Author: Irwin Collier

Categories
Economists Harvard

Harvard. Letter supporting Mason written by Taussig, 1925

The following memo to the Dean for the files tells us probably as much about its subject, a rising star in the Harvard economics department Edward Sagendorph Mason, as it does about what academic talent-spotters in the 1920s thought important. Of course, demonstrated academic brilliance has generally been of primary importance, but in an environment notably rich in brilliance, other qualities become distinguishing. “…he is a handsome, upstanding chap. His very appearance makes an impression on the young fellows.” 

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February 12, 1925

Dear Clifford:

                  Carver tells me that you would welcome a line from me about E. S. Mason.

                  He is a very unusual fellow. His special examination for the doctorate, which he took about a week ago, by agreement of the examiners was not less than brilliant. As you know, he was three years at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, and learned a lot there not merely in philosophy and letters, but in ways of handling the boys. He is one of the very best of our tutors, and one of the very best of our instructors in Economics A. And he is a handsome, upstanding chap. His very appearance makes an impression on the young fellows. It being our policy to keep men of that sort in our own service instead of putting them in a position where they cannot well help but accept a tempting offer from elsewhere, he ought to be given the very best treatment we can afford.

Cordially yours,
F. W. Taussig

Professor Clifford H. Moore

Source: Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics, Correspondence and Papers 1930-1961, Box 2 (American-Appointments, 1925), Folder “Appointments for 1913-26”.

Image Source: Portrait of Edward S. Mason included in the Harvard Class Album 1932.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus Theory

Harvard. Advanced Economic Theory. Reading lists and exams. Schumpeter, 1948-1949

With the 2025 Nobel Prize in Economics honoring work that has expanded upon Joseph Schumpeter’s felicitous description of economic innovation as a process of “creative destruction”, Economics in the Rear-view Mirror is happy to add the following Schumpeter teaching artifacts from the 1948-49 academic year at Harvard from his course on advanced economic theory. Keeping on the subject of Nobel prizes, it is worth noting that nine future economics laureates were included in Schumpeter’s reading lists for the course.

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Previous Posts:
Schumpeter’s Courses on Economic Theory

Economics 11. Economic Theory, Second Semester, 1934-35. [taken by Wolfgang Stolper]

Economics 11. Economic Theory, 1935-36. [taken by Paul Samuelson]

Economic 101. Economic Theory, 1936-37. [formerly 11]

Economics 101. Economic Theory, 1937-38.

Economics 103. Advanced Economic Theory, 1941-42.

Economics 103b. Advanced Economic Theory, 1947-48. [103a taught by Gottfried Haberler]

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Course Enrollment
1948-49

[Economics] 203  (formerly Economics 103a and 103b). Advanced Economic Theory (Full Course). Professor Schumpeter

Fall Term:
Total 21. 17 Graduates, 2 Public Administration, 2 Radcliffe.

Spring Term:
Total 10. 8 Graduates, 2 Public Administration.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1948-49, p. 77.

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1948-49
Economies 203a
Fall Term

The primary object of this course is to train the students in the art of conceptualizing the salient features of the economic process. But discussion of individual problems will give the opportunity of rehearsing critically large parts of traditional theory, old and new. The program for this term includes, first, a preliminary survey of certain fundamental nations, especially determinateness and stability, second, the general dynamics of economic aggregates, third, the general theory of the behavior of households and firms. Though some knowledge of the calculus and of differential equations is desirable, purely mathematical aspects will not be stressed.

The student is supposed to be familiar with such standard works as Marshall’s Principles, Wicksell’s Lectures, Vol. I, Keynes’ General Theory,* Chamberlin’s Monopolistic Competition, Hicks’ Value and Capital, and Fisher’s Theory of Interest (out of print). To these, which are also required in several other courses, and part of every student’s equipment, should be added.

*(not available until October 29)

E. Lundberg, Studies in the Theory of Economic Expansion (King & Son, 1937) and for students with adequate mathematical preparations.

P. A. Samuelson, Foundations of Economic Analysis, 1947.

Students must use their own judgments as regards the extent to which they will avail themselves of the following additional suggestions which also stand instead of reading-period assignments:

P. A. Samuelson, Statics, “Dynamics, and the Stationary State,” Review of Economic Statistics, February 1943.

J. Tinbergen, “Suggestions on Quantitative Business Cycle Theory,” Econometrica, July 1935.

F. Modigliani, “Liquidity Preference, Interest, and Money,” Econometrica, January, 1944.

Allen and Bowley, Family Expenditure, 1935.

