about the economy.

One story. We met at Camp David. Lovely spot. The purpose was to discuss whether we should have price controls or not. Forgot who was there, but the dominating theme was President Nixon’s insistence on price controls, in my estimation a no-no that I could never support. Major counter arguments, on both sides crossed our table. President Nixon listened. For one of the few times in our group meetings I vehemently opposed the President, arguing against any kind of price control.

He excused himself toward the end of the day.

He later announced he would support price controls, in my estimation a foretaste of an economic disaster. In my estimation it was!

A sidenote. I have the feeling that he spent the entire night wondering about the issue. He, there at Camp David, seemed to sleep little. One story. Early in the AM he was taking a walk and at the crossroads of two paths, in the dark, ran into a navy man who was coming to work to prepare breakfast. On realizing it was the President, the navy man blurted, “I’m sorry Mam, yes sir, I’m sorry.”

Soon thereafter, I resigned, knowing I had stepped out of sync with the President. He was gracious in accepting my resignation and asked if I would remain until the end of the year, which I did.

In sum. He was warm, friendly in the years following our parting. I visited him on occasions and in private got along well. Attending his funeral was an emotional event, there being seated among leaders of the world, a bit heady for someone from a small Iowa farm.

HWH:“Paul, we’ll speak about four other Presidents, what was your relationship with President Gerald Ford? Please bring us up-to-date of your interactions with him.”

…Entirely different relationship. Indeed, we were personal friends, close friends for a long period of time, our paths crossing in more casual environments than in formal meetings. I’d have to say our human connection was one more of friendship than professional interaction.

A newspaper reporter – there were many that I knew over the years – asked me one day if I knew my name had been mentioned as one who had the ear of the President, my name allegedly being mentioned both in the paper and orally. I was unaware of that pronouncement. My personal guess was that a staff person may have drawn that inference. Oh, occasionally, I did leave Ann Arbor to go to DC and responded to some questions on the economy, but those times were of a short duration. To be honest, I was eager to return to Ann Arbor.

Thus President Ford and I had a personal friendship. It was comfortable to have affection for President Ford because of his genuine warmth, his commonness, his ability to talk with persons from all walks of life, with little awareness of their stature in life. We got along well. And as with other Presidents, it was a deep personal loss when he left us.

7. While my political world was Republican, an interesting event occurred soon after President Kennedy was elected.An old, long-time friend of mine from Harvard days, a Democrat, called me. His invitation was that President Kennedy wished a small bi-partisan group to meet and prepare for his review a memorandum regarding future economic policy suggestions.

Thus three of us met in NYC, a former head of the Federal Reserve of New York, a member of the Council of Economic Advisors, and myself. For one week we reviewed options, finally arriving at a consensus document to present to President Kennedy. Our main thrust was our concern over a lack of gold reserves on which the dollar was based. Should that information become too public we felt there would be an economic calamity. Additionally adding to our concern, was that on the Congressional books was the requirement that enough gold had to be in our vaults to cover the value of the dollar.

President Kennedy accepted our concern and recommended that someone – I forgot who – appear before a Congressional Committee and have the requirement removed. My memory further dims and thus do not recall the outcome.

In short. I found President Kennedy an able person, likable and interested in the economic situation in our country. My brief time with him was pleasant.

8. My work with President Johnson was of a lesser nature, but again honored that a democrat President, or his staff, would ask me to join a small group that had a single purpose:the nature of the national budget, especially how it was to be formed and amended procedures in putting it together. We all felt the entire process of budget preparation needed an overall, but knew that in a democracy the task would be difficult. As part of that group, that discussion was my only tangential involvement in economic affairs during the Johnson tenure.

9. All of the preceding governmental actions took me away from my beloved University of Michigan, at that time the School of Business, now called the Ross School of Business after a munificent financial gift from Mr. Raymond Ross.Thus one has the right to ask, “did my Washington experiences have an impact on my teaching, research, and service to the University?

An emphatic positive “yes.”

There is merit in being able to bring to a class true-to-life stories on the complicated process of running a government, especially its economic policy. To cast a stone is easy, but when one is involved in the process it is easy to discern that application of economic theory is a highly complex matter, rarely deeply understood by the casual newspaper writer. Giving to classes the pragmatic and political nuances, both playing out simultaneously, was for me both invigorating and stimulating – or so I thought in discussions in the classroom.

In a sense I began to moonlight, as does Prof. Paul Krugman the economist of Harvard [sic!] who recently won the Nobel Prize for Economics. He is probably better known for his articles in the New York Times than his economic theories.
Similarly, I was asked to write an occasional article for the Wall Street Journal. Indeed, I am told that as part of the preceding vitae, I wrote over 80 such statements. (Editor’s comment: Paul wrote all those statements in long-hand, relying on his long-time secretary, Margaret Oberle, to master the intricacies of the computer. To this day, Paul still writes in long-hand).
These many WSJ statements were included in my class discussions and occasioned many letters to me and to the editors of the Journal.

Not said out of egotism, but adding personal stories also gave life to what some would call the somber world of economics. I add one story concerning President Eisenhower, simply to suggest that a President may be the most powerful person in the land, yet is underneath as human as the rest of us, especially when lying in a hospital bed.
I got a call from one of President Eisenhower’s aides suggesting that the President while in the Walter Reed hospital, sought out long-time friends to come by and visit with him. The aide suggested the President desired company, finding it lonely lying in a hospital room. My cup was full of responsibilities; my agenda was burdened with appointments. But how to you tell a sick President that “I’m too busy to see you.” …“You don’t.”
I went, thinking that after fifteen minutes an aide would suggest time was up. An hour slipped by; how does one politely tell a President that one would like to leave?” …“You don’t.” Our chat ranged far and wide. One comment is still vivid in my memory. He told me that he remembered when his brother attended the University of Michigan, visiting him there on several occasions. This fact I knew nothing about. That comment gave me sincere pleasure.
In sum, our hospital visit with President Eisenhower was one of my more memorable Washington experiences. His memory was astonishing, his ability to tell a story moving and interesting. With sadness, three months later, I sat in the Washington Cathedral for his funeral, but with the pleasant thought that I had paused to spend time with him.

HWH: Any comments in general about the University as of now, the end of October ’08?

The University is in for rough water, financially. One has only to read the financial papers to realize that tuition payments, especially for the smaller private schools, is becoming more difficult for many parents. We too, even though we’re a State school, will feel the financial ripples. But not as much.

Surely we receive – I’ve lost the precise percentage – some of our operating costs come from the State, but that figure has been deceasing over the years. Increases in tuition cover some of that shortfall, but the University too will bump up against a financial ceiling where devoted parents will find it increasingly difficult to husband funds for their children’s education.

While we receive State funds, those who oversaw our endowment have done so carefully and diligently, and with significant success. Should the State have serious financial problems – and that’s where the rough water come in – our two sources of funding, tuition driven and endowments, become a major sources of our funding.

My above comments in no way paint a picture of gloom and doom. Our great University has existed for over 150 years, slowly nearing two hundred. We’ll continue to survive, but the financial waters will continue to disturb a smooth pattern of onward flowing success.

All the above raises a specter that has been quietly voiced over the years: are we approaching, capturing the aura of a private university? My data is incomplete – and as an economist lack of data is a kiss of professorial death – yet I sense we are yearly beginning to stand on our own bottom. That metaphor is a silent mantra, or one not so silent at Harvard University, and is slowly joining the chorus of some here on our campus. There is little doubt, in my mind, that we are on the doorstep of such a transition. In a lifetime or two that assumption may become a reality.

It is with sincerity that I say the people I have worked with were highly capable; that fact made my journey at the University of Michigan all worthwhile.

Paul McCracken, November 2008.

Source: The University of Michigan Faculty Memoir Project. Paul W. McCracken (October 24/31, 2008).

Image Source: University of Michigan. Faculty History Project

Tags BurnsAF, McCracken, Sharfman, SteinH

Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Introduction to Quantitative Methods. Joint Economics and Graduate School of Public Administration. Bolton, 1964

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2022-05-09

Roger E. Bolton received his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1964. His dissertation adviser was Otto Eckstein and according to his c.v. (May 2019) Roger Bolton was an Instructor in Economics and nonresident Tutor in Adams House at Harvard at the time he taught the economics course “Introduction to Quantitative Methods” to students of the Graduate School of Public Administration.

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From GSPA report

…Dr. Roger E. Bolton, Instructor in Economics, was asked to continue his course, Introduction to Quantitative Methods, which was established particularly for the benefit of students in this School who, without previous mathematical training, needed an introduction to modern methods of economic measurement and projection.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1964-1965, p. 376.

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Course Announcement

Economics 168. Introduction to Quantitative Methods (Offered jointly with the Graduate School of Public Administration). Half course (fall term). Tu., Th., S., at 9. Dr. Bolton

An introduction to national income accounts, input-output tables, index numbers, capital coefficients, and other methods of economic measurement and projection. This course assumes no previous mathematical or statistical training.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Courses of Instruction for Harvard and Radcliffe1964-1965, p. 111.

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Economics 168
Harvard University
Fall Term, 1964

Dr Roger E. Bolton
Littauer 322

There will be no hour examination. Each student will write a 15 page paper, due about midway in the reading period. The paper is to be some sort of “quantitative” analysis of an important policy problem facing the country of the student, if sufficient data are available for that country. The student will be given considerable latitude in selecting a topic but must confer with the instructor about it in advance. The paper must use extensively some body of statistical data, and include some commentary on the data and their reliability, suitability for the analysis. etc.

In addition to the paper and the final exam, there will be a number of problem sets to be worked during the term. The primary purpose of the problems is learning, not testing, but students’ performance on them will be weighed in determining the final grade. The final exam grade will be weighted 60 per cent, the paper grade 25 per cent, and the problems 15 per cent.

Outline and Readings

Students are expected to do at least some of the suggested readings during the term. There will be no special reading period assignment.

I. Introduction to Important Kinds of Economic Quantities (September 29-October 1)

Ackley, Macroeconomic Theory, pp. 78-88.

Freund and Williams, Modern Business Statistics, 1958, chs. 15-10.

II. Basic Statistical Inference (October 3-8)

Beach, Economic Models, pp. 113-171.

Dixon and Massey, Introduction to Statistical Analysis, ch. 3, pp. 11-23; ch. 5, pp.48-54; ch. 6, pp. 76-82, and all of chs. 8 and 9.

III. National Income and Product: Concept and Measurement (October 10-29)

A. Purposes and uses

Kuznets, Economic Change, Ch. 7.

Kuznets, Six Lectures on Economic Growth, pp. 13-18 and all of Lecture 4.

Suggested: Hitch and McKean, The Economics of Defense in the Nuclear Age, Ch. 3.

B. History

Rosen, National Income, ch. 1

Suggested: Studenski, The Income of Nations, Part 1.

C. Basic Concepts

Harvard Business School, Notes on National Accounting.

Rosen, National Income, chs, 4-5.

Suggested: Ackley, Macroeconomic Theory, chs. 2-3.

D. United States Practices

U. S. Dept. of Commerce, National Income, 1954 ed., pp. 27-60.

U. S. Department of Commerce, Survey of Current Business July 1964 issue, tables giving data on the national accounts.

E. The United Nations System

United Nations Statistical Office, A System of National Accounts and Supporting Tables (Studies in Methods, series F, no. 2, Rev. 2 — second revision).

Suggested:

Organization for European Economic Co-operation, A Standardized System of National Accounts, 1958, pp. 31-49, and Systems of National Accounts in Africa, 1960, pp. 9-63.

Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Canada, National Accounts Income and Expenditure, 1926-1956, pp. 103-176.

Central Statistical Office, Great Britain, National Income Statistics: Sources and Methods, 1956, chs. 1-3.

F. Real Output, Deflation Principles, Various Price Indexes

Ackley, Macroeconomic Theory, pp. 88-99.

U. S. Dept. of Commerce, National Income 1954 ed., pp. 153-158.

U. S. Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bulletin 1168, Techniques of Preparing Major BLS Series, chs. 9-10.

Suggested: U. S. Congress, Joint Economic Committee, Hearings on Government Price Statistics, 87th Congress, 1961, especially pp. 9-78 of the report presented by the National Bureau of Economic Research

G. Other Common Indexes

No assigned readings

H. Intertemporal and International Comparisons

Bornstein, “A Comparison of Soviet and United States National Product,” in U. S. Congress, Joint Economic Committee, Comparisons of the United States and Soviet Economies, 1959.

Suggested: Gilbert and Kravis, An International Comparison of National Products and the Purchasing Power of Currencies.

I. Sources of Data

U. S. Dept. of Commerce, National Income 1954 ed., pp. 68-72, 76-86.

Ruggles and Ruggles, National Income Accounts and Income Analysis, ch. 8 and appendix to ch. 8.

United Nations Statistical Office, Methods of National Income Estimation (Series F, No. 8, of Studies in Methods).

J. Issues in National Income Accounting; Reliability of Data

Rosen, National Income, chs. 8-9.

Schelling, “National Income, 1954 edition,” in Review of Economics and Statistics, November 1955.

Schelling, essay in National Bureau of Economic Research, A Critique of the National Income and Product Accounts.

Jaszi, “The Statistical Foundations of the Gross National Product” in Review of Economics and Statistics, May 1956.

Suggested: Musgrave, The Theory of Public Finance, ch.8

IV. Other Summary Accounts and their Relation to the National Income Accounts (October 31-November 3)

A. The Balance of Payments

Kindleberger, International Economics, Ch. 2

U. S. Department of Commerce, Survey of Current Business, July 1964 issue, tables.

Suggested:

“The Bookkeeping of the Balance of Payments,” Morgan Guaranty Survey, May 1962.

Badger, “The Balance of Payments: A Tool of Economics Analysis,” International Monetary Fund Staff Papers, September 1951.

B. The Government Budget

U. S. Bureau of the Budget, The Budget of the United States, Special Analysis A.

U. S. Dept. of Commerce, Survey of Current Business, July 1964 issue, tables.

Suggested: U. S. Congress, Joint Economic Committee, The Budget as an Economic Document, a report by R. Moor (not the hearings of the same title).

V. Models of National Output Determination (November 5-19)

A. The Distinction between Potential and Actual Output

Schultze, National Income Analysis, ch. 6.

Suggested: Hamberg, Principles of a Growing Economy, ch. 7.

B. Potential Output Models

Kindleberger, Economic Development, ch. 4.

Higgins, Economic Development, 642-653.

Hamberg, Principles of a Growing Economy, ch. 8.

Suggested: Knowles,The Potential Economic Growth of the United States, Study Paper 20 of: U. S. Congress, Joint Economic Committee, Employment, Growth and Price Levels, 1960.

C. Actual Output Models

Hamberg, Principles of a Growing Economy, chs. 9-13.

Schelling, National Income Behavior, chs. 13-14.

Suggested:

Schelling, National Income Behavior, the remainder of book, but especially chs. 9-11.

Polak, “Monetary Analysis of Income Formation and Payments Problems, International Monetary Fund Staff Papers, November 1957.

VI. Input-Output Models (November 21-December 5)

A. Purposes and Uses

Chenery and Clark, Interindustry Economics, ch. 1.

B. Principles

Chenery and Clark, Interindustry Economics, chs. 2,3,5,6.

Suggested: Chenery and Clark, ch. 4.

Stone, Input-Output and National Accounts.

Bruno, Interdependence, Resource Use and Structural Change in Israel, chs. 1-3, Appendices A-1, B-2, and B-3.

C. Applications

Leontief, “The Structure of Development,” in Scientific American, September 1963.

Wonnacott, Canadian-American Interdependence, chs. 1-3, 5-7.

One of these three:

Meyer, “An Input-Output Approach to Evaluating the Influence of Exports on British Industrial Production in the Late 19th Century,” in Explorations in Entrepreneurial History, Volume 8, number 1.

Hirsch, “Interindustry Relations of a Metropolitan Area,” Review of Economics and Statistics, Nov. 1959.

Leontief and Hoffenberg, “The Economic Effects of Disarmament,” Scientific American, April 1961.

Suggested: Wonnacott, the remainder of the assigned book. The other two of the above articles by Meyer, Hirsch, and Leontief and Hoffenberg.

D. Evaluation

Dorfman, “The Nature and Significance of Input-Output,” Review of Economics and Statistics, May 1954.

Seers, “The Role of National Income Estimates in the Statistical Policy of an Underdeveloped Area,” Review of Economic Studies, Vol. 20, pp. 159-168, and his rejoinder in the same journal, Vol. 21, pp. 229-231.

Prest, “Comment” (on Seers), Review of Economic Studies, Vol. 21, pp. 223-228.

Peacock and Dosser, “Input-Output Analysis in an Underdeveloped Country,” Review of Economic Studies, Vol. 25, pp. 21-24.

Suggested: Arrow and Hoffenberg, A Time-Series Analysis of Inter-Industry Demands, especially chs. 1-2, appendix to ch. 2, ch. 3, ch. 7, pp. 117-126, 132-133.

VII. Aspects of Development Planning (December 8-19)

A. General

Chenery and Clark, Interindustry Economics, chs. 7, 9, 10.

Bruno, Interdependence, Resource Use, and Structural Change in Israel chs. 4-6.

Tinbergen, The Design of Development.

Rosenstein-Rodan, ed. Formation and Economic Development, pp. 11-32, 68-82.

Suggested:

Rosenstein-Rodan, ed. remainder of book.

Chenery and Clark, ch. 11.

B. Cases

India, Planning Commission, Third Five-Year Plan, 1961; skim enough to get the flavor.

Pakistan, Planning Commission, The Second Five-Year Plan; skim enough to get the flavor.

Mahalanobis, The Approach of Operational Research to Planning in India, 1955, ch. 1, 3, 4, appendix to ch. 4, chs. 5-7, and the three chapters in Appendix II.

C. Investment Criteria

Chenery, “Comparative Advantage and Development Policy, American Economic Review, March 1961.

Suggested:

Galenson and Leibenstein, “Investment Criteria, Productivity, and Economic Development” Quarterly Journal of Economics. August 1955.

Eckstein, “Investment Criteria for Economic Development and the Theory of Intertemporal Welfare Economics.” Quarterly Journal of Economics, February 1957.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 8, Folder “Economics, 1964-1965 (1 of 2)”.