Colin Clark, The Conditions of Economics Progress, 1940.

Arthur Smithies, “The Boundaries of the Production Function and the Utility Function” (in Explorations in Economics, Essays in Honor of F. W. Taussig, 1936, II, Ch. 11).

T. De Scitovszky, “Price under Monopoly and Competition,” Journal of Political Economy, October, 1941.

T. Haavelmo, “The Interdependence between Agriculture and the National Economy,” Journal of Farm Economics, November, 1947.

G. Cooper, “The Role of Econometric Models in Economic Research,” Journal of Farm Economics, February 1948.

M. Reder, “Monopolistic Competition and the Stability Conditions,” Review of Economic Studies, Vol. VIII, No. 2.

N. Kaldor, “A Classificatory Note on the Determinateness of Equilibrium,” Review of Economic Studies, Vol. I, No. 2.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 4, Folder: “Economics, 1948-49 (2 of 2)”.

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HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 203a
February 1949

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

  1. Consider the concept of the Stationary State both as a state of society that is to be expected in the near or distant future and as a methodological tool. When considering it in the latter sense, contrast it with the concepts of Economic Statics and of Static Equilibrium.
  2. Analyze the profit item of the usual income statement of a corporation.
  3. State the theory of interest which you prefer to others and give your reasons for this preference; then discuss, from the standpoint of this theory, how “technological progress” affects the rate of interest.
  4. Discuss Cournot’s Duopoly and explain the shortcomings of this schema.
  5. What has been, in your opinion, the upshot of the recent controversy on the “marginal-productivity theory of wages?”
  6. What are the reasons for expecting that monopoly prices are more “rigid” than competitive prices?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Final examinations 1853-2001. Box 16, Bound volume Examinations, Social Sciences Feb. 1949.

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Spring Term
1948-49
Economics 203b

Reference is made to the Reading List for the preceding term, both as regards the general scope of this course and as regards certain fundamental works with which students are supposed to be, or to make themselves, familiar (Marshall, Wicksell, Keynes, Chamberlin, Fisher, Lundberg, and Samuelson) and all of which are available in the Harvard libraries, although sone are out of print. The topics to be dealt with in this term are grouped into four approximately equal parts, each of which is to cover about three weeks. Of the books and papers to be mentioned below, three are taken over from the fall term list.

  1. Restatement, with some additions and further illustrative applications, of the essentials treated in the Fall Term.

American Economic Association, H. S. Ellis ed., Survey of Contemporary Economics, Chs. 10 (Samuelson) and 11 (Leontief).

  1. The Process of Accumulation and the idea of Balanced Advance

R. F. Harrod, Towards a Dynamic Economics, 1948

R. G. Hawtrey, “Mr. Harrod’s Essay in Dynamic Theory,” Economic Journal, September, 1939

E. D. Domer, “Capital Expansion,” Econometrica, April, 1946

E. D. Domar, “The Problem of Capital Accumulation,” American Economic Review, December, 1948

H. Froehlich, “Income Determination and Investment,” ibid. March, 1948

T. C. Schelling, “Capital Growth and Equilibrium,” ibid. December, 1947

L. R. Klein, “Notes on the Theory of Investment,” Kyklos, International Review of the Social Sciences, Bern, Volume II, 1948, fasc. 2

J. M. Keynes, “The Process of Capital Formation,” Economic Journal, September, 1939

  1. Money and Real Income. Wages and Employment

A. C. Pigou, Equilibrium and Employment, 1941.

S. C. Tsiang, “Professor Pigou on Real Wages and Employment,” Economic Journal, December 1944

T. Haavelmo et al., “Multiplier Effects of a Balanced Budget,” Econometrica, October, 1945, and April, 1946

H. M. Somers, “The Impact of Fiscal Policy on National Income,” Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science, August, 1942

J. L. Mosak, “Wage Increases and Employment,” American Economic Review, June, 1941

J. T. Dunlop, “The Demand and Supply Functions for Labor,” American Economic Review, May, 1948

J. T. Dunlop, “Productivity and the Wage Structure,” Income, Employment and Public Policy (Norton & Company, 1948)

H. W. Singer, “Wage Policy in Full Employment,” Economic Journal, December, 1947

N. Kaldor, “Stability and Full Employment,” Economic Journal, December, 1938

  1. Transformation or Disintegration of Capitalism

C. Clark, The Conditions of Economic Progress, 1940

G. J. Stigler, Trends in Output and Employment (National Bureau Publ. 1947)

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 4, Folder: “Economics, 1948-49 (2 of 2)”.

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1948-49
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 203b

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

  1. Prove and discuss Haavelmo’s theorem that the imposition of a tax may lead to an increase of gross national income by an amount exactly equal to the tax.
  2. Discuss Kaldor’s proposition that a state of full employment is essentially unstable.
  3. In what sense is it true (a) that capital accumulation tends to exhaust investment opportunities and (b) that exhaustion of investment opportunities induces not only stationary conditions but also depression (underemployment)?
  4. Analyze the relation between employment and a general variation (e.g. an increase) of (a) money wage rates (b) real wage rates. What has either case to do with the so-called Ricardo effect?
  5. Discuss Harrod’s “dynamical schema.”

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

Image Source: Joseph Schumpeter in his Harvard office published in the Harvard Class Album 1946.

Categories
Chicago Exam Questions

Chicago. Economic Theory Preliminary Examination. Griliches Copy. Winter, 1957

There is something of a mystery about the following transcription of the “Economic Theory I” Preliminary Examination for the Ph.D. and A.M. Degrees at the University of Chicago from the Winter quarter of 1957 that I found in the Zvi Griliches papers at the Harvard University archives. It does not match the Economic Theory I preliminary examination from the same Winter Quarter found in the Milton Friedman papers at the Hoover Institution archives. The most likely explanation is that some anonymous soul simply failed to have updated the quarter of the exam in a copy-and-paste rough draft.. The mystery then, is which came first, the Friedman copy or the Griliches copy?

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Previously transcribed and posted Preliminary and Field Exams from the economics graduate program of the University of Chicago

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ECONOMIC THEORY I
Preliminary Examination for the Ph.D. and A.M. Degrees

Winter Quarter 1957

WRITE THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION ON YOUR EXAMINATION PAPER:

Your Code Number and NOT your name
Name of Examination
Date of Examination

Results of the Examination will be sent to you by letter after results on all preliminary examinations have been received.

Answer all questions: Time: Four hours.

Do section I of the examination on this paper and turn it in to the proctor with the rest of your examination. You are to do sections II-VII separately.