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Final Examination

ECONOMICS 168
FINAL EXAMINATION
Dr. Bolton
January 26, 1965

DO ALL 5 QUESTIONS.
Read each question carefully before beginning it. Please write legibly

Briefly explain each of these terms: (30 minutes)

a. Net National Income at Factor Cost
b. Unbiased estimate (in statistical inference)
c. Commodity Flow Method
d. Statistical Discrepancy (in national income accounting)
e. “Accounting Prices”
f. Participation Rate

Explain how you would use each of the following numbers in making economic policy decisions: (30 minutes)
1. The number in row i and column j of an input-output “inverse”
2. The “standard error of estimate” of a regression estimate of the marginal propensity to import
3. The amount of planned saving which would occur when actual output is equal to potential output.
4. The income-elasticity of consumption of a specific product
Do three of the following four short problems: (30 minutes)
1. Explain what amounts must be added to or subtracted from Gross Domestic Product to calculate Personal Disposable Income
2. In regard to the change from 1963 to 1964 in a certain country, the income-elasticity of total consumption was 1.10, measuring both income and consumption in current prices. The rate of growth of income, in current prices, was 6 per cent. The consumer price index increased by 5 per cent. What was the rate of growth of real consumption between 1963 and 1964?
3. Which of the following items are included in Gross National Product as calculated in the in the United States:

(1) State and local government interest
(2) Government purchase of land
(3) The level of inventories at the end of the year
(4) The net profit of a government enterprise
(5) Consumers’ repayment of debt
(6) Government sale of gold, from the monetary stock to foreigners
(7) Pensions paid to former government employees
(8) Purchase of repairs to old consumer durable goods
(9) Receipt by U.S. residents of dividends from foreign corporation
(10) Goods produced on government order but not yet paid for by the government

1. The following values from the Gross National Product accounts of a certain country are available for a certain year. Calculate the government surplus or deficit for the year.

Personal disposable income	400
Personal consumption	360
Residential construction	60
Inventory investment	10
Business Fixed Investment	30
Exports	40
Imports	35
Depreciation allowances	30
Corporate profits taxes	30
Retained corporate earnings	30
Dividends	20

Write an essay on input-output analysis, including a brief explanation of each of the following points: (45 minutes)
1. The purposes and assumptions of the analysis
2. The nature of the variables the analysis predicts
3. The kinds of forecasts which must be made before the analysis can be used
4. The differences between “open” and “closed” systems
5. The way in which total Gross National Product is predicted
6. The kinds of data needed to apply the analysis
7. The relevance of input-output analysis to underdeveloped countries
  You may use mathematical notation and examples if you choose, but it is not necessary to do so.

(45 Minutes)

In 1964, actual and potential GNP in the country of Karicutta were both $1,000 million, and the capital stock was $3,000 million. Potential GNP in this country can be exactly predicted by this Cobb-Douglas function:

O = A L^3/4K^1/4

It is known that in 1965 the rate of growth of A will be 1 per cent, and the rate of growth of L will be 2 percent. All capital in the country is created by investment by corporations, and information about their investment plans for 1965 is given later in the problem.

Actual GNP can be exactly predicted by this model: (all dollar amounts are in millions)

Consumption = C = 50 + .8(1-t)Y
Investment = I = an exogenous variable
Government Purchases = G = an exogenous variable
Exports = X = an exogenous variable
Imports = M = .03Y
GNP = Y = C + I + G + X – M

In 1964, the variables had the following values:

T= .40
I= 250
G = 200
X = 50

The variable t represents the sum of:

.10 = the share of total GNP which is retained corporate earnings (“undistributed profits”)
.30 = the share of total GNP which is taxes

In 1965 it is known that exports will rise to 60. On the last day of 1964, all corporations in the country made the the following joint announcement to their shareholders: “It is necessary to increase our annual investment to 300 million dollars, and we shall do this beginning in 1965. To finance this added expenditure we will retain more profits and reduce dividends. Assuming that GNP will be 1,000 million in 1965 as it was 1964, we can raise the extra 50 million by raising the share of GNP retained by us from .10 to .15. Therefore, during the year 1965 we shall retain 15 per cent of GNP instead of 10 per cent, and we shall invest 300 million dollars.

What will be potential output in 1965? What must government purchases be in order to make actual output equal to potential? The tax rate is not to be changed. Show your calculations clearly in order to receive partial credit if your final answer is not correct.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Social Sciences. Final Examinations. January 1965 (HUC 7000.28, vol. 157). Papers Printed for Mid-Year Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …,Naval Science, Air Science, January 1965.

Image Source: Roger E. Bolton in the Williams College Yearbook, Gulielmensian 1977, p. 18.

Tags BoltonRE

Chicago Funny Business Harvard M.I.T.

Chicago. Lyrics from “With a Little Bit of Luck”, ca. 1962

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2022-05-08

The following number comes as the last sheet of a stapled collection of skit numbers, beginning with an economics version of “Dear Officer Krupke” from West Side Story, already posted. That number was written about 1962 and My Fair Lady ran on Broadway from 1956 through 1962, so this too could have been written sometime around 1962 as well.

_____________________________

FINALE
(To the tune of “With a Little Bit of Luck”
from My Fair Lady)

Oh we are all perpetually students
Because the army we would like to shirk
Oh we are all perpetually students
But with a little bit of luck, with a little bit of luck
We will never have to go to work

With a little bit, with a little bit
With a little bit of bloomin’ luck

The men upstairs harass us with their prelims
To write the answers always makes us fret
The men upstairs harass us with their prelims
But with a little bit of luck, with a little bit of luck
We will pass them all without a sweat

(Repeat Chorus)

Ingersoll and Earhart pay us money
And the reason we don’t understand
Oh Ingersoll and Earhart pay us money
But with a little bit of luck, with a little bit of luck
They’ll increase it by another grand

(Repeat Chorus)

Oh we have spent long years in these damn workshops
Hearing all the young professors shout
Oh we have spent long years in these damn workshops
But with a little bit of luck, with a little bit of luck
They’ll have pity and they’ll let us out

(Repeat Chorus)

The MIT men get the best job offers
The Harvard men get all the business dough
The MIT men get the best job offers
But we just never get the luck, we just never get the luck
All that’s left for us is Chicago

We just never get, we just never get
We just never get the bloomin’ luck

Oh everybody thinks that we are madmen
And we have no say in policy
Oh everybody thinks that we are madmen
But with a little bit of luck, with a little bit of luck
We will publish in the J-P-E.

No final Chorus

Source: Harvard University Archive. Papers of Zvi Griliches. Box 129, Folder “Faculty Skits, ca. 1960s.”

Image Source: Stanley Holloway (center) as Alfred P. Doolittle from the Broadway presentation of My Fair Lady. At left is Gordon Dillworth and at right, Rod McLennan. From Wikimedia Commons.

Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Mid-year and Final Exams for Economics courses, 1899-1900

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2022-05-07

With this post the Harvard economics exam collection of Economics in the Rear-view Mirror enters the 20th century.

All the printed exams for the academic year 1899-1900 have been transcribed for the digitized record.

Economics 1. Outlines of Economics
Economics 2. Economic Theory of the 19th Century
Economics 3. Principles of Sociology
Economics 4. Statistics
Economics 5. Railways and Other Public Works
Economics 6. Economic History of the U.S.
Economics 7a. Financial Administration and Public Debts
Economics 7b. Theory and Methods of Taxation
Economics 8. Western Civilization in its Economic Aspects
Economics 9. [Labor Question in Europe and the U.S.]
Economics 10. [European Mediaeval Economic History]
Economics 11. Modern Economic History of Europe
Economics 12a. [International Payments and Gold/Silver Flows]
Economics 12b. [Banking and Leading Banking Systems]
Economics 13. [Methods of Economic Investigation]
Economics 14. Socialism and Communism
Economics 15. The History of Economics to close of the 18th Century
Economics 16. Financial History of the U.S.
Economics 20a. Economics of Ancient World
Economics 20b. Commercial Crises
Economics 20c. Tariff History of the U.S.
Economics 20e. Ethnology Applied to Economics

_______________________

Economics 1.
Outlines of Economics

Course Announcement

[Economics] 1. Outlines of Economics. Mon., Wed., Fri., at 9. Professor [Frank William] Taussig, Asst. Professor Edward Cummings, Dr. John Cummings, Dr. [Guy Stevens] Callender, Dr. [Oliver Mitchell Wentworth] Sprague, Messrs. [Abram Piatt] Andrew and [Edward Henry] Warren.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1899-1900, p. 367.

Course Enrollment
1899-1900

Primarily for Undergraduates:—
[Economics] 1. Asst. Professor Edward Cummings, Dr. John Cummings, Dr. Callender, Dr. Sprague, Messrs. Andrew and Warren. — Outlines of Economics. Lectures and recitations (3 hours); prescribed reading. Recitations in 12 sections.

Total 461: 1 Graduate, 15 Seniors, 85 Juniors, 277 Sophomores, 23 Freshmen, 60 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1899-1900, p. 68.

1899-1900
ECONOMICS 1
[Mid-year examination]

One question may be omitted from each of the two groups.
Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.

Explain what is meant by

positive and preventive checks;
effective desire of accumulation;
margin of cultivation.

In what manner the investment of capital is promoted

by the payment of interest;
by corporations or joint stock companies;
by private ownership of land.

Are there differences between the conclusions of Mill and Hadley on these subjects?

Does Mill believe there is an “unearned increment”? does Hadley?
“Profits are neither more nor less than the selling price of the products of industry above the amount advanced in wages.” Hadley
“Profits do not depend on prices, nor on purchase and sale.” Mill
Can you reconcile these two statements? and how is either of them to be reconciled with the expenditure incurred by capitalists for materials and machinery ?
“The separation of interest from net profit and rent results in a separation of the reward for waiting from the rewards for rent and foresight.” Explain wherein this separation at the hands of Hadley is different from the treatment of the same subject by Mill.

II.

Mention special circumstances which act on the remuneration of (take three),

domestic servants;
physicians;
artists of eminence;
business men.

For each of the three groups into which Mill divides commodities according to the laws of value governing them, mention an example, giving your reasons for the classification.
Suppose two kinds of shoes, one made chiefly by hand, the other made chiefly in factories where much machinery is used. How will a general rise in wages affect their relative value?
Explain what is meant by commercial speculation; by industrial speculation; and set forth (as to one) the advantages and disadvantages.
Wherein is Mill’s attitude toward socialism more or less sympathetic than Hadley’s?
“Coöperation is often confounded with profit-sharing, but the two things are radically distinct in their nature.”
Would Mill’s discussion of these subjects lead you to think him likely to accede to this statement of Hadley’s? What is your own opinion?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 5, containing the volume Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1899-1900.

1899-1900
ECONOMICS 1
[Year-end examination]

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.

I
Three questions from this group.

Is rent a return different in kind from interest? Is interest a return different in kind from profits? Do Hadley and Mill differ as to these distinctions?
Is the stock of money in a country, metallic and paper, part of its capital? Why, or why not?
A large increase in population has taken place in most countries during this century; and the well-being of laborers has advanced. Are these facts inconsistent with the principles that there is a law of diminishing returns from land, and that a rapid increase of population causes wages to be low?
If the efficiency of labor in a given community were suddenly doubled as to all commodities, how would their values be affected? their prices? How would international trade be affected?

II.
Three questions from this group.

Explain what is meant by (a) index numbers, (b) tabular standard. Would the adoption of a tabular standard make the adjustment of relations between debtor and creditor more equitable? more convenient?
What would you expect to be the effect of a great increase in the exports of a given country on the foreign exchanges, on the movement of specie, on the rate of discount, on prices?
Is there any ground for the feeling of apprehension often expressed when gold is exported from a country?
Can you reconcile the statement that a country’s exports tend usually to be equal in money value to its imports, with the statement that the country may gain more from the exchange than do the countries with which it trades?

III.
Four questions from this group.

“The distinctive function of the banker begins as soon as he uses the money of others.”
“Banks make the larger portion of their profits, not from their capital, but from the use of money furnished them by their customers.”
Should you accede to these statements?
To what peculiar expedients do banks resort in time of crisis in (a) England, (b) Germany, (c) the United States?
The provisions of the acts of 1878 and 1892. Why did the one cause much embarassment, the other little?
Points of resemblance, points of difference, between the Issue Department of the Bank of England, and the Division of Issue and Redemption established by the act of 1900 in the Treasury of the United States.
In view of what you learned about credit and banking, do you believe that the general range of prices depends on the plentifulness of specie? If so, how? if not, why not?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 5, bound volume Examination Papers 1900-01, pp. 27-28.

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Economics 2
Economic Theory in the Nineteenth Century

Course Announcement

[Economics] 2. Economic Theory in the Nineteenth Century. Mon., Wed., Fri., at 2.30. Professor Taussig.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1899-1900, p. 367.

Course Enrollment

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—
[Economics] 2. Professor Taussig. — Economic Theory in the Nineteenth Century. Lectures and discussions (3 hours); required reading.

Total 65: 8 Graduates, 17 Seniors, 27 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 9 Others.

Source: Harvard University, Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1899-1900, p. 69.

1899-1900.
ECONOMICS 2.
[Mid-year examination]

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.
One question may be omitted.

“That high wages make high prices, is a popular and widely-spread opinion. The whole amount of error involved in this proposition can only be seen thoroughly when we come to the theory of money.”“It is another common notion that high prices make high wages; because the producers or dealers, being better off, can afford to pay more to their labourers.”What would Cairnes say was the “amount of error” in the opinions here stated by Mill?
“What was Cairnes’s answer to the question put by him: “Are these grounds for a separate theory of international trade?”
Suppose country A to have to remit regularly a tribute to country B: trace the effects on imports and exports, on the usual rates of foreign exchange, on the level of prices in the two countries.
Is Cairnes’s reasoning as to the effect which trade unions may exercise on wages consistent with his reasoning as to “a certain proportion of the sums invested, which must go to the payment of wages”?
(a) “The tiller of the soil must abide in faith of a harvest, through months of ploughing, sowing, and cultivating; and his industry is only possible as food has been stored up from the crop of the previous year . . . To the extent of a year’s subsistence, then, it is necessary that some one should stand ready to make advances to the wage-laborer out of the products of past industry. All sums so advanced came out of capital.”(b) ”But how largely, in fact, are wages advanced out of capital?. . . In some exceptional industries [e.g. transportation companies] it happens that the employer realizes on his product in a shorter time than once a week, so that the labourer is not only paid out of the product of his industry, but actually advances to the employer a portion of the capital on which he operates.”(c) “In new countries . . . the wages of labor are paid only partially out of capital . . . A collection of accounts from the books of farmers in different sections before 1851 shows the hands charged with advances of the most miscellaneous character. Yet in general the amount of such advances does not exceed one third, and it rarely reaches one half, of the stipulated wages of the year. Now it is idle to speak of wages thus paid as coming out of capital. At the time these contracts were made the wealth which was to pay those wages was not in existence.”Consider whether an advance from capital, or the absence of an advance, is made out in the cases here described by Walker.
How far you regard wages and other incomes as predetermined, — i.e. determined by causes that have operated in the past; and how far your conclusion is affected by the saving and investment of a part of current money income.
Your conclusion as to what share in distribution is “residual” (a) over short periods, (b) over long periods.
Is the doctrine of a rigid and predetermined wages-fund set forth by Ricardo? By Mill?
The “laissez-faire” and “natural rights” theory at the hands of Adam Smith, of Bastiat, of John Stuart Mill.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Prof. F. W. Taussig, Examination Papers in Economics 1882-1935 (Scrapbook). Also in Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 5, containing the volume Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1899-1900.

1899-1900.
ECONOMICS 2.
[Year-end examination]

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.

a) “The analysis of consumer’s surplus, or rent, gives definite expression to familiar notions, but introduces to new subtlety.”Explain.b) Consider qualifications to be borne in mind in measuring consumer’s surplus; and give your conclusion as to helpfulness of the doctrine thus qualified.
“When we speak of the national dividend, or distributable net income of the whole nation, as divided into the shares of land, labour, capital, we must be clear as to what things we are including, and what things we are excluding . . . The labour and capital of the country, acting on its natural resources, produce annually a certain net aggregate of commodities, material and immaterial, including services of all kinds. This is the true net annual income, or revenue, of the country; or, the national dividend.”“It is to be understood that the share of the national dividend, which any particular class receives during the year, consists either of things that were made during the year, or the equivalents of those things. For many of the things made, or partly made, during the year are likely to remain in the possession of capitalists and undertakers of industry and to be added to the stock of capital; while in return they, directly or indirectly, hand over to the working classes some things that had been made in previous years.“Consider as to these passages, (1) their relation to the doctrine of total utility and consumer’s rent, (2) whether you would accede to either statement, or to both.
Define monopoly revenue; and consider the effect on monopoly and on the prices of the monopolized article of (1) a tax proportional to monopoly revenue, (2) a tax fixed in total amount, (3) a tax proportional to quantity produced.
“We might reasonably dispute whether it is the upper blade of a pair of scissors or the lower that cuts a piece of paper, as whether value is governed by utility or cost of production. It is true that when one blade is held still, and the cutting is effected by moving the other, we may say with careless brevity that the cutting is done by the second; but the statement is not strictly accurate, and is to be excused only so long as it claims to be merely a popular and not a strictly scientific account of what actually happens.” Explain; and consider whether Mill or Cairnes would have accepted this conclusion.

5, 6, 7 (answer separately, or as one question, at your pleasure).

Rent and quasi-rent;
Producer’s rent and saver’s rent;
Producer’s rent and business profits, —

wherein like, wherein unlike; with a consideration of the helpfulness of the distinctions for the solution of economic problems.

Compare the conclusions of Mill, Cairnes, Marshall, as to the causes of the differences in remuneration in different social strata.
Suppose France, Germany, and the United States had not legislated as they did in 1873-75, what would have been, in your opinion, the course of the price of silver?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Prof. F. W. Taussig, Examination Papers in Economics 1882-1935 (Scrapbook). Also in Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 5, bound volume Examination Papers 1900-01, pp. 28-29.

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Economics 3
Principles of Sociology

Course Announcement

[Economics] 3. The Principles of Sociology. — Development of the Modern State, and of its Social Functions. Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 1.30. Asst. Professor Edward Cummings.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1899-1900, p. 367.

Course Enrollment

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—
[Economics] 3. Asst. Professor Edward Cummings. — The Principles of Sociology. — Development of the Modern State, and of its Social Functions. Lectures (3 hours); excursions; 6 reports or theses.

Total 105: 7 Graduates, 35 Seniors, 37 Juniors, 10 Sophomores, 16 Others.

Source: Harvard University, Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1899-1900, p. 69.

1899-1900
ECONOMICS 3
[Mid-year examination]

In discussing these topics, indicate so far as you can in each case the views held by the several authors read and discussed during the half-year; and state clearly your own conclusions.

The peculiar relations of man to his environment:—
1. The relative importance of human, or non-human elements of environment at different stages of progress.
2. The ideal adjustment of man to the several elements of his environment.
a) The Biological conditions of progress; b) the Economic conditions; c) the Ethical conditions.How related; and how reconcilable?
The family and progress
Reason and progress.
Religion and progress.
Imitation and “consciousness of kind.”