  1. Indicate whether each of the following statements is true (T), false (F), or uncertain (U). Explain briefly the basis for your answer.
    1. A tax on a product whose supply is of zero elasticity will have no effect on resource allocation.
    2. If factors of production are used in absolutely fixed proportion in the production of a particular product, the demand for each of the factors by the producers of the product will be completely inelastic with respect to price.
    3. Since 1951 interest rates have risen by about 50 percent whereas real wages have risen only by approximately 24 percent. This implies that firms are and will be using more labor per unit of capital than they did in 1950.
    4. An income tax has no resource misallocating effects.
    5. A competitive firm will increase its demand for factor A as a result of a fall in the price of factor B.
    6. “A monopolist has no supply curve.” Hence it is impossible to predict his response to a shift in the demand curve facing him.
    7. Budget studies have yielded an income elasticity of demand for food of .5 for urban families and of . 35 for farm families. This implies that farm families have substantially different tastes or consumption habits.
    8. Price stabilization at the mean of fluctuating prices would harm consumers.
    9. Product A is one of the major inputs used in the production of product B. Price control is imposed on product A, but not on product B, at a level below the equilibrium price of A. This will result in a fall of the price of B.
    10. A tax of 50% of the gross sale price of all new automobiles in the U. S. will in the short run tend to double the market value of used automobiles, and in the long run tend to double the gross market price of new automobiles as well.
  2. Suppose the armed forces want to raise a fixed number of men. One way to do this would be to set a price at which the number of volunteers would equal the number wanted. Another way would be to set a lower price and draft the difference between the number wanted and the number volunteering. Assume that each person receiving a draft notice would be permitted not only to enter as a draftee but also either to buy a substitute or to be a substitute for someone else.
    Contrast the two schemes in terms of the personnel secured, the pay received, and the source of this pay.
  3. In a recent study, David Blank and George Stigler note the existence of an interrelation between the demand for higher education and the supply of faculty for institutions of higher education. “For”, they write, “the very presence of a much increased demand [for higher education] … carries with it a much increased supply of trained individuals” from whom faculty members can be recruited.
    1. What do you regard as the essential feature of the interrelation? Can you cite other examples? Contrast with specific examples where this particular interrelation does not arise.
    2. Suppose the increased demand for higher education led to no increase in the student body but was met entirely by severer rationing, by price or otherwise, of entry into college. Would the statement quoted above be rendered false?
      Justify your answer.
  4. Producers in one area of goods that are also produced elsewhere often claim that the distant producers keep their high quality product at home and sell only their low quality goods elsewhere. On the other hand, consumers often complain that local producers ship all their high quality products elsewhere and sell only the poor quality material locally (as in the standard California complaint that you can’t but a decent orange in retail markets in California). Obviously, either group might be right in some special case. But can you think of any general factors that would on the average tend to produce the one result or the other? I.e., in any particular case, what indirect information would you consider relevant in forming a judgment about which was right?
  5. We frequently speak of “the substitution of capital for labor”. What do you take this phrase to mean (a) for an individual firm; (b) for the economy as a whole? Does your interpretation allow for the fact that the major part of the cost of new capital equipment is labor cost?
  6. Indicate briefly the meaning of each of the following phrases, identify the economist (or economists) associated with each, and state his major contribution to economics:
    1. Pareto optimum
    2. Pigou effect
    3. Walrasian equilibrium
    4. Schumpeterian innovators
    5. Cobb-Douglas production function
    6. Conspicuous consumption
    7. Wicksellian natural rate of interest
    8. Contract curve
  7. Many families carry life insurance for the husband, and very few carry it for the wife or children. There have been several attempts to explain this. Some say that the loss from the death of the wife or children is mostly a psychic loss, and psych losses cannot be insured. Others say that the loss from the death of the wife or children is too small to be worth insuring. Evaluate these arguments. Can you give an explanation consistent with rational behavior?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Zvi Griliches. Box 129. Folder “Preliminary Examinations, 1955-1957”.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Macroeconomics

Harvard. General Exam in Macroeconomic Theory. Spring 1993

 

 

The following general examination for macroeconomic theory (Spring 1993) has been transcribed from a collection of general exams at Harvard from the 1990s provided to Economics in the Rear-view Mirror by Abigail Waggoner Wozniak (Harvard economics Ph.D., 2005). Abigail Wozniak was an associate professor of economics at Notre Dame before being appointed a senior research economist and the first director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis’ Opportunity & Inclusive Growth Institute.

Economics in the Rear-view Mirror is most grateful for her generosity in sharing this valuable material.

Because the “Wozniak collection” is over 90 pages long, it will take some time for all the exams to get transcribed. To date the following transcriptions are available for:

Spring 1991

Microeconomics; Macroeconomics

Spring 1992

Micro- and Macroeconomics

Fall 1992

Micro- and Macroeconomics

Spring 1993

Microeconomics

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HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

Economics 2010d: Final Examination
and
GENERAL EXAMINATION IN MACROECONOMIC THEORY

Spring Term, 1993

For those taking the GENERAL EXAM in macroeconomic theory:

  1. You have FOUR hours.
  2. Answer a total of SIX questions subject to the following constraints:

— answer both questions from Part I;
— answer two questions from Part II;
— answer two questions from Part III.

For those taking the FINAL EXAMINATION in ECONOMICS 2010d (not the General Examination):

  1. You have THREE hours.
  2. Answer a total of four questions subject to the following constraints:

— DO NOT ANSWER ANY questions from Part I;
— answer two questions from Part II;
— answer two questions from Part III.

PLEASE USE A SEPARATE BLUE BOOK FOR EACH QUESTION, AND WRITE THE QUESTION NUMBER ON THE FRONT OF THE APPROPRIATE BLUE BOOK.

PLEASE PUT YOUR EXAM NUMBER ON EACH BOOK.

PLEASE DO NOT WRITE YOUR NAME ON YOUR BLUE BOOKS.

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

Part I. (Answer both questions)

Question 1:

Consider the following dynamic, perfect-foresight version of the IS-LM model:

R=R-\dot{R} /\rho

r=\alpha y-\beta m

\dot{y} =\gamma \left( d-y \right)

d=\lambda y-\theta R+g

where

R is the long-term interest rate,
r is the short-term interest rate,
y is output,
m is (exogenous) real money balances,
d is demand,
g is a measure of (exogenous) fiscal policy,
and all parameters are positive and 0<\lambda <1.

    1. Give an interpretation of each equation.
      (Hint: When long-term interest rates rise, bond prices fall.)
    2. Write the model using two variables and two laws of motion. Identify the state (non-jumping) variable and the costate (jumping) variable.
    3. Draw the phase diagram, including the steady-state conditions, the implied dynamics, and the saddle-point stable path.
    4. Describe the effects of an immediate permanent decrease in g. What happens to short-term and long-term interest rates?
    5. Describe the effects an announced future permanent decrease in g. (This scenario is also known as the Clinton plan). What happens to short-term and long-term interest rates?

Question 2:

Endogenous Money

Monetary aggregates, such as the monetary base and broader concepts like M1 or M2, appear to be procyclical. It is sometimes argued that this pattern can be explained from models of “endogenous money,” that is, frameworks in which money moves in response to changes in the economy.

  1. Suppose that the monetary authority varies the money supply in order to maintain a desired path of the price level, for example, to maintain price stability. Can this monetary rule create a procyclical pattern for money even if money has no effect on real variables? What happens if the monetary authority targets a nominal interest rate instead of, or in addition to, the price level?
  2. Suppose that the monetary authority wants to peg an exchange rate, rather than the domestic price level. Would the targeting of an exchange rate create a procyclical pattern for money?
  3. Does the idea of endogenous money imply that broad aggregates like M1 or M2 will be more procyclical than a narrow aggregate like the monetary base?
  4. Can the idea of endogenous money explain why money and output move together on a seasonal basis (using seasonally-unadjusted data!)?
PART II

Answer any two of the following three questions. Be sure to use a separate bluebook for each answer.

  1. “It’s absurd to think that monetary policy actions, as conventionally implemented by central banks in advanced industrialized economies, have any more than a trivial impact on either real economic magnitudes or prices. For example, in the United States an enormous financial market holds and trades approximately $4 trillion of government securities and more than that amount of debt securities issued by other borrowers, yet supposedly the difference between a highly “expansionary” monetary policy and a highly “restrictive” monetary policy amounts to whether the central bank buys $10 billion more or less of government securities over the course of an entire year. Hah! Open market operations in such trivial amounts (compared to the size of the economy and the financial markets) can’t have much impact on anything. Further, since the majority of U.S. bank liabilities are not subject to reserve requirements, the idea that these open market operations affect the economy by regulating the banking system’s ability to create money and/or extend credit doesn’t make sense either.”
    Construct the strongest argument you can to disagree with this statement.
  2. The U.S. Treasury has just announced its intention to change the maturity structure of its outstanding debt by issuing fewer long- and medium-term securities and more short-term securities. The stated rationale for this change is to save on the government’s interest payments. (Long-term Treasury bonds currently yield around 7%, short-term bills around 3%, and medium-term notes somewhere in between depending upon the maturity.)
    1. Under what assumptions would this kind of debt management action actually deliver reduced interest costs over the long run?
    2. Under what assumptions would this kind of debt management action not deliver reduced interest costs over the long run?
    3. Under what assumptions would this kind of debt management action not deliver reduced interest costs over the long run, but reduce the government’s budget deficit over the long run anyway?
  3. —
    1. Evidence drawn from the experience of OECD countries over the last three decades strongly suggests that disinflations (that is, reductions in the rate of increase of prices) are typically costly, in the sense of involving foregone real output compared to what a disinflating economy would otherwise have produced if its inflation rate had remained unchanged. What features of economic behavior account for this foregone output? In answering, be specific about how the elements to which you point affect real output. Also indicate whether your answer implies that disinflations brought about by restrictive monetary policy are likely to be more or less costly (again, in the sense of foregone output) than disinflations that occur for other reasons.
    2. In light of your answer to (a), why do you think there is not more discussion of the “gain” associated with increasing inflation rates, to parallel the usual discussion of the “sacrifice” associated with disinflation?
Part III. (Answer two questions)

Answer any two of the following three questions.