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 5, containing the volume Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1899-1900.

1899-1900
ECONOMICS 3
[Year-end examination]

State the subject of your final report, and the amount of reading or other work done in preparation of it.
The Social Contract:(a) Origin and successive phases of the theory; comparing the views of its chief expounders and critics.(b) Bearing of the Social Contract theory upon recent speculations in regard to the nature and origin of social and political institutions.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.” Explain carefully your reasons for agreeing or disagreeing with these statements.
(a) Spencer’s theory as to the origin and development of political forms and forces;(b) The value of his practical conclusions in regard to the legitimate function of the modern State;(c) Laissez-faire and the survival of the unfit.
The conditions making for race progress and for race deterioration:(a) Analyse Haycraft’s Evidence and his conclusions;(b) Analyse Kelly’s evidence and his conclusions.
Tarde’s laws of Repetition, Opposition, Adaptation: explain and illustrate their sociological significance.
The curve of social progress.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 5, bound volume Examination Papers 1900-01, p. 30.

_______________________

Biographical information for John Cummings has been posted earlier:

https://www.irwincollier.com/harvard-semester-exams-for-statistics-john-cummings-1896-1900/

Economics 4.
Statistics

Course Announcement

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—
[Economics] 4. Statistics. — Theory, method, and practice. — Studies in Demography. Mon., Wed., Fri., at 11. Dr. John Cummings.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1899-1900, p. 368.

Course Enrollment 1899-1900
(Year-course)

[Economics] 4. Dr. John Cummings. — Statistics. — Theory, method, and practice. — Studies in Demography. Lectures (3 hours) and conferences; 2 reports; theses.

Total 10: 1 Graduate, 2 Seniors, 4 Juniors, 2 Sophomores, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1899-1900, p. 69.

1899-1900.
ECONOMICS 4.
[Mid-year examination]

Devote one hour to A and the remainder of your time to B.

Urban growth and migration. Consider the sex and age distribution of migrants, the natural increase of urban and rural populations, and the causes of migration into urban centres. Illustrate by considering the actual conditions and movement in some one country or important urban centre.
The data of criminal statistics as an index of amount of criminality. Consider the tables relating to crime in the United States census; the several statistical methods of dealing with crime and with the criminal classes; age, sex, and civil status as a factor in criminality; and the law of criminal saturation.

B.
Elect ten, and answer concisely.

1 and 2. [counts as two questions]. Statistical measurements of agglomeration. Consider statistical methods of determining degree of concentration, also definition of the urban unit.

2 and 4. [counts as two questions]. Causes tending to make the rate of mortality lower for urban than for rural populations? Causes tending to make it higher? The rate of natality?

5. Methods of estimating population for intercensal years.

6. Statistical laws and freedom of the will

7. Define “life-table population.”

8. Define carefully the following terms: “birth rate,” “rate of natality”; “rate of mortality”; death rate”; “rate of nuptialité”; “marriage rate”; index of mortality.”

9. What do you understand by normal distribution of population by sex? By age? By civil status?

10. Economic value of a population as effected by its age and sex distribution? By movement? by immigration?

11. Of what statistical significance is the doubling period for any population?

12. Can you account for the retardation in the rate of movement of population during this century?

13. Tell when, if ever, the following terms are identical:—

(a) mean age at death.
(b) mean age of living.
(c) mean duration of life.
(d) expectation of life.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year Examination papers, 1852-1943. Box 5, Bound volume: Examination Papers. Mid-years, 1899-1900.

1899-1900.
ECONOMICS 4.
[Year-end examination]

Divide your time equally between A and B.

Statistical methods of estimating wealth accumulated.Comment critically upon the census statistics of wealth accumulated in the United States.
Statistical evidences of the progress of the working classes in the last half-century. Discuss the movement of wages and prices.What do you understand by “index figures,” “average wages,” “average prices,” “weighted averages”? Explain methods of weighting.
The growth of cities and social election.

B.
Two questions may be omitted.

How far are social conditions in a community revealed in the birth rate? the death rate? by the “index of mortality”? What do you understand by “movement of population”?
In constructing a life table what correction must be made for abnormal age and sex distribution? Define “mortality,” “natality,” “expectation of life.” How should you calculate the “mean duration of life” from the census returns?
The limit to the increase of population in the food supply? In other forms of wealth?
Can you formulate any laws which will be true in general of the migrations of population?
Methods of estimating population for intercensal years.
Statistics of manufacturers in the United States census.
How should you calculate the economic value of a population?
Take one:—The rate of suicide as evidence of degeneration.The tables relating to crime in the Federal census of the United States.
How far is it possible to give to moral and social facts a quantitative statement?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 5, Bound volume: Examination Papers 1900-01. June 1900, p. 31.

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Economics 5
Railways and other Public Works

Course Announcement

[Economics] 5. Railways and other Public Works, under Public and Corporate Management. Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 1.30. Mr. Meyer.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1899-1900, p. 368.

Course Enrollment
(Year-course)

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—
[Economics] 5. Mr. Meyer. Railways and other Public Works, under Public and Corporate Management. Lectures (2 or 3 hours); prescribed reading.

Total 62: 3 Graduates, 27 Seniors, 19 Juniors, 6 Sophomores, 7 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1899-1900, p. 69.

1899-1900
ECONOMICS 5
[Mid-year examination]

Illustrate by means of such leading facts as you have at your command the statement that the railway problem is the problem of the adjustment of
1. The claims of rival railways occupying the same territory;
2. The claims of railways occupying widely separated sections of the country but competing for a “common market”;
3. The claims of rival producing and distributing centres.

“Had [railroad] building been checked by the censorship of a board of commissioners, and charters granted by the State only upon a showing of necessity, to be determined by the population, density of traffic, and like warrantable reasons, a large percentage of the roads which today constitute the disturbing element of interstate commerce, would never have been built.” — Clark: State Railroad Commissions.Give your reasons for accepting or rejecting the statement that the control here suggested could not have been exercised.
Alternative:
The working in Massachusetts of the practice of incorporating railway companies by special charter only.
The working of the New York legislation of 1892 and 1895 enacting that no new railroad or street railway shall be built in New York State unless the Board of Railroad Commissioners shall certify that public convenience and necessity require the construction.
The analysis of the expense account of railways upon which is based the “joint cost of production” theory of railway rates.
The nature of the statistics used in illustrating in a general way the statement that railway charges are based upon what the traffic will bear: in discussing the bearing of stock-watering upon railway rates.
Pools under the common law: in England; in the United States.
Alternative:
The effect upon the railway rate situation at the north-west of the railroad building of 1886 to 1888, and the federal prohibition of pooling, together with the enactment of the “long and short haul” principle.
The decision of the court in Munn v. Illinois; Brass v. North Dakota; Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul v. Minnesota; and Smythe, Attorney-general. v. Ames.
What were the causes of the so-called granger agitation of 1871-74; of the reappearance of this agitation in 1886-88?
The two currents of thought in the Interstate Commerce Act.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year Examination papers, 1852-1943. Box 5, Bound volume: Examination Papers. Mid-years, 1899-1900.

1899-1900
ECONOMICS 5
[Year-end examination]

Discuss questions 1 and 2 as thoroughly as you can, and give to question 3 whatever time remains.

Transportation by rail and by water in Prussia and the Prussian Provinces. — A critical account of the working of the Prussian scheme of railway charges.
Should the Interstate Commerce Commission have power to fix railway rates; or should the adjustment of railway rates be left to pools?
The history of electric street railway traction in the United States, and of electric street railway traction and electric lighting in Great Britain. — A critical discussion of the American policy of little or no restriction upon the industries in question, and the British policy of severe restriction coupled with a tendency to municipal ownership and municipal operation.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 5, Bound volume: Examination Papers 1900-01. June 1900, p. 32.

_______________________

Economics 6.
Economic History
of the United States

Biographical Note for Guy Stevens Callender: https://www.irwincollier.com/harvard-final-examination-u-s-economic-history-callender-1899-1900/

Course Description
1897-98

[Economics] 6. The Economic History of the United States. Tu., Th., at 2.30, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructors. Mr. Callender.

Course 6 gives a general survey of the economic history of the United States from the formation of the Union to the present time, and considers also the mode in which economic principles are illustrated by the experience so surveyed. A review is made of the financial history of the United States, including Hamilton’s financial system, the second bank of the United States and the banking systems of the period preceding the Civil War, coinage history, the finances of the Civil War, and the banking and currency history of the period since the Civil War. The history of manufacturing industries is taken up in connection with the course of international trade and of tariff legislation, the successive tariffs being followed and their economic effects considered. The land policy of the United States is examined partly in its relation to the growth of population and the inflow of immigrants, and partly in its relation to the history of transportation, including the movement for internal improvements, the beginnings of the railway system, the land grants and subsidies, and the successive bursts of activity in railway building. Comparison will be made from time to time with the contemporary economic history of European countries.

Written work will be required of all students, and a course of reading will be prescribed, and tested by examination. The course is taken advantageously with or after History 13. While an acquaintance with economic principles is not indispensable, students are strongly advised to take the course after having taken Economics 1, or, if this be not easy to arrange, at the same time with that course.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Division of History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics, 1897-98, pp. 32-33.

Course Announcement

[Economics] 6. The Economic History of the United States. Tu., Th., at 2.30. Dr. Callender.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1899-1900, p. 367.

Course Enrollment

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—
[Economics] 6. Dr. [Guy Stevens] Callender.—The Economic History of the United States. Lectures (2 hours); discussions of assigned topics (1 hour); 2 theses.

Total: 163. 11 Graduates, 64 Seniors, 58 Juniors, 19 Sophomores, 11 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual report of the President of Harvard College 1899-1900, p. 69.

1899-1900
ECONOMICS 6
[Mid-Year Examination]

Answer ten questions, including 5, 6, 7, and 8.

“The English commercial legislation; I conclude, did the colonies no harm prior to 1760; and the English connection did them much good.” — Ashley, in Quarterly Journal of Economies, November 1899.
Do you agree with this conclusion? Be careful to explain why various features of English colonial policy were, or were not, burdensome to the colonies.
Do you consider the following extract a sufficient explanation of the great prosperity of the colonies in the eighteenth century, or the new states of the West during the fifty years before the Civil War? If not point out the neglected factor.“The colony of a civilized nation which takes possession of a waste country … advances more rapidly to wealth and greatness than any other human society.The colonists carry with them a knowledge of agriculture and of other useful arts. … Every colonist gets more land than he can possibly cultivate. He has no rent and scarce any taxes to pay. No landlord shares with him in its produce, and the share of the sovereign is commonly but a trifle. He has every motive to render as great as possible a produce, which is thus to be almost entirely his own. … He is eager, therefore, to collect labourers from all quarters, and to reward them with the most liberal wares. … The liberal reward of labour encourages marriage. The children, during the tender age of infancy are well fed and properly taken care of, and when they are grown up, the value of their labour greatly overpays their maintenance. When arrived at maturity, the high price of labour and the low price of land, enables them to establish themselves in the same manner as their fathers did before them.”“Plenty of good land, and liberty to manage their own affairs their own way, seems to be the two great causes of the prosperity of all new colonies.” — Wealth of Nations.
Briefly describe the experience of the American people with paper currency prior to the formation of the federal constitution, noting the different kinds of paper money used.
In what respect did the revenue system of the United States in 1830 differ from that in operation in 1800? Do you think the change was a change for the better?
“It is now proper to proceed a step further, and to enumerate the principal circumstances from which it may be inferred that manufacturing establishments not only occasion a positive augmentation of the produce and revenues of the society, but that they contribute essentially to render them greater than they could possibly be without such establishments.” — Hamilton, Report on Manufactures.
Enumerate as many of these “circumstances” as you can and discuss the one which seems to you to furnish the strongest argument for the Protective policy.
“…The Protective policy of the United States has had unexpected successes and surprising failures. By successes, here I mean that sometimes the duties have brought about a considerable development of the protected industry; while by failures, I would describe those cases in which there has been an absence of such development…” — Taussig, Tariff History.
Mention several cases of each and point out the causes for success or failure in every case.
What were the principal features of our tariff legislation from the close of the Civil War to 1883?
“There seem, however, to be two cases in which it will generally be advantageous to lay some burden upon foreign, for the encouragement of domestic industry.” — Wealth of Nations.
What are these two exceptions to Adam Smith’s free trade principles? Has either of them ever had any influence in determining American tariff policy?
“It is not uncommon to meet with an opinion, that though the promoting of manufactures may be the interest of a part of the Union, it is contrary to that of another part. The northern and southern regions are sometimes represented as having adverse interests in this respect. These are called manufacturing; those agricultural states; and a species of opposition is imagined to subsist between the manufacturing and agricultural interests. …” — Hamilton, Report on Manufactures.
How far had this supposed opposition of interest between the North and South respecting the tariff a real basis? Was there not the same opposition of interest between the East and West?
“The material progress during 1850-60 was greater than that of any preceding decade. To excel it, we must look forward to the time intervening between the end of the Civil War and the present. …”— Rhodes, History of United States.
What were the principal causes of this prosperity?
Does the experience of the United States at any period of its history confirm or refute the following proposition?
“…The inevitable consequence of free trade and constantly increasing commercial intercourse between the two countries (e. United States and Great Britain) must be, to establish among the inhabitants of both of them the same standard of material well being, the same measure and distribution of individual prosperity. Great Britain is now (1855) pouring upon us in a full tide both the surplus of her population and the products of her over-tasked manufacturing industry. … To expect that, in two countries thus situated, without any special direction of public policy toward maintaining some barrier between them, the pressure of population, the profits of capital. And the wages of labor can long remain very unequal, would be as idle as to believe that, without the erection of a dam. Water could be maintained at two different levels in the same pond ….” — Bowen, American Political Economy, p. 216.
How would you explain the prevalence of public enterprises in transportation and banking in the United States between 1815 and 1850?
In what respects should conclusions, drawn from the experiences of European countries, regarding the effects of a Protective Tariff, be modified, when applied to the United States?
Compare the main features of the commercial policy of Europe and America at the present time with the mercantile system of the eighteenth century.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 5, containing the volume Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1899-1900.

1899-1900
ECONOMICS 6
[Final examination, 1900]

Into what periods may the economic history of the United States be properly divided? Give your reasons for making such a division, pointing out the chief characteristic of each period.
“A monopoly may be either legal, natural, or industrial.”—Distinguish each of these from the others by examples, and explain at length what is the character of an “industrial monopoly.”
What legislation, if any, do you think is needed for the control of trusts? Give in full the reasons for your opinion.
What features of American railway legislation do you consider open to criticism?
“…As has been pointed out in the preceding chapter, cotton culture offered many and great advantages over other crops for the use of slave labor; but slavery had few, if any advantages over free labor for the cultivation of cotton….”—(a) Point out some of the advantages of cotton over other crops for the use of slave labor. (b) How do you reconcile the last part of the statement with the fact that cotton was produced chiefly by slave, instead of free, labor?
Considering the conditions prevailing among the negroes in the South as well as in the West Indies since emancipation, what criticism, if any, would you make upon the policy of emancipation as actually carried out by the federal government during and after the war?
What influences can you mention which have contributed to the recent depressed condition of cotton producers? (Do not confine your attention to the “credit system.”)
What were the principal provisions of the resumption act? Explain the conditions under which it was carried into effect.
Explain the conditions which led to the crisis or 1893.
What reasons can you give to support the proposition that immigration has increased the population of the United States but little, if any?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Final examinations, 1853-2001. Box 2, Folder “Final examinations, 1899-1900”.

Also: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 5, Bound volume: Examination Papers 1900-01. June 1900, pp. 32-33.

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Economics 7a
Financial Administration and Public Debts

Course Announcement

[Economics] 7a¹ hf. Financial Administration and Public Debts. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) at 11. Professor Dunbar.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1899-1900, p. 368.

Course Enrollment

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—
[Economics] 7a¹ hf. Professor Dunbar. — Financial Administration and Public Debts. Lectures (2 or 3 hours); prescribed reading; report.

Total 36: 7 Graduates, 14 Seniors, 8 Juniors, 7 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1899-1900, p. 69.

1899-1900
ECONOMICS 7a
[Mid-year examination]

Divide your time equally between A and B.

A.
Question A.2 may be omitted and your time devoted to Question A.1; or A.1 and A.2 may be treated together as forming one question.

Give some account of English sinking fund provisions enacted since 1860, and of operations looking toward reduction of the English debt during that period. If you prefer, take instead the period 1790-1820.
What determines the present worth of government securities in general? and in particular, of the following sorts of securities at the date of their issue:—
1. a terminable annuity?
2. a perpetual annuity?
3. a life or a tontine annuity?
4. a five-twenty bond? an English consol? of the French rentes?
5. of paper currency?

What effect upon the present worth of a public security has lengthening the term for which it is to run? Consider inconvertible paper currency

B.
Take six.

What do you understand by “floating debt”? by “funded debt”? “unliquidated debt”? “credit supplementaire”?
Discuss the “use and disuse of ‘relishes,’ gambling risks which are added in order to commend a public loan to the taste of creditors,” as a factor in the development of public credit
Compare the development of public credit in Prussia with that in Great Britain at the beginning of this century.
and 5. [counts as two questions] Compare the manner of making up estimates of public income and expenditures, and the responsibility of the finance minister in England, France and the United States. The manner of appropriating funds out of the treasury in these several countries.

How far, if at all, is a government justified in pledging itself to any fixed policy of debt payment? How may a policy of conversion conflict with a policy of payment?
Give an account of any important refunding operation with which you are familiar.
Examine and criticise the following selection: “As regards the relation of public control to public credit, there is obviously a long step taken in advance when the public control comes to be so employed as to not discriminate in its own favor.”
Criticise the opinions set forth in the following selections:—“A large national debt is a ‘canker which consumes the political energy and the wealth of a nation’ and will sooner or later destroy it.”“Public debt is debt only in form; in point of substantial fact every loan is an independent method of taxing the future for all those government expenses which go to build up permanent government establishments for the benefit of the future by means of advances furnished by the present.”

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 5, containing the volume Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1899-1900.
Also: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 5, Bound volume: Examination Papers 1900-01. June 1900, p. 34.

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Economics 7b
The Theory and
Methods of Taxation

Course Announcement

[Economics] 7b² hf. The Theory and Methods of Taxation, with special reference to local taxation in the United States. Half-course(second half-year). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) at 8. Professor Taussig.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1899-1900, p. 368.

Course Enrollment

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—
[Economics] 7b² hf. Professor Taussig. — The Theory and Methods of Taxation, with special reference to local taxation in the United States. Lectures and discussions (hours); required reading.

Total 73: 6 Graduates, 25 Seniors, 27 Juniors, 4 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 10 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1899-1900, p. 69.

1899-1900
ECONOMICS 7b
[Year-end examination]

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.
Give your reasons in all cases.

How far something analogous to the end which is proposed by the “single tax” is attained by (1) the French impôt foncier, (2) the English Land Tax, (3) local taxes on urban realty in the United States.
“(1) It is maintained by some economists that the taxes on rented real estate are shifted entirely to the tenants, and result by just so much in an increase of rents. (2) It is maintained by others that, when land has a considerable value, the taxes are shifted to tenants only in part, and in part have the effect of lessening the selling price of site on which the buildings stand. … (3) But in either case the investment price of the property has long since been adjusted to the tax.”Explain which among these three statements, if any, you think accurate, giving your reasons.
The relation of local taxes on real property to central taxes thereon, in France, in England, in American states?
Are there features in the Prussian tax reforms of 1891-93 which may be commended for imitation in American states?
The nature of the advantages secured by the combination of local with central administration in the income tax legislation of England and of Prussia.
“Is it quite honest for a government to keep back part of what it has promised to pay a pensioner, an annuitant, or the holder of public obligations? Is it reasonable to tax public salaries when the result of such a tax is to increase the expense of administration without increasing by one penny the clear income to the government? Can a man who knows how contracts are drawn between debtors and creditors be convinced that equity is the result of attempting to tax a money-lender through the agency of the borrower? Can it be denied that the application of the principle of “tapping” at their source the incomes which, unfortunately for the recipients, are recorded, while permitting other incomes to pay on the basis of self- assessment by the individual, is to perpetuate one of the worst features of the general property tax, namely, inequality of assessments as between individuals?”
Answer these questions, separately or as a whole, with regard to the tax system which is referred to by the writer.
Is the Massachusetts system of taxing corporations and corporate securities open to the charge of leading to double taxation?
The reasons for and against the establishment of an income tax by the United States.
Do you believe the principle of progression in taxation to be sound?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 5, Bound volume: Examination Papers 1900-01. June 1900, pp. 35-36.

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Economics 8²
Western Civilization in its Economic Aspects

Course Announcement

8²hf. Western Civilization in its Economic Aspects. (Mediaeval and Modern.) Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 12.Dr. Cunningham (Trinity College, Cambridge, England).

Source: Harvard University, Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1898-1899.Cambridge, Massachusetts: 1898, p. 41.

Course Enrollment

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—
[Economics] 8²hf. Dr. Cunnningham.— Western Civilization, mediaeval and modern, in its Economic Aspects. Lectures (3 hours). 4 reports.

Total 105: 13 Graduates, 41 Seniors, 15 Juniors, 23 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 12 Others

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College, 1898-99, p. 72.

Reading List transcribed at: Harvard. Economic Aspects of Western Civilization. Cunningham, 1899

Note: no examinations found.

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Economics 9
[Omitted in 1899-1900]

[The Labor Question in Europe and the United States. The Social And Economic Condiditon of Workingmen. Tu., Th., Sat., at 10. Asst. Professor Edward Cummings.]

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Economics 10
[Omitted in 1899-1900]

[The Mediaeval Economic History of Europe. Tu., Thu., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat. at 12. Professor Ashley.]

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Economics 11
Modern European and American Economic History

Course Description (from 1897-98)

[Economics] 11. The Modern Economic History of Europe and America (from 1500). Tu., Th., (and at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 12. Professor Ashley.

This course, — which will usually alternate with Course 10 [The Mediaeval Economic History of Europe] in successive years, — while intended to form a sequel to Course 10, will nevertheless be independent, and may usefully be taken by those who have not followed the history of the earlier period. The main thread of connection will be found in the history of trade; but the outlines of the history of agriculture and industry will also be set forth, and the forms of social organization dependent upon them. England, as the first home of the “great industry,” will demand a large share of attention; but the parallel or divergent economic history of the United States, and of the great countries of western Europe, will be considered side by side with it.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. [Announcement of the] Division of History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics 1897-98, pp. 31-32.

Course Announcement

[Economics] 11. The Modern Economic History of Europe and America (from 1500). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor)Sat., at 12. Professor Ashley.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1899-1900, p. 367.

Course Enrollment

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—
[Economics] 11. Professor Ashley.—The Modern Economic History of Europe. Lectures (2 or 3 hours).

Total 76: 15 Graduates, 21 Seniors, 26 Juniors, 6 Sophomores, 8 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1899-1900, p. 69.

Course Readings

Harvard. Readings for Modern Economic History. Ashley, 1899-1900

1899-1900
ECONOMICS 11.
[Mid-year examination]

N.B. — Not more than eight questions should be attempted,
of which the first must be one.

Comment upon, and (where the text is not English) translate,the following passages:—
1. Exemplar bullae seu donationis auctoritate cujus episcopus Romanus Alexander, ejus nominis sextus, concessit et donavit Castellae recibus et suis successoribus regiones et insulas novi orbis in Oceano occidentali Hispanorum navigationibus repertas.
2. Ibi enim tanta copia navigantium est cum mercimoniis ut in toto reliquo orbe non sint sicuti in uno portu nobilissimo vocato Zaitun. Asserunt enim centum naves pipis magnae in eo portu singulis annis deferri, sine aliis navibus portantibus alia aromata.
3. The Flemings there sometimes had a house of merchandise, but by reason that they used the like ill-dealing there which they did with us, they lost their privileges.
4. There is good hope that the same law being duly executed should yield unto the hired person both in the time of scarcity and in the time of plenty a convenient proportion of wages.
5. Wo jetzt eine grosse Gesellschaft ist, da nährten sich sonst wohl 20 oder mehr.

Give some account of the Portuguese policy in Asia during the sixteenth century.
Trace the origin and development of the class of English farmers up to the middle of the seventeenth century.
Compare the industrial conditions indicated by the craft ordinances of the later Middle Ages with those described in Defoe’s Tour.
Explain the importance of the statute of 1536 in the history of the English Poor Law.
Give some account, and explain the significance, of the statutes of Edward VI and of Mary touching the manufacture of cloth.
“The popular fears of engrossing and forestalling may be compared to the popular terror of witchcraft.” Criticise this dictum of Adam Smith in relation to (a) the Middle Ages; (b) the Age of Elizabeth; (c) our own time.
What is meant by a national economy, as contrasted with a town economy? Illustrate from European conditions in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
Indicate the points of contact between the life of Sir Thomas Gresham and the economic movements of his time.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 5, containing the volume Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1899-1900.

1899-1900
ECONOMICS 11
[Year-end examination]

Not more than eight questions should be attempted,
of which the first must be one.

Explain briefly the significance of the following passages:—
1. 1. No sugars, tobacco, cotton wool, indigoes, ginger, fustic or other dyeing wood, of the growth, production or manufacture of any English plantations in America, Asia or Africa shall be shipped, carried, conveyed or transported from any of the said English plantations to any land . . . or place whatsoever, other than to such English plantations as do belong to His Majesty or to the Kingdom of England or Ireland or principality of Wales, &c.
  2. The churchwardens of every parish and four substantial householders there … shall take order from time to time … for setting to work of the children whose parents … shall not be able to keep and maintain their children, and also all such persons as, having no means to maintain them, use no ordinary and daily trade of life to get their living by.
Compare the industrial and political life of one of the larger cities of the 15th century — say London or Norwich — with that of a great American city to-day.
State and criticise Seeler’s view of the meaning of English history in the 17th and 18th centuries.
What were the features common to the South Sea Company and the Mississippi Scheme, and wherein did they differ?
Discuss the question as to the practical effect of the Justices’ Assessment of Wages.
What suggestions or warnings for the U. S. in their treatment of the Philippine Islands may be derived them the history of English or Dutch experience in the East?
“It is in the highest degree improbable that the industrial system, which has been gradually superseded in the last 150 years, over had those pleasing characteristics which have been attributed to it.” Consider this.
“The historical method not always conservative — Changes commonly attributed to natural law are sometimes shown by it to be due to human injustice — The decay of the Yeomanry a case in point.” Is it a case in point or no? Explain your judgment, in either event.
Consider either Sir Josiah Child or the first Sir Robert Peel as typical merchants of their times.
Describe briefly the agrarian measures of Stein, and compare them with any other agrarian legislation in other countries and other times that may be familiar to you.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 5, Bound volume: Examination Papers 1900-01. June 1900, pp. 35-36.

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Economics 12¹
[Omitted in 1899-1900]

[Banking and the history of the leading Banking Systems. Half-course (first half-year) Tu., Thu., Sat. at 11.Professor Dunbar.]

Economics 12²
[Omitted in 1899-1900]

[International payments and the Flow of the Precious Metals. Half-course (second half-year) Tu., Thu., Sat. at 11. Professor Dunbar.]

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1899-1900, p. 368.

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Economics 13
[Omitted in 1899-1900]

[Methods of Economic Investigations. — English Writers. — German Writers. Tu., Th., at 1.30. Professor Taussig.]

Courses 15 and 13 are usually given in alternate years.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1899-1900, p. 368.

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Economics 14
Communism and Socialism.
History and Literature.

Course Announcement

[Economics] 14. Socialism and Communism. — History and Literature. Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 9.Asst. Professor Edward Cummings.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1899-1900, p. 367.

Course Enrollment

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—
[Economics] 14. Asst. Professor Edward Cummings.—Communism and Socialism.—History and Literature. Lectures (3 hours); 6 reports or theses.

Total 22: 2 Graduates, 11 Seniors, 4 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1899-1900, p. 69.

1899-1900
ECONOMICS 14
[Mid-year examination]

How, according to Plato, are economic organization, and the problems of production and distribution related (a) to social development; (b) to social and political degeneration?
What do you conceive to be his most permanent contribution to social philosophy? What his chief defect?
How far do the teachings of the Christian church and the Canon Law throw light on the gradual development of our fundamental economic ideas in regard to wealth, capital, trade, commerce?
How far is there ground for the contention that the writings of Rousseau have been the chief arsenal of social and political revolutionists?
“The right to the whole produce of labor—to subsistence—to labor:”What, according to Menger, have been the most important contributions to the successive phases of this discussion?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 5, containing the volume Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1899-1900.

1899-1900
ECONOMICS 14
[Year-end examination]

The subject of your last report, and the authors read in preparation; summarize briefly your conclusions.
Socialistic and communistic experiments in America:
1. Character and chronological sequence of the several groups, and their relation to special phases of socialistic thought in other countries;
2. Name and location of typical communities;
3. The practical and the theoretical significance of such experiments.
Recent American socialism:
1. Successive phases and present aspects;
2. Impressions derived from the propagandist press.
Recent English socialism:
1. Attitude toward Trade Unionism; toward “ unearned increment”;
2. Toward the doctrines of the classic economists;
3. Toward the doctrines of Karl Marx.
The psychology of socialism:
1. Summarize the main conclusions of Le Bon;
2. Discuss critically the evidence on which these conclusions rest.
The economic lessons of socialism: Analyze Sidgwick’s conclusions; state your own opinions.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 5, Bound volume: Examination Papers 1900-01. June 1900, p. 37.

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Economics 15
History of Economics to the Close of the 18^th Century

Course Announcement

[Economics] 15. The History and Literature of Economics to the close of the Eighteenth Century. Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 12. Professor Ashley.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1899-1900, p. 368.

Course Enrollment

Primarily for Graduates:—
[Economics] 15. Professor Ashley. — The History and Literature of Economics to the close of the Eighteenth Century. Lectures (2 or 3 hours).

Total 11: 6 Graduates, 2 Seniors, 2 Juniors, 1 Sophomore.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College, 1899-1900, p. 69.

1899-1900
ECONOMICS 15
[Mid-year examination]

Not more than eight questions should be attempted,
of which the first must be one.

Explain the significance and context of the following passages:
1. “If you were making a city of pigs, this is the way you would feed them.”
  [Plato, The Republic, Book II]
2. “If a child be born in their class with an alloy of copper or iron, they are to have no manner of pity upon it.”
  [Plato, The Republic, Book III]
3. “Each of them is very many cities, – in any case there are two.”
  [Plato, The Republic, Book IV]
4. “A slave is an animate instrument.”
  [Aristotle. The Politics. Book I, Chapter IV.]
5. “Every article admits of two uses.”
  [Aristotle. The Politics. Book I, Chapter IX.]
6. “Mutuum date, nihil inde sperantes.”

[“Lend hoping nothing thereby.” Luke 6:35. Originally from the Vulgate, Latin version of the Bible prepared mainly by St. Jerome in the late 4^th century.
“35 verumtamen diligite inimicos vestros et benefacite et mutuum date nihil inde sperantes et erit merces vestra multa et eritis filii Altissimi quia ipse benignus est super ingratos et malos”
“35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.”]
cf. Aquinas’ Summa Theologica. Second Division of the Second Part of Question LXXVIII. Of the Sin of Usury That is Committed in Loans.
Also, Théodore Reinach, Mutuum date nihil inde sperantes. Revue des Ètudes Grecques, 1849, pp. 52-48.]

Compare Plato’s conception of the division of labor with that of Adam Smith.
Explain and illustrate the attitude of Aristotle towards the working classes.
It has been remarked that after all Aristotle’s ideal polity is half communistic.
Criticize this opinion.
Describe the economic organization of the Spartan state. What do you gather from Plato and Aristotle as to the effects of the system?
In one sense, if at all, can the early Christian Church be called communistic? Set forth briefly the nature of the evidence.
Explain what you suppose to be the doctrine of Aquinas as tojust price, and then consider whether the idea is in any way practically applicable under modern circumstances.
[From the Second Division of the Second Part of Summa Theologica. Question LXXVII. Of Fraudulent Dealing in Buying and Selling.]
Wherein did the medieval contract of partnership approach and wherein did it differ from usury?
Distinguish between the various senses attached to the word “Mercantilism”.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 5, Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1899-1900.

1899-1900
ECONOMICS 15
[Year-end examination]

Not more than eight questions should be attempted.

Distinguish between the several lines of thought concerning the causes determining Value to be found in the various writings of John Locke.
The place in economic literature of either Sir Josiah Child or Sir William Petty.
Estimate the influence upon Adam Smith of the economic writings of Hume.
“Es lässt sich ja auch nicht leugnen, dass gerade das Beste an der physiocratischen Theorie: die Darstellung des Wirtschaftlichen Kreislaufs, die Lehre von der Reproduktion der Urstoffe, ihre Formung, Cirkulation und Verteilung, die Berechnung des Kapitalzinses, welchen die Pächter haben muss, und anderes auf einer Beobachtung des wirtschaftlichen Lebens beruhte; kurz sich als eine Beschreibung der französischen Wirtschaft des achtzehnten Jahrhunderts darstellte.”—Hasbach. Translate and comment
[Wilhelm Hasbach. Die allgemeinen philosophischen grundlagen der von François Quesnay und Adam Smith begründeten politischen ökonomie, 1890, p. 138]
“La division du travail rend de si grands et si évidents services qu’on les a remarqués dès l’antiquité….Mais personne n’en a tiré parti au point de vue économique avant Adam Smith; aussi le considère-t-on en quelque sort comme l’inventeur de la division du travail.” — Block. Translate and comment
[Maurice Block, Les Progrès de la Science Économique depuis Adam Smith. Tome Premier, Chapitre XVII, La Division du Travail, p. 433.]
A rapid sketch of the literary history of the doctrine of the Balance of Trade.
“The Component Parts of Price.” The significance of the phrase.
Compare Adam Smith’s doctrine of Wages with that of Ricardo.
State and criticise Adam Smith’s Canons of Taxation.
“Un autre progrès doctrinal réalisé depuis Ad. Smith…c’est la part faite aux entrepreneurs.” Translate and comment
[Maurice Block, Les Progrès de la Science Économique depuis Adam Smith. Revue des Deux Mondes (1890, Vol. 97), p. 940.]
The Historical School: its merits and defects.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 5, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1900-01, p. 38.

_______________________

Economics 16
Financial History
of the United States

Course Announcement

[Economics] 16. Financial History of the United States. First half-year: from 1789 to the Civil War. Second half-year: from 1860 to the present time. Tu., Th., at 2.30, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor. Professor Dunbar.

Course 16 may be taken as a half-course during either half-year.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1899-1900, p. 368.

Course Enrollment
(First half-year)

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—
[Economics] 16¹ hf. Professor Dunbar. Financial History of the United States from 1789 to the Civil War. Lectures (2 hours); prescribed reading; thesis.

Total 22: 7 Graduates, 7 Seniors, 5 Juniors, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1899-1900, p. 69.

Course Enrollment 1899-1900
(Second half-year)

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—
[Economics] 16² hf. Mr. E. H. Warren. Financial History of the United States from 1860 to the present time.Lectures; prescribed reading; thesis.

Total 25: 5 Graduates, 9 Seniors, 6 Juniors, 5 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1899-1900, p. 69.

1899-1900
ECONOMICS 16.
[Mid-year examination]

Divide your time equally between the two parts of the paper.

Omit at least one question; and omit others in addition if your essay under Part II gives the answers.

Wherein Hamilton and Gallatin differed as to the principles on which federal taxes should be levied; and how far legislation during their respective terms in the Treasury differed.
At what time before 1860 did the United States most nearly approach the issue of Treasury Notes designed to circulate money? Give the grounds of your opinion.
The changes introduced in the sinking fund policy of the United States in 1802.
The causes of the suspension of specie payments in 1814.
When and how the removal of the deposits by Jackson was brought about; and its effect on the Bank.
What do you find noteworthy in the relation of the United States to the banking system of the country in 1837? in 1847? in 1857?

II.

Write an essay on one of the following subjects:

(a) The history of the debt of the United States from 1789 to 1836.

(b) The advantages and disadvantages which experience shown to inhere in the establishment of has a great Bank of the United States; with a final statement of your opinion as to expediency of such an institution.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 5, Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1899-1900.

1899-1900
ECONOMICS 16
[Year-end examination]

In what were duties on imports into the U. S. payable in 1860? 1862? 1878? 1880? 1891? What were the people of the northern states using as currency in 1860? 1865? 1879? 1893?
What caused the suspension of specie payments by the banks of New York in December 1861?
State seven different ways in which the U. S. borrowed during the Civil War, and the effect of each upon the currency.
Why was the Civil War indebtedness rapidly reduced down to 1891? For what purposes since 1865 has the U. S. incurred additional indebtedness?
Trace briefly the changes in the volume of U. S. Notes outstanding from 1865 to the present day. What do you think would have been the fate of the U. S. Notes if the act of May 31, 1878, had not been passed?
How do you account for the fact that silver certificates are at a par with gold?
What are the provisions of the act of March 14, 1900, as to the Treasury Notes of 1890? What will eventually be the effect upon the currency of the issue of these Notes?
Which notes are better protected, those issued by the U. S. or those issued by national banks?
Does the act of March 14, 1900, “break the endless chain”?
What effect will this act probably have upon the bonded indebtedness of the U. S.?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 5, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1900-01, p. 38.

_______________________

Note: “Competent students will be guided in independent investigation, and the results of work done in Courses 20a, 20b, 20c, 20d, 20e, will be presented for discussion [in Economics 20 Seminary in Economics, meeting Mondays at 4.30]

Economics 20a
The Economic Life and Thought of the Ancient World

Course Announcement

[Economics] 20a hf. The Economic Life and Thought of the Ancient World. Half-course. Once a week. Professor Ashley.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1899-1900, p. 368.

Course Enrollment

Primarily for Graduates:—
[Economics] 20a hf. Professor Ashley. — The Economic Life and Thought of the Ancient World. Lectures (1 hour) and conferences (monthly).

Total 2: 2 Graduates.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College, 1899-1900, p. 69.

_______________________

Economics 20b
Commercial Crises

Course Announcement

[Economics] 20b hf. Commercial Crises. Half-course. Once a week. Professor Dunbar.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1899-1900, p. 369.

Course Enrollment

Primarily for Graduates:—
[Economics] 20b hf. Professor Dunbar. — Commercial Crises. Thesis.

Total 1: 2 Graduate.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College, 1899-1900, p. 69.

_______________________

Economics 20c
The Tariff History
of the United States

Course Announcement

[Economics] 20c¹ hf. The Tariff History of the United States. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Th., at 1.30. Professor Taussig.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1899-1900, p. 369.

Course Enrollment

Primarily for Graduates:—
[Economics] 20c hf. Professor Taussig. — The Tariff History of the United States. Lectures (1 hour); required reading; thesis

Total 8: 4 Graduates, 1 Senior, 1 Junior, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College, 1899-1900, p. 70.

1899-1900
ECONOMICS 20c.
[Mid-year examination]

I.
Two questions from this group.

“The difference between the price at which a manufacturer can afford to sell the whole amount of the commodities produced by him in one year, and that at which the same quantity of the same articles may be, or might have been, purchased from others [abroad], is therefore equal to the annual profit or loss resulting from his application of capital and labor to that instead of another branch of industry.” — Gallatin.The reasoning on which this conclusion rests; and your own opinion.
Mill’s reasoning as to the effects of import duties, for revenue or for protection, on the terms of international exchange; your own opinion thereon; and Mill’s probable opinion on Gallatin’s conclusion as quoted in question l.
The export-tax theory; the soundness of the reasoning on which it rested; how far it held good under the conditions of 1830; how far such reasoning would hold good in 1900.

II.
Three questions from this group.

The arguments for (a) protection to young industries (b) the creation of a home market; how far tenable in theory, how far applicable to the conditions of the United States in 1820-30.
The tariff act of 1833; the wisdom of its general plan (assume that a reduction of duties was called for); whether well framed in its details; how far it achieved the results aimed at.
The duties on wool and woolens since 1867; the theory on which they are framed, and the degree of success with which that theory is carried out.
“The phenomena described in the preceding pages [as to flax, silks, glassware…] reduce themselves, in the last analysis, to illustrations of the doctrine of comparative costs.” — Taussig. Why?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 5, Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1899-1900.

1899-1900
ECONOMICS 20c
[Year-end examination]

I.
Two questions from this group.

“The difference between the price at which a manufacturer can afford to sell the whole amount of the commodities produced by him in one year, and that at which the same quantity of the same articles may be, or might have been, purchased from others [abroad], is therefore equal to the annual profit or loss resulting from his application of capital and labor to that instead of another branch of industry.” — Gallatin.The reasoning on which this conclusion rests; and your own opinion.
Mill’s reasoning as to the effects of import duties, for revenue or for protection, on the terms of international exchange; your own opinion thereon: and Mill’s probable opinion on Gallatin’s conclusion as quoted in question 1.
The export-tax theory; the soundness of the reasoning on which it rested; how far it held good under the conditions of 1830; how far such reasoning would hold good in 1900.

II.
Three questions from this group.

The arguments for (a) protection to young industries (b) the creation of a home market; how far tenable in theory, how far applicable to the conditions of the United States in 1820-30.
The tariff act of 1833; the wisdom of its general plan (assume that a reduction of duties was called for); whether well framed in its details; how far it achieved the results aimed at.
The duties on wool and woolens since 1867; the theory on which they are framed, and the degree of success with which that theory is carried out.
“The phenomena described in the preceding pages [as to flax, silks, glassware …] reduce themselves, in the last analysis, to illustrations of the doctrine of comparative costs.” —Taussig. Why?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 5, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1900-01, pp. 39-40.

_______________________

Economics 20d
Workingmen’s Organizations
in the United States

Course Announcement

Primarily for Graduates:
[Economics] 20d hf. Workingmen’s Organizations in the United States. Half-course. Once a week. Asst. Professor Edward Cummings.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1899-1900, p. 369.

[Apparently zero student enrollment in 1899-1900: see Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College, 1899-1900, p. 70.]

_______________________

Economics 20e
Ethnology in its Applications
to Economic and
Social Problems

Course Announcement

Primarily for Graduates:—
[Economics] 20e² hf. Ethnology in its Applications to Economic and Social Problems. Half-course (second half-year) Tu., Th., at 9. Dr. John Cummings.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1899-1900, p. 369.

Course Enrollment

Primarily for Graduates:—
[Economics] 20e². Dr. John Cummings. — Ethnology in its applications to Economic and Social Problems.

Total 5: 1 Graduate, 3 Seniors, 1 Sophomore.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College, 1899-1900, p. 70.

___________________________

Image Source: Harvard University Archives. Hollis Images. College Yard, ca. 1900.

Tags AndrewAP, Callender, CummingsEdward, CummingsJohn, Sprague, Taussig, WarrenEH

Economist Market Economists Fields

Harvard. Economics department professors plan review of junior staff. 1932

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2022-05-04

Within the faculty of the Department of Economics at Harvard University, there was a Committee of Professors. From the following memo it appears that within the Committee of Professors there was an Executive Committee. The memo is interesting to read as an announcement of a pending review of the junior staff that will be stratified into five layers: “unusually able men”, “capable and useful” (hold), “capable and useful” (encourage to seek elsewhere), “not as useful here” (push to seek elsewhere), “capable young” (hold). Somewhat surprised that the strata assignments were identified ex ante.

[I have added the full names and plus the dates and names of the institutions where undergraduate and graduate degrees had been awarded.]

Also worth noting are hopes for attracting Gottfried Haberler to continue and explicit mention of Wassily Leontief as someone to consider for hiring.

_______________________________________

[Handwritten note: Presented at Meeting Exec Cte Jan 21, 1932]

VERY CONFIDENTIAL

A. Among other matters the Committee of Professors will be asked to consider the status and work of certain members of the Junior Staff.

I. The men in this group have passed their Generals and are at work on their dissertations. They are unusually able men deserving special consideration.

Sweezy
[Alan Richardson Sweezy. A.B. (Harvard) 1929; A.M. (Harvard) 1932; Ph.D. (Harvard) 1934]

Walsh
[John Raymond Walsh. A.B. (Beloit College) 1921; A.M. (Harvard) 1931; Ph.D. (Harvard) 1934]

Smith
[Dan Throop Smith. A.B. (Stanford) 1928; A.M. (Harvard) 1931; Ph.D. (Harvard) 1934]

Abbott
[Charles Cortez Abbott. A.B. (Harvard) 1928; A.M. (Harvard) 1930; Ph.D. (Harvard) 1933]

II. The men in this group either have their degrees or will have them shortly. They are capable and useful, perhaps more. It may be to their advantage and ours to encourage them to remain here for some time longer. For the coming year, at least, promotion to faculty instructorship is not involved.

Anderson
[Karl Leopold Anderson. S.B. (Mt. Allison University) 1928; A.M. (Harvard) 1930; Ph.D. (Harvard) 1932]

Goldstein
[Aaron Goldstein. A.B. (Johns Hopkins) 1928; A.M. (Harvard) 1931; Ph.D. (Harvard) 1934]

Hoover
[Edgar Malone Hoover, Jr.] A.B. (Harvard) 1928; A.M. (Harvard) 1930; Ph.D. (Harvard) 1932]

Hunt
[Bishop Carleton Hunt. B.B.A. (Boston University) 1920; A.M. (Harvard) 1926; Ph.D. (Harvard) 1930]

Shaffner
[Felix Ira Shaffner, Rhodes Scholar (Oxford) 1924; A.B. (Harvard) 1925; A.M. (Harvard) 1926; Litt.B. (University of Oxford, England) 1928; Ph.D. (Harvard) 1933)]

Wallace
[Donald Holmes Wallace. A.B. (Harvard) 1924; A.M. (Harvard) 1928; Ph.D. (Harvard) 1931]

Wernette
[John Philip Wernette. A.B. (University of California) 1924; A.M. (University of Southern California) 1926; A.M. (Harvard) 1929; Ph.D. (Harvard) 1932]

III. The men in this group, all Ph.Ds, have reached or are nearing the point when they can be placed elsewhere most advantageously. They are capable and very useful here. They should be encouraged to take acceptable offers.

Currie
[Lauchlin Bernard Currie. S.B. (University of London, England) 1925; A.M. (Harvard) 1927; Ph.D. (Harvard) 1931]

Ellsworth
[Paul Theodore Ellsworth. A.B. (University of Washington) 1920; B.A. (University of Oxford) 1924; A.M. (Harvard) 1930; Ph.D. (Harvard) 1932]

Gilbert
[Donald Wood Gilbert. A.B. (University of Rochester) 1921; A.M. (University of Rochester) 1923; A.M. (Harvard) 1924; Ph.D. (Harvard) 1932]

White
[Harry Dexter White. A.B. (Stanford) 1924; A.M. (Stanford) 1925; Ph.D. (Harvard) 1930]

IV. The men in this group have their Ph.Ds or will have them shortly. They are useful here, but less so than group III. They should be moved at the first opportunity.

Ratzlaff
[Carl Johann Ratzlaff. S.B. (University of Minnesota) 1922; A.M. University of Minnesota) 1925; A.M. (Harvard) 1928; Ph.D. (Harvard) 1930].

Crane
[John Bever Crane. A.B. (Northwestern University) 1924; A.M. (Harvard) 1926; Ph.D. (Harvard) 1932]

Danielian
[Noobar Réthéos Danielian. A.B. (Harvard) 1928); A.M. (Harvard) 1929; Ph.D. (Harvard) 1932]

Eaton
[Albert Kenneth Eaton. A.B. (Acadia University) 1922; S.B. (London School of Economics) 1928; A.M. (Harvard) 1929, Ph.D. (Harvard) 1933]

Fields
[Morris Joseph Fields. S.B. (Tufts College) 1921; M.B.A. (Harvard) 1923; A.M. (Harvard) 1928; Ph.D. (Harvard) 1932]

Phinney
[Josiah Thompson Phinney. A.B. (Yale) 1923; A.M. (Harvard) 1928; Ph.D. (Harvard) 1931]

Ross
[James Alexander Ross, Jr. S.B. (Princeton) 1922; B.A. (University of Oxford, England) 1925; A.M. (Harvard) 1933; Ph.D. (Harvard) 1934]

Towle
[Lawrence William Towle. A.B. (Bowdoin College) 1924; A.M. (Harvard) 1927; Ph.D. (Harvard) 1932]

V. The men in this group are capable young men and will probably remain here for some time longer.

Baker
[George Pierce Baker, Jr. A.B. (Harvard) 1925; A.M. (Harvard) 1930; Ph.D. (Harvard) 1934]

Cassels
[John MacIntyre Cassels. B.A. (University of Alberta) 1924; B.A. (University of Oxford) 1927; Ph.D. (Harvard) 1934]

Krost
[Martin Max Krost. Senior Economist, Division of Research an Statistics, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (October 1940) ]

Wendzel
[Julius Tugendreich Wenzel. A.B. (Kalamazoo College) 1928; A.M. (Tufts College) 1930, Ph.D. (Harvard) 1934]

B. The Committee should also consider our instruction in International Trade. At present Associate Professor Cole is giving Economics 9a, the undergraduate course in International Trade. The Department has voted that when possible this course is to become part of a full course—International Economic Problems. Our graduate course—Economics 39—will be given by Dr. Haberler during the second half of this year. Dr. Haberler may be available for another year or two if the Department cares to invite him.
Professor Cole is interested in the undergraduate instruction in International Trade and International Economic Problems, but not particularly in the graduate instruction.
A.E. Monroe is interested in the graduate instruction in International trade. Although he is on one-half time appointment, probably an arrangement could be made for him to give the graduate course.

C. There is a possibility—if some of our non-faculty instructors accept positions elsewhere—that we may be able to make a few new appointments. The following men should be considered.

Leontieff (if Haberler is not reappointed) (One of his articles is available in Mrs. Gilboy’s office).

Gardner (sic) Means
[Gardiner Coit Means. A.B. (Harvard) 1918; A.M. (Harvard) 1927; Ph.D. (Harvard) 1933]

Schmidt (California Ph.D. Credentials may be had from Miss Rogers).

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Department of Economics general office files. (UAV349.11) Box 11, Folder “Full Professors Meetings of Department of Economics.”

Image Source: Detail from cover of the Harvard Class Album 1946.

Tags AndersonKL, BakerGP, CaselsJM, ColeAH, CraneJB, Currie, DanielianNR, EatonAK, Ellsworth, FieldsMJ, GilbertDW, Goldstein, Haberler, HooverEM, HuntBC, KrostMM, Leontief, MeansGC, Monroe, Phinney, Ratzlaff, RossJA, Shaffner, TowleLW, WallaceDH, WendzelJT, Wernette, WhiteHD

Exam Questions Johns Hopkins

Johns Hopkins. Comprehensive Exams for Economics Ph.D. 1961

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2022-05-02

Machlup presenting, Domar, in profile, 3rd person to Machlup's right.

A memorandum written by Richard Musgrave to his economics department colleagues at Johns Hopkins University in October 1960 was transcribed for the previous post. He made a few proposals for a modest change in the first and second year general examinations for graduate students. This post provides transcriptions of six prelim examinations given in April 1961 found in the departmental files: microeconomic theory, macroeconomic theory, theory of international trade, public finance, economic history and monetary theory and policy. As there are neither statistics/econometrics nor history of economics questions, I strongly suspect that the following exams represent at best a significant subset of the exams from April 1961.

Earlier post with the ten exams from 1965.

________________________________

EXAMINATION
MICROTHEORY

April 24, 1961

Answer one question from each group

Group I

(a) It is sometimes said that “distribution costs too much”. What is a meaningful theoretical interpretation of the assertion?

(b) Suppose you were to set out to investigate the charge empirically. What sort of data would you want to collect? How would you use these data to shed light on the question?

Each year, the International Whaling Commission estimates the number of whales which may be taken in international waters without endangering the long-run supply of whales. When this limit is approached, a date is set after which no further whaling is allowed for that year.
For purposes of this question, make the following assumptions: (1) all ships engaged in whaling abide by the decisions of the commission; (2) all whaling ships are identical; (3) the number of whales actually taken is in fact the optimal number in terms of the long-run supply of whales; (4) the number of independent whale-boat operators is very large
1. Economic theory tells us that resources of capital and labor are allocated optimally under conditions of free competition. Does this happy conclusion follow also for the whaling industry under the described arrangement? Specifically, is the optimal amount of labor and capital devoted to whaling ships and crews? Explain.
2. Suppose that instead a perpetual monopoly right to take whales were sold at public auction, and other whalers were prohibited from taking whales. Would this lead to an optimal allocation of labor and capital?
3. The main products of the whaling industry are margarine, meal for animal feed, and meat for human consumption. Is this relevant to your answer.

Group II

The Council of Economic Advisers is asked to advise the Administration concerning the desirability of a more stringent anti-price-discrimination law. Write a memo to the chairman of the Council outlining the important theoretical economic considerations on this issue.
“A social welfare function can be conceived of only for situations in which members of society agree on criteria for decisions, for otherwise what is to be maximized cannot be specified. Moreover, the analytical use of such a function implies that men are able to survey and rank all possible states. But men do not usually agree on criteria and in any case are incapable of the required broad survey and ranking. Hence the social welfare function is not a useful tool or concept.” Discuss.

Group III

Point out the similarities and differences between the following two representations of the economic system.
1. The theory of general equilibrium of prices and quantities of all commodities (as, for example, in Hicks).
2. The theory underlying Leontief’s input-output analysis
In the past twenty years there have been numerous attempts to estimate statistically firms’ cost functions. Does this research indicate the need for any important revisions in the presentation of cost theory in price theory textbooks? Defend your answer.

Group IV

(a) Show that the first-order conditions for maximization of utility are invariant under a monotonic increasing transformation of the utility function. What is the relevance for the cardinal utility-ordinal utility controversy?

(b) Consider the utility function U = x₁¹ x₂² x₃³… x_nⁿ. Let the prices of the goods be p₁, p₂, …, p_n, and the income be y. Show that the price elasticity of the i^th good is -1, and the income elasticity is +1.

(a) What is a Cobb-Douglas production function? Is it homogeneous? Are the marginal product of the inputs homogeneous? Prove your assertions. What is implied about returns to scale?
(b) Show that the expansion path (the locus of points of rational factor combinations) is linear in the inputs so long as the factor markets are competitive.
(c) What is the relation of the Cobb-Douglas production function to the marginal productivity theory of distribution? Does the relation apply to the firm, industry, or economy, or to some combination of these?

________________________________

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Macro Economic Theory

April 27, 1961

Answer No. 1 and TWO of the remaining three. Weights are equal.

I. Comparative Statics

A Macro-economic system runs as follows:

Y_D = C + I	Y_D = national income, demand side
Y_S = L + Q	Y_S = national income, supply side
C = C_L + C_Q	I = investment (autonomous)
L = N·w	C = total consumption
C_L = C_L(L)	C_L = consumption of wage earners
C_Q = C_Q(Q)	C_Q = consumption of non-wage earners
Y_S = Y(N)	L = wage income
w = Y´(N)	Q = non-wage income
Y_D = Y_S	N = employment
	w = wage rate
(all these magnitudes in real terms)

1. Express the investment multiplier in terms of the marginal propensities to consume of wage earners and non-wage earners, the marginal productivity of labor, and the decline in marginal productivity with increasing employment.
2. Represent the elements (“building blocks”) of this model in graphs.
3. What assumptions about labor supply would be consistent with this model?
4. Select one of the following two:

(d1) Kaldor showed that under certain assumptions distribution is determined by the savings ratios of wage earners and non-wage earners and by the proportion of total income used for investment. Does this conclusion follow from the above model too? If not: What special features of Kaldor’s model are responsible for the difference?

(d2) By introducing additional variables and equations extend the model in such a way that investment, instead of being autonomous, depends on the interest rate, while the money supply appears as the autonomous variable. Comment on the explanation of the absolute price level which is implied in your extended model.

2. Growth

1. Suppose Americans became more thrifty in the sense of a permanent upward shift in the savings function. Would this accelerate or retard long-term economic growth? In what respects do different variants of modern growth theory suggest different answers to this question? How are these differences to be explained? What does classical growth theory say on this problem?
2. In what sense (or senses) may it be said that Harrod’s (or Domar’s) warranted growth path is a “tightrope” path? In what respect (if any) is this aspect of Harrod’s (or Domar’s) model relevant for the American economy?

3. Dynamics

Consider a “period analysis model” with the following characteristics:

— Production consists of three components: autonomous investment, consumers’ goods, inventory accumulation.

— Initial conditions and autonomous investment are as given in the accompanying table (C = consumption, i = autonomous investment, I = total investment, Y = output, K = inventories).

— Autonomous investment is always correctly anticipated. Production of consumers’ goods in February is scheduled as the amount of actual consumption in January. Any increase in actual consumption relative to the previous month thus causes a “surprise” with a corresponding effect on inventories.

— Producers want to hold inventories in the amount of one month’s total output. Production for inventory accumulation in February is scheduled in the amount of the difference between actual output and actual inventories in January.

— To an increase in output from January to February households react with an increase in consumption from February to March, amounting to one-half of the increase in income.

1. On the basis of these assumptions, complete the table [below] up to the ninth period. (The empty space may be used for auxiliary columns.) Describe the development of income.
2. What would be the stationary equilibrium level of output, if any?
3. Express the characteristics of this model (for given autonomous investment) in terms of difference equations. (Solving not required.)

Question 3: Dynamics
(return this table with your answer)

Month	C	I	I	Y	K
1	2400	1600	1600	4000	4000
2	2400	1600	1600	4000	4000
3		2000
4		2000
5		2000
6		2000
7		2000
8		2000
9		2000
(The figures represent actual amounts, which may be different from planned amounts.)

4. Economic Policy

“Present unemployment in the United States is largely due to the fact that labor is too expensive in relation to capital. Restoration of full employment thus requires a lowering of real wages. If this is not accomplished by a lowering of money wages, there has to be a rise in prices.” Explain to what extent (if any) this argument may be correct, and in what respects (if any) it may be fallacious. Put your answer in terms which, without being incorrect, an enlightened politician might understand, (No diagrams, no special theoretical terms, no reference to the literature.)

________________________________

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Theory of International Trade

April 25, 1961

Answer any 6 of the following questions.

Compare and contrast the real-cost, opportunity-cost, and factor-endowments approaches to the theory of comparative advantage.
“Free trade is a substitute for factor mobility.” Discuss.
What is the Samuelson-Stolper theorem regarding the effect of tariffs on the distribution of income? What major addition or correction to that theorem was made by Metzler?
What are the international implications of alternative measures of domestic stabilization in the American economy in light of the current U.S. balance of payments problem?
Under what kinds of circumstances would you advise a country to devalue its exchange rate, and what are the conditions necessary for a successful outcome?
Define precisely what you mean by international liquidity. What are the factors determining the world’s need for international liquidity? Do you believe that the world is suffering from a shortage of international liquidity at the present time? Outline briefly the pros and cons of various suggestions that have been advanced to meet such a shortage.
In terms of income models of balance-of-payments adjustment, under what conditions would there be an (a) incomplete, (b) overcomplete, and (c) a perverse adjustment to a balance-of-payments disturbance?
(a) Discuss alternative concepts of the international terms of trade.
(b) Is an improvement in the net barter terms of trade necessarily associated with an increase in the gains from trade? Why or why not?

________________________________

THE JOHN HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Public Finance

April 25, 1961

Answer each Part. All questions carry equal weight.

I

Consider the following suggestions for individual income tax reform.
1. Abolish the standard deductions and permit itemized deductions in excess of 10% of adjusted gross income. Use revenue gain of $8 billion for a 4 percentage point cut in all bracket rates.
2. Reduce top bracket rate to 60% (revenue loss of $500 million) and give a dividend credit of 50% by British System (revenue loss $2 billion). In turn, tax capital gains at death (constructive realization) at a rate not exceeding 50%, permitting tax free realization if reinvested (roll over) during lifetime (revenue gain of $2.5 billion), and reduce depletion allowances by 50%.

Evaluate these proposals for income tax reform. Would you favor these packages or not, and why?

II

Choose ONE out of two.

It has been suggested that the criteria for a “good tax structure” are quite different, depending on the level of government (Federal, State or local) to which we refer. Analyze this proposition and the underlying reasoning.
“The trouble with the corporation income tax is that it is highly discriminatory as between corporations and unincorporated enterprise, equity and debt finance, corporations undertaking different types of investment, and so forth. If the corporation tax were transformed into a uniform tax on all capital income it would be rendered quite unobjectionable.” Analyze this statement.

III

Answer ONE out of two.

“It makes very little difference with regard to incidence, whether taxes are imposed on expenditures or on income as a base, provided that such taxes are general and uniform. What matters is that taxes usually are not general but selective and that the pattern of selectivity differs with the type of base which is used.” Analyze this statement.
“Incidence deals with the effects of tax policy on the distribution of income. The theory of incidence, therefore, can be no better than the theory of income distribution from which it is derived.” Discuss this statement and examine its validity with regard to specific taxes.

IV

Answer TWO out of three.

“The expansionary or restrictive role of fiscal policy is measured properly by the resulting change in the size of cash surplus or deficit.” Analyze this statement.
The effectiveness of monetary and fiscal policies depends upon certain characteristics of the model of income determination which applies. Under what circumstances, if any, can only fiscal policy be successful in raising employment? Under what circumstances, if any, is it bound to be unsuccessful? Under what circumstances, if any, can only the combined fiscal and monetary action be successful.
Recently there has been considerable controversy over the question whether a countercyclical policy of debt management is desirable. State the main issues in this controversy and give an evaluation thereof.

V

Answer ONE out of two.

What do the principles of public finance tell us about the requirements for a sound system of highway finance? In view of these requirements, how satisfactory is the present system?
“We do not accept the view that as our economy grows federal expenditures would necessarily grow in proportion, or more than in proportion, to the increase of national income — on the contrary, with higher incomes, people should be better able to provide for themselves some of the things for which they now look to government. The level of generally available services that government should provide would require a smaller and smaller proportion of the national income.” (C.E.D., February 1961.) Discuss.

________________________________

ECONOMIC HISTORY EXAMINATION

April 28, 1961

Answer one question from each part.

A.

Identify and discuss critically the views of Ashley and Unwin regarding the role of the central government in English economic development during the XVI and XVII centuries.
Discuss in some detail at least two stage-theories of economic development. Compare them with some alternative theory of economic development.
Assume you were the tutor hired to educate Frederick II of Prussia (1712-1786) in 1730. During the year he was to consider the colonial policies of Spain, France, and Britain in the New World. What would you tell him about each country’s policies? What questions would you put to him in order to point out the weaknesses and strengths of each country’s position?
What were some of the economic problems in the development of a stable political relationship between the British government and its American mainland colonies between 1763 and 1776? Why did these troubles not affect the political relationship between the London government and the West Indian colonies?

B.

What are the central ideas in Toynbee’s The Industrial Revolution? What “triggered” the “revolution”, and what, in your estimation, caused that phenomenon to occur?
What were the roles of political liberalism and religious minorities in the economic development of France, Germany, Russia and England in the XVIII and XIX centuries? Discuss, giving data.
Several observers have noted that there were few labor-saving agricultural inventions for general farming in the United States until the 1820’s. When one considers the comparative supply of land and labor, there seems to be a paradox. How can it be explained?
What were the economic issues separating the North and the South in the 1850’s? Examine each, giving your opinion whether it would have remained an issue if the peace had been preserved from then until 1890.

C.

Discuss the development of the Russian or British economy in the two decades prior to 1914.
Discuss the course of agricultural policy in the United States between 1860 and 1940.
Discuss the evolution of American or British tariff policy 1815-1940.
Discuss the development of the American or British labor movement from the 1840’s until the Second World War.

________________________________

MONETARY THEORY AND POLICY

[in pencil “1961”]

I.

Write for 40 minutes on two of the following three questions.

“Liquidity preference must be regarded as an explanation of the existence and level not of the interest rate but of the differential between the yield on money and the yield on other assets.” (Tobin) Discuss this statement and explain the factors which determine the slope of the liquidity preference function.
“The existence of dynamic or uncertain price and interest expectations is not a sine qua non of a theory of money.” (Patinkin)
“The necessary condition for the existence of liquidity preference is the existence of uncertainty as to the future rate of interest.” (Keynes)
Can these two statements be reconciled, and if so, how?
Consider the role which the concept of “natural rate of interest” has played in the development of monetary theory. In what respects is it a particularly useful concept? What changes may be made to render it more useful?

II.

Write for 30 minutes on one of the following two questions.

Write an essay setting forth and analyzing the credit-availability theory, and compare it with the pre-existing theory of central banking.
Review the history of Federal Reserve policy in terms of changing emphasis upon particular policy tools.

III.

Write for 20 minutes on two of the following three questions.

“In the boom, the stock market diverts capital from productive use into speculation.” Analyze this statement.
Analyze the factors which determine the “appropriate” level of bank capital.
“The financial intermediaries are essentially similar to commercial banks and should therefore be subject to similar controls.” Discuss.

IV.

Write for 30 minutes on the following question.

What are the effects of the following changes on (a) money supply, defined to include demand deposits adjusted plus currency outside banks; and (b) excess reserves, assuming a 20% reserve ratio.

Decrease in currency in circulation by $1 billion
Increase in float by $400 million
Sale of $200 million of government securities by the Treasury, of which $150 million is purchased by commercial banks and $50 million by nonbank investors. Assume the Treasury to deposit its proceeds with the Federal Reserve Banks.
Holders of savings deposits at mutual savings banks withdraw $300 million and deposit same as demand deposits at Commercial banks.

In answering the question, you may find it useful to use T accounts

Source: The Ferdinand Hamburger, Jr. Archives of the Eisenhower Library at Johns Hopkins University. Department of Political Economy, Series 6, Box 1. Folder: “Comprehensive Exams for Ph.D. in Political Economy, 1947-1965”.

Image Source: Fritz Machlup in an economics seminar. Evsey Domar visible sitting third from the speaker on his right hand side. Johns Hopkins University Yearbook, Hullabaloo 1956, p. 15.

Economic History History of Economics Johns Hopkins Regulations

John Hopkins. Proposals for First and Second Year Graduate Examinations. Musgrave, 1960

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2022-05-01

Having had just served as a member of the economics faculty at the University of Michigan for the preceding twelve years, Richard A. Musgrave demonstrated the seriousness and enthusiasm for his new job at the Johns Hopkins University starting with the academic year 1960-61. It is interesting to see one and the same person arguing for both more mathematics and more history of economics to be included in the graduate general microeconomic and macroeconomic examinations.

_____________________________

October 19, 1960

MEMO TO: Members of the Department
FROM: R. A. Musgrave

As we mentioned before, it would be desirable to make some announcement to the graduate students indicating how the examinations would be handled this year. I think the announcement could be framed in such a way to relate to this year only, without establishing a new policy or making a precedent for what is to be done thereafter. I indicated to the graduate students at the opening meeting that some such statement would be forthcoming.

As I understand it, there was a fairly general feeling at the close of last year that it was not very satisfactory to insist upon equal-emphasis examinations in twelve fields, with the result that performance in some areas (as was the case with International Trade) would be below the senior level. At the same time, there also seemed general agreement that the Hopkins tradition of avoiding over-specialization is sound. The following proposal attempts to be in line with these ideas and is herewith submitted for discussion.

With regard to the proposal for the second year exam, these two questions may be thought about:

I do think it is sound that a certain amount of mathematical economics and history of thought should be worked in with the general theory examinations rather than be treated as a special area. A person specializing in mathematical economics would be free to choose econometrics as one of his fields anyhow. A person specially interested in history of thought might be permitted to offer this as a special field. In other words, history of thought might be added to the optional fields listed on the next page.
If the student chooses two out of the six optional fields, this of course means that there remain four fields which are not at all covered. If we are worried about this, we might add a requirement that a student must have done a certain amount of course work in these fields. Or one might add sort of “minima examinations” in these other fields, as distinct from the more intensive examinations in the special fields. But this would again greatly increase the examination load.

Graduate Students’ Examinations in Political Economy
Spring 1961

Our examination procedure this year will be as follows:

First Year Graduate Students. There will be an oral examination in the latter part of May. This examination is designed to give the Department an opportunity to confirm its judgment that the incoming graduate students have the ability to meet the requirements of Ph.D. work, to explore the extent of the students’ preparation in various areas, and to determine in what areas additional work is needed. The Staff is aware of the work which a student has done before coming to Hopkins, and of the courses which he is taking this year. The examination is conducted accordingly, and no preparation distinct from regular course work is required.

Second Year Graduate Students. In May, second year graduate students will come up for their Ph.D. generals. The generals consist of a set of written examinations and an oral examination. The oral examination covers the general range of work which has been completed. The written examination will include the following papers, four hours each.

Theory. There will be a paper on micro theory and macro theory each. There will be no separate papers in mathematical economics and history of thought. Rather, the papers dealing with micro and macro theory will contain some questions demanding an answer which involves mathematical tools; as well as questions involving a historical perspective on the development of doctrine. The examination in micro theory will include the theory of relative prices, incomes, and welfare economics. The examination in macro theory will include the theory of income determination, growth and stabilization policy.
Statistics.
Economic History. The examination in Economic History will include questions on American and European economic history. Students who have not taken work in economic history here will be held responsible for two books, as follows: (To be inserted).
Optional Fields. In addition to the preceding four examinations, the student may choose two of the following fields: International trade, industrial organization, labor, public finance, money, economic development, and econometrics. A substantial familiarity with the chosen field is required.

Source: The Ferdinand Hamburger, Jr. Archives of the Eisenhower Library at Johns Hopkins University. Department of Political Economy, Series 7, Subseries 1. Box No. 3/1. Folder “Graduate and Undergraduate Curriculum 1953-1961.”

Image Source: Richard A. Musgrave page at the University of Michigan’s Faculty History Project.

Tags Musgrave

Chicago Policy Suggested Reading

Chicago. Governmental Price Fixing Reading List. Friedman, 1972

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2022-05-01

President Richard Nixon’s peacetime wage and price controls were less than a year old when Milton Friedman used the teachable moment to discuss “governmental price fixing” in a course of his at the University of Chicago.

______________________________

Spring, 1972

Economics 496
Selected Topics in Contemporary Economic Problems
Dr. M. Friedman

Reading List

General Note: The special topic that will be considered this semester is governmental price fixing. We shall examine three general categories of price fixing: fixing of prices of specific commodities or services; general price and wage controls; fixing of exchange rates. The basic theoretical tools required to analyze these problems have presumably been studied in courses in price theory, monetary theory, and income and employment theory but will be reviewed in class lectures. This reading list therefore covers mostly applied material.

I. Fixing of Specific Prices

HD1761 H6	Houthakker, Hendrik, Economics Policy for the Farm Sector, American Enterprise Institute, 1967
HD1761 P13	Paarlberg, Don, American Farm Policy, Wiley, 1964
HB171.5 A34 1967	Alchian, A. & Allen, W., University Economics, pp. 92-99, 402-404
HD4918 P47	Peterson, J. M. & Stewart, C T. Employment Effects of Minimum Wage Rate, American Enterprise Institute, 1969
HD4918 F74	Friedman, M. & Brozen, Y. The Minimum Wage Rate, Who Really Pays?
HC106.5 B83	Burns Arthur F., The Management of Prosperity, pp. 45-48

II. General Wage and Price Controls

	Campbell, Colin (ed.), Wage Price Controls in World War Il, U.S. and Germany, American Enterprise Institute
HB B24 H1	Ullman, I. & Flanagan, R. J. Wage-Restraints: Study of Incomes Policies in Western Europe, University of California Press, 1971
HC106.5 S435	Shultz, G. P. & Aliber, R. Z. (eds.), Guidelines, Informal Controls, and the Market Place, University of Chicago Press
HB236 A3 G3	Galbraith, J. K., A Theory of Price Control. Harvard University Press, Cambridge 1952
HB236 U5H35	Hardy, C. O., Wartime Control of Prices, Washington, Brookings Institute, 1940
	Wallis, W. A., How to Ration Consumers’ Goods and Control Their Prices, American Economic Review, Sept. 1942, pp. 501-512
	Gorter, W. & Hildebrand, G. H., “Is Price Control Really Necessary?” American Economic Review, March 1951, pp. 77-81

III. Control of Exchange Rates

HG3883 U7 F7	Friedman, M. & Roosa, R. L., The Balance of Payments: Free vs. Fixed Exchange Rates
HB33 F7	Friedman, M., “The Case for Flexible Exchange Rates,” Essays in Positive Economics, University of Chicago Press
HG538 F856	Friedman, M., Dollars and Deficits
HG3821 A66	Halm, G. (ed.), Approaches to Greater Flexibility of Exchange Rates, Princeton University Press, 1970

Source: Hoover Institution Archives. Milton Friedman Papers. Box 78, Folder 5 “University of Chicago, Econ. 496”.

Image Source: Milton Friedman (undated) from University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf1-06231, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

Tags Friedman

Columbia Economics Programs Regulations

Columbia. Reform of the PhD dissertation printing requirement, 1936-1940

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2022-04-29

The following extracts from the minutes of Columbia’s Faculty of Political Science (an amalgam of the Departments of History, Economics, Public Law, and Social Science) provide milestones along the tortuous bureaucratic road taken to implement a fairly modest reform in the publication-of-the-dissertation requirement for the Ph.D. at Columbia University back in the 1930s. The reform initiated sometime in early 1936 only saw the light of day first with the printed Faculty announcement published at mid-year 1940.

See: Courses Offered by the Faculty of Political Science for the Winter and Spring Sessions 1940-1941 published in Columbia University Bulletin of Information, 40^th Series, No. 29 (June 29, 1940), p. 14.

______________________

April 17, 1936

Professor [James Waterhouse] Angell [Economics] presented for consideration a Memorandum on the Printing Requirement for Ph.D. Dissertations in the Faculty of Political Science, signed by Professors [Robert Morrison] MacIver [Political Philosophy and Sociology], [Robert Livingston] Schuyler [History], [Robert Emmet] Chaddock [Statistics], [Carter] Goodrich [Economics], and [James Waterhouse] Angell [Economics], a copy of which is attached to these minutes. He also presented, and moved the adoption of a resolution providing for a modification of the present printing requirement. After amendments, offered by Professors [Samuel McCune] Lindsay [Social Legislation] and [John Maurice] Clark [Economics], had been accepted, the resolution read as follows:

WHEREAS, the Faculty of Political Science believes that the University printing requirement for dissertations imposes a heavy financial burden on candidates for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy under this Faculty; that the printing requirement as it actually works does not impose equivalent burdens on the candidates for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in certain other parts of the University; that the printing requirement operates as a severe property qualification impeding the access of otherwise competent students to receipt of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy under this Faculty, and that the printing requirement on occasion impels first-class graduate students, who apart from financial considerations would prefer to do their work for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Columbia, to go elsewhere; and

WHEREAS, in 1932 the Committee on Publications of this Faculty made a Report to the Faculty, and recommended a reconsideration of the printing requirement with a view to its relaxation; and

WHEREAS, the Joint Committee on Graduate Instruction, after considering this Report, went on record as it that time favoring retention of the printing requirement, and in the absence of any definite proposal by the Faculty of Political Science did not recommend any change; therefore be it

RESOLVED, that the Faculty of Political Science now records itself as desiring a modification of the printing requirement with respect to dissertations offered under the Faculty of Political Science, so that the requirement may be met in any one of three ways, at the option of the candidate, subject to the approval of the committee examining the dissertation, as follows:

(1) By publication of the original approved dissertation in full through a recognized publisher, or otherwise in a form approved by the Dean of the Faculty; or,

(2) By publication of an article, presenting the essential content and results of the dissertation and accepted as satisfactory by the Committee which examined the original dissertation, in a professional journal, or otherwise acceptable to the examining Committee; or,

(3) By publication of an abstract of the dissertation, presenting the essential content and results of the dissertation and accepted as satisfactory by the Committee which examined the original dissertation, in a series of abstracts of dissertations to be published at intervals as volumes in the Columbia University Studies in History, Economics, and Public Law. The abstracts should ordinarily not exceed 15 pages in length. The candidate will defray his pro rata share of the cost of publication.

Under the second and third alternatives, the candidate shall submit five copies of the proposed article or abstract at least three weeks in advance of the final examination in defense of the dissertation itself. Under such alterative, the requirements for the deposit of copies of the approved printed document and for its distribution to the members of the Faculty are those stated in the Graduate Announcement. In addition, if the dissertation is printed in abridged or abstracted form provision shall be made for preserving at least two legible copies of the original dissertation.

RESOLVED, further, that the foregoing Resolution be transmitted to the University Council, with the request that the Council take action permitting the Faculty of Political Science to realize its desire as above stated.

RESOLVED, further, that the attention of the University Council be also invited to the appended Memorandum on the Printing Requirement, prepared informally by certain members of the Faculty.

After a general discussion, in which fourteen members of the Faculty participated, Professor [Lindsay] Rogers [Public Law] moved that the following resolution be substituted for the resolution under consideration:

RESOLVED, that the Faculty of Political Science transit the pending resolution and the accompanying Memorandum prepared by certain or its members, to the Joint Committee on Graduate Instruction and request that the Joint Committee inquire into the results of the publication requirement at Columbia University and the results of differing requirements at other universities and make the findings of such inquiry available to the Faculty of Political Science for the farther consideration of the publication requirement at the Faculty’s regular meeting in the autumn.

The Faculty being evenly divided, President [Nicholas Murray] Butler cast the deciding vote in favor of the resolution presented by Professor Rogers and it was adopted.

[…]

Appendix to Minutes

To the members of the faculty of Political Science:

We enclose herewith a memorandum on the printing requirement for Ph.D. dissertations in the Faculty of Political Science. It contains proposals which will be advanced formally at the meeting of the Faculty on April 17th next. By signing the memorandum we desire to indicate our belief that the questions raised and the proposals made deserve to be brought before the attention of the whole Faculty, but do not express our concurrence on all points.

R. M. MacIver
R. L. Schuyler
R. L. Chaddock
C. Goodrich
J. W. Angell

MEMORANDUM ON THE PRINTING REQUIREMENT FOR PH.D. DISSERTATIONS IN THE FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
[April 17, 1936]

The question of prolonging or abolishing the present temporary arrangement, under which Ph.D. dissertations may be offered for examination in typescript, must be passed on by the Faculty of Political Science at its meeting on April 17th. This provides on appropriate occasion for examining the whole question of the printing requirement in the Faculty.

At the present time, the situation is broadly this. The Faculty will accept dissertations in typescript for the purposes of the defense examination, and if the defense is successful a certification is given the candidate, announcing that he has met all the requirements for the Ph.D. degree except that of actual publication of the dissertation.

The degree itself is not awarded, however, until the candidate has secured actual publication — “publication” having recently been defined to include in effect some, though not all, of the non-printing forms of reproduction, such as photostating, and provided that certain conditions are met.

Columbia University and the Catholic University of America are apparently the only two large institutions of higher learning which have retained in full the printing requirement, which was once wide-spread in this country. By enforcing the requirement, Columbia imposes on itself a prime facie impairment of its power to attract first-class graduate students who will become candidates for the Ph.D. degree, and who are free to choose between the several leading institutions. No University has so many first-class students that it can afford to turn any away needlessly. If retention of the printing requirement is to be justified, it must be shown to yield benefits which offset this disadvantage.

In addition, the requirement works unevenly as between different, sections of the University. In the Faculty of Political Science, as in that of Philosophy, the requirement is extremely burdensome in financial terms to the average Ph.D. candidate. For that large proportion of candidates whose means are limited, its fulfillment imposes genuine hardship. In the Faculty of Political Science the typical dissertation is essentially literary in character, runs to at least 250 to 300 printed pages in length, and even after allowance for royalties usually costs the candidate $600 to $800 to publish — often much more. The fact that perhaps a quarter of the dissertations are published in the Studies at a saving to the candidate of 20% of the price charged by the University Press, does not greatly alter the situation, nor does it operate to lighten the average financial burden very much. For many students, the sum involved is equivalent to their total living expenses for 6 to 8 months or more: the burden is real. In the Faculty of Pure Science and in the Medical School, on the other band, the typical dissertation is not more than 20 or 25 pages in length (often less than 10), and is published in one of the technical or professional journals at no cost at all to the candidate. Moreover, though this is not relevant for present purposes, the Pure Science dissertation is commonly a joint product of the candidate and the supervising Faculty member, and is published under both signatures.

In defense of the retention of the printing requirement by the faculty of Political Science, the most common contention is that its abolition would lead to a disastrous lowering of our standards for the Ph.D. degree. This contention, of course, cannot be tested directly except from future experience. It is significant, however, that apparently none of the other leading American universities which had abolished the printing requirement has restored it. Moreover, it seems highly improbable that the existence of the printing requirement and the maintenance of high standards are related to one another as cause is related to effect. It could not be contended seriously that merely enforcing a printing requirement would enable a faculty of inadequate scholarly competence to maintain high standards, nor that the existence of a printing requirement would ensure, in such circumstances, the production of distinguished dissertations. Equally it cannot be contended that the modification or withdrawal of the printing requirement will alone cause a faculty of high scholarly competence to deteriorate its standards, nor that modification or withdrawal will alone lead to the production of low-grade dissertations under such a faculty. Indeed, to assert that such results would ensue is to imply that the members of such a faulty maintain high standards only from fear of being “found out”, should they lower their standards, through the publication of discreditable Ph.D. dissertations.

It is also contended that publication is an advantage to the candidate, in that it brings his name and work to the attention of other scholars and also helps him to get a better position. This is undoubtedly true to many cases. But the same or better general results can be obtained in a different way, to be suggested in a moment, which entails relatively little cost to the candidate. As things now stand, most candidates apparently feel that they would gladly forego the not always unequivocal advantages of this type of advertising, in order to void the expense and sacrifice now imposed upon them.

Finally, it is contended that the typescript dissertations found in the libraries of other Universities are in general less finished and sometimes less scholarly products then those which have undergone publication; and that they are less accessible to the generality of scholars. This last is of course true. The contention would have granter force as an argument in favor of retaining the publication requirement, however, if there were any way of shifting the bulk of the financial burden of publication to those other scholars who would allegedly be such large beneficiaries from the act of publication itself. It would also here greater force If any substantial number of other universities had indicated, by retaining the requirement, that they felt the cogency of these considerations. In actuality, and from their very nature, many and perhaps most Ph.D. dissertations in Political Science are not of sufficiently broad interest to merit publication as books. Some suggestions for publishing their essential contents, however, will be outlined presently. It is believed that adoption of these suggestions will give the authors and their work rather wider publicity than is now obtained, in the average case, and will do so without impairing the dissemination of scholarly knowledge.

The principal positive arguments against the retention of the printing requirement in the faculty of Political Science have already been indicated, directly or by implication. They are two in number. One turns on the financial costs and other burdens placed on the candidate. The great bulk of our students are not well-to-do. In the majority of cases, financing the publication of the dissertation exacts a genuine and often a disproportionately large sacrifice from the candidate or his family. It is not easy to see that the candidate of the University receives a return commensurate with this sacrifice. However, as the present system works out in practice it frequently means that the actual receipt of the Ph.D. degree itself is delayed by one or more years after the completion of the work, while the candidate is accumulating enough money to pay for publication. To the extent that this happens, as it seems to in what is not far from a majority of the cases, one of the alleged advantages of the publication requirement — that it helps the candidate secure a better position — may turn into a positive disadvantage, because of the delay involved. The present practice of examining on typescript has helped this situation somewhat, but apparently not as greatly as had been hoped; and of course, it still leaves the candidate with a serious financial burden to carry into future years, before he can obtain the actual Ph.D. degree. The fact that so large a proportion of our candidates now elect to be examined on typescript is surely not wholly unrelated to the matter of their financial ability or inability, at the time of the examination, to defray the cost of printing.

There is also some evidence that the existence of the printing requirement influences candidates to select topics for the Ph.D. dissertation with a view to the probable popularity of the topics, rather than with a view to their scholarly merit and interest alone, in order to lighten the burden of the printing costs.

The second argument against retention of the printing requirement in the faculty of Political Science turns on the best interests of the University itself. What we are really doing is to enforce a fairly severe property qualification for the Ph.D. degree, and one which is in effect inoperative in certain parts of the University. It is a property qualification imposed by only one other large University. There is much evidence to indicate that — as seems natural enough — this property qualification drives elsewhere many first-class students who would prefer, except for financial considerations, to come to Columbia for their Ph.D. work in the Political Science field. To repent what was said before, no University has so many first-class students that it can afford to turn any away needlessly. A property qualification is surely the wrong basis on which to select our Ph.D. candidates.

In connection with the earlier discussion of standards, it should also be pointed out that such a modification of the printing requirement as would eliminate its more serious disadvantages to the student would presumably contribute to the actual raising of the general standards of scholarship and performance prevailing, rather than to their deterioration. This would happen to the extent that the modification increased the number of high-calibre through impecunious students who come to us for their training.

Both the material evidence available and the logical argument against retention of the present form of publication requirement in the Faculty of Political Science are thus extremely strong. We therefore make two suggestions:

(1) At the meeting of the Faculty of Political Science on April 17th, action should be taken looking to the immediate modification of the printing requirement, in its present form, for Ph.D. dissertations under the Faculty. At the same time, however, in the interests of the Ph.D. candidates, of other scholars elsewhere, and of the University as a whole, it seems desirable to retain something of the advantages of the present requirement. Outright abolition of the requirement is therefore not proposed. It is suggested that it be modified as follows:

(2) Action should be taken by the Faculty to provide that, the printing requirement, subject to confirmation by the University Council, may be met in any one of three ways: namely either by,

(a) Publication of the complete dissertation under the present regulations; or, by,

(b) Publication of an article, presenting the essential features and results of the dissertation and to be approved by the examining committee, in one of the recognized professional journals; or by,

(c) Publication of an abstract of the dissertation, presenting briefly the essential features and results of the dissertation and to be approved by the examining committee, in a new annual or semi-annual volume of Abstracts to be published as a regular part of or supplement to the present Studies; the costs of publication and distribution of the volume to be paid by the candidates pro rata. The abstracts would not exceed perhaps 15 pages each, and the average cost to the individual candidate would probably be under $50. The numerical majority of the dissertations would presumably be handled through these new Abstracts.

In each of the three options, the present requirement for the deposit of 75 copies — whether of book, article or abstract — would be retained; and in the last two cases deposit of two copies of the original dissertation would also be required. Dissertations would be defended on typescript, unless the candidate himself preferred to defend on galleys.

These alternatives leave candidates who have the funds, or who can secure commercial publication without a subsidy, free to publish as heretofore. The alternatives take the present severe burden off those candidates who have not sufficient funds, however; and at the same time retain for them most of the advantages, from getting their names and work more widely known, which they obtain under the present arrangements. Indeed, it seems probable that the publicity they thus receive, and the accessibility of the main content of their work to other scholars, will be substantially greater under the proposed arrangements than under those now prevailing. The average sale of the present full-length dissertation hardly exceeds 250 to 300 copies; the circulation of the better-known professional journals runs to several thousand.

In order to make it easier to secure publication in full of most of the best dissertations, without placing an undue burden on the candidates, we also suggest that the present Studies be made substantially more selective in character than they now are, with a diminution in the number of volumes issued per year and with a higher average standard of quality required for acceptance. To illustrate, we suggest that not more than one or two full-length dissertations a year should be published in the Studies from each Department, apart from the proposed new volumes of Abstracts. We believe that the resulting increase in the average quality of the Studies, by increasing the average sales per volume would enable the Studies to carry a much larger proportion of the costs of publication then at present, perhaps 50% or more. We also believe that the improvement in quality and the decrease in number of issues per year would raise the general standing of the Studies to a basis of comparability with the similar series published by various other leading Universities. Probably the most nearly ideal arrangement would be one under which the publication of a dissertation in the studies would be in the nature of a prize award, entailing no cost at all to the successful candidate. Since financial limitations make this impossible at present, we suggest the arrangement just outlined.

R. M. MacIver
R. L. Schuyler
R. E. Chaddock
C. Goodrich
J. W. Angell

Source: Columbia University Archives. Minutes of the Faculty of Political Science 1920-1939 (April 17, 1936) pp. 759-775.

December 11, 1936

For the information of the Faculty the following memorandum was presented, concerning the action of the Joint Committee on Graduate Instruction on the subject of the printing requirement for doctoral dissertations. At its April, 1936, meeting the Faculty of Political Science adopted a resolution transmitting to the Joint Committee on Graduate Instruction a memorandum by certain members of the Faculty urging modification of the printing requirement for doctoral dissertations. On May 19, following, the Joint Committee appointed a sub-committee to study and report on the subject.

The sub-committee submitted its report, accompanied by a digest of information, to the Joint Committee at its meeting on November 9, and on November 16, 1936, the Joint Committee adopted the sub-committee report and its opinions as follows:

“For the Joint Committee on Graduate Instruction:

Your sub-committee empowered to consider the question of the printing of doctoral dissertations, composed of the undersigned as chairman and of Professors Angell, Gray, Patterson, Pegram, and Rogers, has duly elicited the information as to the practice in this matter in the leading American universities as well as the pertinent sentiment of three hundred and twenty-one of our own recipients of the doctoral degree in the decade from 1924 to 1933 inclusive. A digest of the information as elicited is now available for the members of the Joint Committee.

After full consideration of this digest and of all other aspects of the question, your sub-committee would submit the following opinions:

That the present requirement of printing should be maintained. Our vote on this recommendation stands four to two, Professors Angell and Patterson dissenting.
That we regret the hardship which the printing of the dissertation now entails on certain of the recipients of the degree.
That it is advisable to make due effort to relieve this hardship as much as possible by any reduction that may be feasible in the cost of printing, and in particular by the establishment, if possible, of a subsidy from University funds to aid in the cost of printing; and that the Joint Committee, or its chairman, should make due inquiry into this possibility.

The second and third opinions were unanimous.”

While opinion in the Joint Committee was not unanimous on point (1) of the adopted report, discussion on certain amendments that were offered and not carried led the Committee to agree as to the substance of two points of the rejected amendment. A sub-committee consisting of Professors Pegram, MacIver, Rogers, and Wright was appointed to rephrase these two points for communication to the Faculties, which they have done as follows:

“(a) It was the sense of the Joint Committee that there may be cases in which the Ph.D. Examining Committee may consider it unnecessary to require the printing of all the supporting date which the Examining Committee may have before it in the five typed copies required by the rules. In such a case the Examining Committee may, with the approval of the Dean, accept as the dissertation a shorter form of the manuscript, or an article or series of articles, provided five copies of the same in form for publication have been circulated to the Examining Committee with the additional materials, and are before the Committee at the time of the final examination.

(b) It was the sense of the Joint Committee that the Dean has authority under the present regulations to accept dissertations printed in part or in whole by photo offset process or other manifolding process when there are special reasons, arising out of the nature of the dissertation (tabular and statistical matter, reproductions of texts, etc.), making such offset process appropriate.”

For the information of members of the Faculty of Political Science, it is to be noted that the problem of printing dissertations under the Faculty of Pure Science is rarely a serious one to students. Dissertations are short as compared to those in the other Faculties and are usually published in the professional Journals. In the Faculty of Philosophy the cost of printing dissertations is serious. That Faculty, at its November meeting, unanimously voted to place on record its opinion in favor of the three numbered paragraphs of the sub-committee report adopted by the Joint Committee.

The Joint Committee will proceed further with inquiry into means of reducing the cost of printing dissertations and into the possibility of securing funds for aiding publication.

Respectfully submitted,
George B. Pegram,
Chairman
Joint Committee on Graduate Instruction

In connection with the proposal of the Joint Committee that an effort be made to establish a subsidy from University funds to aid graduate students in the printing of doctoral dissertations, the President pointed out some of the administrative problems involved in providing for the judicious and far allotment of such aid. He stated, however, that if a satisfactory administrative method could be devised, a revolving fund of $25,000 or $30,000 would go far toward lightening the financial burden which the present printing requirement imposes on certain candidates for the doctoral degree.

The Chairman of the Committee on Instruction presented a memorandum (a copy of which is appended to these Minutes) reminding the Faculty that at its meeting in April, 1986, it had neglected to provide for the dissertation examination on typescript beyond June 30, 1936, but that the privilege had been extended to candidates under the Faculty with the consent of the Dean’s office. After discussion of the memorandum Professor [Vladimir Gregorievitch] Simkhovitch [Economic History] moved that the motion concerning examination on typescript, which lapsed on June 30, 1938, be re-enacted and remain in effect for a term of one year. The motion was adopted, after Professor [Philip Caryl] Jessup’s [International Law] amendment substituting “until revoked by the Faculty” for the words “for a term of one year”, had been accepted. As re-enacted, the resolution then read:

“RESOLVED; that candidates for the doctorate under the Faculty of Political Science, upon recommendation of the Department concerned, may be granted the privilege of examination on dissertations presented in typescript — five or more legible copies to be deposited in the Dean’s office for the inspection of the examiners at least three weeks prior to the examination, it being understood that the dissertations which in the judgment of the examining committee require extensive revision shall be rejected, without prejudice to subsequent examination after such revision.”

Discussion of the resolution emphasized the fact that permission to be examined on typescript is granted only on recommendation by the department. It would appear, therefore, that a department may refuse to make any recommendation, require its candidates to stand examinations on galley proofs, or it may recommend in some cases and refuse to recommend in other cases.

[…]

Memorandum Concerning Dissertation Examination on Type-script

At the meeting of the faculty of Political Science on December 9, 1932, Professor Schuyler, as chairman of the Committee on Publications, raised the question of substituting for the then requirement that the examination must be on galley proof, a requirement that dissertations must be presented in typescript. After discussion the Faculty amended Professor Schuyler’s proposal. The resolution as passed provided that for the remainder of the academic year, 1932-33, candidates for the doctorate under the Faculty of Political Science could be granted, upon the recommendation of the department concerned, the privilege of examination upon typescript four or more legible copies to be deposited in the Dean’s office for the inspection of the examiners at least three weeks prior to the examination, it being understood that dissertations which in the judgment of the examining committee required extensive revision should not be accepted subject to such revision, but should be rejected, without prejudice to subsequent examination after such revision. (Minutes, p. 699)

At its April meetings in 1933, 1934, and 1935 the Faculty continued the provisions of this resolution in affect for the ensuing academic years.

At the November 1935 meeting of the Faculty the Dean called attention to the fact that the Joint Committee on Graduate Instruction had discussed the desirability or requiring five typescript copies of dissertations. the Faculty thereupon amended its regulations to require five instead of four copies.

At the April 1936 meeting the Faculty discussed the modification of printing requirement for dissertations. By inadvertence the Faculty neglected to provide for the examination on typescript alternative. with the consent of the Dean’s office, however, candidates under the Faculty of Political Science have been permitted to present their dissertations in typescript even though technically this privilege lapsed as of June 30, 1936.

Earlier this month a question rose in respect of the period which shall elapse between the presentation of the typescript copies and the date of the final examination. Under the terms of the resolution adopted by the Faculty of Political Science the period was three weeks. Under the printed terms of the regulations of the Faculties of Philosophy and of Pure Science the period is three weeks. As a matter of fact, this regulation is not enforced. Two weeks is deemed a sufficient period.

Source: Columbia University Archives. Minutes of the Faculty of Political Science 1920-1939 (April 17, 1936) pp. 783-790.

April 21, 1939

The Chairman of the Committee on Publications further reported that, on the initiative of the Managing Editor of the Studies, the Committee had given consideration to the problem of reducing the financial burden upon doctoral candidates who publish their dissertations in the Studies. In consequence of this discussion, upon the recommendation of the Managing Editor, and in accordance with a unanimous resolution of his Committee, he offered the following resolution which was unanimously passed;

Be it RESOLVED; That in order to afford to doctoral candidates an alternative method of publishing dissertations in the Studies in History, Economics, and Public Law at a lower cost than is possible under the existing requirements, these requirements be so modified as to permit, after October 1, 1939, at the option of the candidate,
1. the use of paper binding
2. the use of a double-column format, and of type smaller than that now employed, and
3. the relegation of footnotes to the end of each chapter.
Be it RESOLVED: That the Faculty of Political Science request the Trustees of the University to advance the sum of fifty dollars to each student publishing his dissertation in the Studies, said sum to be a first claim against the author’s royalties. In the event that said author’s royalties do not total fifty dollars within three years after the publication of the dissertation, the full receipts thereafter accruing to such volume shall be paid over to the University until such a time as the University is fully reimbursed for its advance.
Be it RESOLVED: That the Faculty of Political Science request the Trustees of the University to authorize the Library to pay to each doctoral candidate who had published his dissertation in the Studies, the sum of fifty dollars, upon his depositing with the Library one hundred copies of the said dissertation.

[…]

The Chairman of the Committee on Instruction reported that since receipt of the report of the Committee on the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (of which Professor Woodbridge was Chairman) the Committee on Instruction had given further consideration to the printing requirements. He submitted the following motions which were passed:

BE IT RESOLVED, that this Faculty favored such modification of the present requirement for the printing of the doctoral dissertation as would allow candidates certain options, as follows:
1. The dissertation may be printed from type and published in book form.
2. The dissertation may be published as an article or series of articles in a scholarly journal.
3. The dissertation may be reproduced by an offset process approved by the Dean of the Graduate Faculties.
BE IT RESOLVED, that it is the sense of the Faculty that there may be cases in which the Ph.D. Examining Committee may consider it unnecessary to require the printing of all the supporting data which the Examining Committee may have before it in the five typed copies required by the rules. In such a case the Examining Committee may, with the approval of the Dean, accept as the dissertation a shorter form of the manuscript, or an article or series of articles, provided five copies of the same in form for publication have been circulated to the Examining Committee with the additional materials, and are before the Committee at the time of the final examination.
BE IT RESOLVED, that this Faculty, realizing that in the past insufficient attention has sometimes been paid to a student’s choice of subject, resulting in the necessity of the preparation of a manuscript of unreasonable length, calls attention to the need for considering the scope of the task when a topic for a dissertation receives its preliminary approval.
BE IT RESOLVED, that the next available edition of the Bulletin of the Faculty include the first resolution on this subject stated abo e, setting forth the three options, and that in the Bulletin this be followed by a paragraph substantially as follows:

The departmental approval mentioned above relates to both the content of the dissertation and to the form in which it is printed. Students are therefore advised to consult their departmental representatives before exercising the option.

BE IT RESOLVED, that the Faculty authorize its Committee on Instruction to prepare a special leaflet for the benefit of candidates for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy under this Faculty, the leaflet to contain a full explanation of all the regulations on this subject.

Source: Columbia University Archives. Minutes of the Faculty of Political Science 1920-1939 (April 21, 1939) pp. 842-3, 845-846.

Image Source: Low Memorial Library, Columbia University from the Tichnor Brothers Collection, New York Postcards, at the Boston Public Library, Print Department.

Tags AngellJW, Chaddock, ClarkJM, Goodrich, Simkhovitch

Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Final exam questions for statistics and insurance/speculation. Allyn Young, 1911

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2022-04-22

If you were an important enough economist in your time, even shards of your course content are worthy of transcription and preservation as artifacts at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Allyn Young was a visiting professor of economics at Harvard from Stanford during the academic year 1910-11. According to the course announcements for the year, he was to teach a two-term statistics course and two one-term courses, mathematical economics (fall term) and insurance and speculation (spring term). It doesn’t look like the mathematical economics course was actually held (no enrollment figures were reported nor could I find a final exam for that course). Maybe the course was still unofficially still taught to auditors anyway, or maybe it was withdrawn due to lack of student interest, who knows?

The jewel of the post is the final exam for Young’s course on insurance and speculation. It appears to have been a one-off offering, but nonetheless an early attempt to bring risk/uncertainty into the finance curriculum. The year-end examination in Statistics has been transcribed and included below.

____________________________

Economics 4. Statistics.

Course Announcement

[Economics] 4. Statistics. Tu., Th., at 11. Professor Young (Leland Stanford Jr. University).

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1910-11, p. 63.

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 4. Professor Young (Leland Stanford Jr. University. — Statistics. Theory, method, and practice.

Total 26: 5 Graduates, 8 Seniors, 9 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 2 Freshmen, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1910-11, p. 49.

Economics 4
[Mid-Year Examination, 1911]

[Note: no printed copy was found in the Harvard Archives collection of Mid-Year Examinations.]

Economics 4
[Year-End Examination, 1911]

Answer eight questions.

In what ways did (1) “German university statistics” and (2) “political arithmetic” differ from modern “statistics”?
What errors are found in age statistics?
In what ways may the death rates of two or more cities be accurately compared?
What are the best methods of measuring the change in the length of human life? What different things may be meant by the “length of human life”?
Discuss census statistics of manufactures, with special reference to the definitions of (1) “manufactures,” and (2) “capital.”
What are the chief uses of price statistics? How are the problems of (1) choosing quotations, and (2) weighting, affected by the intended use?
What different methods of “smoothing” a statistical diagram can you suggest? When should diagrams be “smoothed” and when not?
What refinements of method should be observed in making comparisons of the birth rate at different periods or for different classes of the population?
May it be expected that most frequency curves will approximate the normal curve of error? Why?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 9, Papers set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,… in Harvard College, June 1911 (in the bound volume Examination Papers 1910-11), p. 42.

____________________________

Economics 27. Mathematical Economics.

Course Announcement

[Economics] 27 ¹hf. Mathematical Economics. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 12. Professor Young (Leland Stanford Jr. University).

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1910-11, p. 64.

[No enrollment data were reported in the Report of the President of Harvard College 1910-11. A printed copy of the semester final examination was not included in the Mid-Year Examinations 1911 volume in the Harvard Archives. It appears that the course was in fact not offered during the first term of 1910-11 as originally planned.]

____________________________

Economics 28. Insurance and Speculation.

Course Announcement
and Description
1910-11

Economics 28 ²hf. Insurance and Speculation. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) at 12. Professor Young (Leland Stanford Jr. University).

This course will deal with insurance and speculation as economic institutions. Among the topics considered will be the nature and necessity of economic risks and the various methods by which risks are lessened or eliminated. The course will include a summary account of the elementary principles of insurance and of the methods of organized speculation.

Source: History and Political Science, Comprising the Departments of History and Government, and Economics, 1910-11. Published in the Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. VII No. 23 (June 21, 1910), pp. 60-61.

* * * * * * * *

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 28 ²hf. Professor Young (Leland Stanford Jr. University. — Insurance and Speculation.

Total 84: 3 Graduates, 27 Seniors, 35 Juniors, 12 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 6 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1910-11, p. 50.

* * * * * * * *

Note: Allyn A. Young published an article “Insurance and Speculation” in the Grolier series The Book of Popular Science (1924 edition, vol. 12) which was reprinted in the valuable collection edited by Perry G. Mehrling and Roger J. Sandilands, Money and Growth: Selected Papers of Allyn Abbott Young. Routledge, 1999.

* * * * * * * *

Economics 28
[Final Examination, 1911]

Answer eight questions.

What is self-insurance? What are its possibilities and its limitations?
Discuss briefly the advisability and the possibility of federal control of insurance.
What are “deferred dividend policies”? In what ways were they found to be objectionable?
Explain briefly the effects of speculation upon price fluctuations.
Describe the methods of a typical “hedging” operation on the part of the seller or buyer of an actual commodity.
What are “options”? Why are they discountenanced by the American exchanges?
What would be the probably economic effects of a prohibition of short-selling?
What do you consider to be the real evils of speculation? Suggest remedies.
Explain briefly the essential features of the methods of the New York Stock Exchange clearing house.

Image Source: The 1918 Cornell yearbook, The Cornellian (vol. 50), p. 18.

Tags Young

Harvard Ph.D., 1948

Paul W. McCracken Classroom Profile (October 21, 1950)

Memoirs, Comments, Discussion Prof. Emeritus Paul W. McCracken with Prof. Emeritus Herbert W. Hildebrandt

October 24/31, 2008

From GSPA report

Course Announcement

Economics 168 Harvard University Fall Term, 1964

Outline and Readings

Final Examination

ECONOMICS 168 FINAL EXAMINATION Dr. Bolton January 26, 1965

FINALE (To the tune of “With a Little Bit of Luck” from My Fair Lady)

Economics 1. Outlines of Economics

Course Announcement

Course Enrollment 1899-1900

1899-1900 ECONOMICS 1 [Mid-year examination]

1899-1900 ECONOMICS 1 [Year-end examination]

Economics 2 Economic Theory in the Nineteenth Century

Course Announcement

Course Enrollment

1899-1900. ECONOMICS 2. [Mid-year examination]

1899-1900. ECONOMICS 2. [Year-end examination]

Economics 3 Principles of Sociology

Course Announcement

Course Enrollment

1899-1900 ECONOMICS 3 [Mid-year examination]

1899-1900 ECONOMICS 3 [Year-end examination]

Economics 4. Statistics

Course Announcement

Course Enrollment 1899-1900 (Year-course)

1899-1900. ECONOMICS 4. [Mid-year examination]

1899-1900. ECONOMICS 4. [Year-end examination]

Economics 5 Railways and other Public Works

Course Announcement

Course Enrollment (Year-course)

1899-1900 ECONOMICS 5 [Mid-year examination]

1899-1900 ECONOMICS 5 [Year-end examination]

Economics 6. Economic History of the United States

Course Description 1897-98

Course Announcement

Course Enrollment

1899-1900 ECONOMICS 6 [Mid-Year Examination]

1899-1900 ECONOMICS 6 [Final examination, 1900]

Economics 7a Financial Administration and Public Debts

Course Announcement

Course Enrollment

1899-1900 ECONOMICS 7a [Mid-year examination]

Economics 7b The Theory and Methods of Taxation

Course Announcement

Course Enrollment

1899-1900 ECONOMICS 7b [Year-end examination]

Economics 82 Western Civilization in its Economic Aspects

Course Announcement

Course Enrollment

Economics 9 [Omitted in 1899-1900]

Economics 10 [Omitted in 1899-1900]

Economics 11 Modern European and American Economic History

Course Description (from 1897-98)

Course Announcement

Course Enrollment

Course Readings

1899-1900 ECONOMICS 11. [Mid-year examination]

1899-1900 ECONOMICS 11 [Year-end examination]

Economics 121 [Omitted in 1899-1900]

Economics 122 [Omitted in 1899-1900]

Economics 13 [Omitted in 1899-1900]

Economics 14 Communism and Socialism. History and Literature.

Course Announcement

Course Enrollment

1899-1900 ECONOMICS 14 [Mid-year examination]

1899-1900 ECONOMICS 14 [Year-end examination]

Economics 15 History of Economics to the Close of the 18th Century

Course Announcement

Course Enrollment

1899-1900 ECONOMICS 15 [Mid-year examination]

1899-1900 ECONOMICS 15 [Year-end examination]

Economics 16 Financial History of the United States

Course Announcement

Course Enrollment (First half-year)

Course Enrollment 1899-1900 (Second half-year)

1899-1900 ECONOMICS 16. [Mid-year examination]

Paul W. McCracken
Classroom Profile
(October 21, 1950)

Memoirs, Comments, Discussion
Prof. Emeritus Paul W. McCracken
with Prof. Emeritus Herbert W. Hildebrandt

Economics 168
Harvard University
Fall Term, 1964

ECONOMICS 168
FINAL EXAMINATION
Dr. Bolton
January 26, 1965

FINALE
(To the tune of “With a Little Bit of Luck”
from My Fair Lady)

Economics 1.
Outlines of Economics

Course Enrollment
1899-1900

1899-1900
ECONOMICS 1
[Mid-year examination]

1899-1900
ECONOMICS 1
[Year-end examination]

Economics 2
Economic Theory in the Nineteenth Century

1899-1900.
ECONOMICS 2.
[Mid-year examination]

1899-1900.
ECONOMICS 2.
[Year-end examination]

Economics 3
Principles of Sociology

1899-1900
ECONOMICS 3
[Mid-year examination]

1899-1900
ECONOMICS 3
[Year-end examination]

Economics 4.
Statistics

Course Enrollment 1899-1900
(Year-course)

1899-1900.
ECONOMICS 4.
[Mid-year examination]

1899-1900.
ECONOMICS 4.
[Year-end examination]

Economics 5
Railways and other Public Works

Course Enrollment
(Year-course)

1899-1900
ECONOMICS 5
[Mid-year examination]

1899-1900
ECONOMICS 5
[Year-end examination]

Economics 6.
Economic History
of the United States

Course Description
1897-98

1899-1900
ECONOMICS 6
[Mid-Year Examination]

1899-1900
ECONOMICS 6
[Final examination, 1900]

Economics 7a
Financial Administration and Public Debts

1899-1900
ECONOMICS 7a
[Mid-year examination]

Economics 7b
The Theory and
Methods of Taxation

1899-1900
ECONOMICS 7b
[Year-end examination]

Economics 8²
Western Civilization in its Economic Aspects

Economics 9
[Omitted in 1899-1900]

Economics 10
[Omitted in 1899-1900]

Economics 11
Modern European and American Economic History

1899-1900
ECONOMICS 11.
[Mid-year examination]

1899-1900
ECONOMICS 11
[Year-end examination]

Economics 12¹
[Omitted in 1899-1900]

Economics 12²
[Omitted in 1899-1900]

Economics 13
[Omitted in 1899-1900]

Economics 14
Communism and Socialism.
History and Literature.

1899-1900
ECONOMICS 14
[Mid-year examination]

1899-1900
ECONOMICS 14
[Year-end examination]

Economics 15
History of Economics to the Close of the 18^th Century

1899-1900
ECONOMICS 15
[Mid-year examination]

1899-1900
ECONOMICS 15
[Year-end examination]

Economics 16
Financial History
of the United States

Course Enrollment
(First half-year)

Course Enrollment 1899-1900
(Second half-year)

1899-1900
ECONOMICS 16.
[Mid-year examination]

1899-1900
ECONOMICS 16
[Year-end examination]

Economics 20a
The Economic Life and Thought of the Ancient World

Economics 20b
Commercial Crises

Economics 20c
The Tariff History
of the United States

1899-1900
ECONOMICS 20c.
[Mid-year examination]

1899-1900
ECONOMICS 20c
[Year-end examination]

Economics 20d
Workingmen’s Organizations
in the United States

Economics 20e
Ethnology in its Applications
to Economic and
Social Problems

EXAMINATION
MICROTHEORY

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Macro Economic Theory

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Theory of International Trade

THE JOHN HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Public Finance

MEMO TO: Members of the Department
FROM: R. A. Musgrave

Graduate Students’ Examinations in Political Economy
Spring 1961

Economics 496
Selected Topics in Contemporary Economic Problems
Dr. M. Friedman

MEMORANDUM ON THE PRINTING REQUIREMENT FOR PH.D. DISSERTATIONS IN THE FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
[April 17, 1936]

Economics 4
[Mid-Year Examination, 1911]

Economics 4
[Year-End Examination, 1911]