Question 6

    1. Consider a small open economy characterized by the following equations

Y\  =\  C\left( Y \right) +I\left( r^{\ast} \right) +G+X\left( e \right) -eM\left( e \right)

M/P\ =\ L\left( Y,r^{\ast} \right)

where all variables have their standard meaning, e is the real exchange rate, e = EP*/P and * denotes a foreign variable. Assuming that the price level is fixed, what is the effect of an increase in G on output and net exports under fixed and flexible exchange rates? What assumptions on X and M do you need to make in the flexible rate case?

    1. Now consider another small open economy with a representative agent that chooses consumption to maximize the present discounted value of consumption

\max_{\left\{ c_{t} \right\}} \int_{0}^{\infty} e^{-\alpha t}\  ln\  c\  dt

where c denotes consumption, α the discount rate, and t indexes time. The agent receives a constant flow income of \bar{y} and can borrow and lend at the world interest rate which is also α. What is the economy’s current account? Suppose that at time 0 the government decides to erect a monument to its own greatness. The monument will cost γ in time 0 income. What is the effect on the current account if the government finances construction by confiscating αγ from \bar{y} at each instant? What is the effect on the current account if the government issues bonds to finance construction and postpones the implementation of the income tax until time t=\Gamma >0?

(c) Speculate as to why the effect on the current account in the flexible rate part of (a) differs from the bond financing part of (b)?

Question 7

Suppose that the exchange rate (x) depends on some fundamentals (f) and the expected rate of appreciation or depreciation as follows:

x\left( f_{t} \right) =f_{t}+\frac{1}{dt} E_{t}dx\left( f_{t} \right).

Suppose further that fundamentals follow a Brownian motion without drift

df=\sigma dw

where w is a Wiener process.

    1. Use Ito’s lemma to write a differential equation for x and solve it. [Hint: the solution should contain three terms, two of which should involve exponentials and the third should be f].
    2. Suppose that initially f < \bar{f} and that each time the fundamentals reach the level \bar{f} , the government follows a policy of resetting the fundamentals to \bar{f} -  c < \bar{f}. What boundary conditions allow you to solve for x(f). (Hint: consider what happens when the government intervenes and when f approaches -∞.)
    3. Graph the solution for x(f) from (b). What effect does the policy of intervention at \bar{f} have on the variance of x? Is var(x) < var(f)?
    4. What does your answer in part (c) lead you to conclude about the desirability of exchange rate systems such as the European Monetary System in which the currency government maintains the currency between two bands?

Question 8

Consider a firm with the following loss function

\Pi \left( p_{i},p,m \right) =-\gamma \left( p_{i}-p-\alpha \left( m-p \right) \right)^{2}

where pi is the firm’s nominal price, p is a price index, m is the money supply, and \gamma is a positive constant. All variables are in logs. Suppose that initially

pi = p = m = 0.

    1. Suppose that the firm incurs a fixed cost β each time it alters its nominal price. Characterize the optimal policy in the face of a once and for all change in m given that the price index remains constant and that the firm discounts future losses at the rate r. How does this policy depend on the curvature of the loss function (γ) and the discount rate (r)?
    2. Suppose that the economy is made up of many firms just like the one above and that the log price index is just the average of their log prices

\left( p=\int p_{i}di \right).

What policy would these firms follow in the face of a once and for all change in the money supply if they could agree to follow identical strategies? How does your answer differ from part (a). Interpret the role of α.

    1. How would you expect your answer to part (a) to change if instead of a one time change, the money supply followed a process with variance σ.

Source: Department of Economics, Harvard University. Past General Exams Spring 1991-Spring 1999, pp. 53-59. Copy provided to Economics in the Rear-view Mirror by Abigail Wozniak.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard History of Economics

Harvard. History of Economics up to the Physiocrats. Description, enrollment, final exam. Bullock, 1909-1910

Saint Thomas Aquinas by Carlo Crivelli (1476).

During the first quarter of the 20th century at Harvard, the academic study of the history of economics extended back to ancient Greece. Charles Jesse Bullock brought enough classics cred to teach such a course, having himself taught Greek and Latin in New England schools before going off to get his Ph.D. (1895) at the University of Wisconsin.

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Earlier versions of the course
by year and instructor

1899-1900. The History and Literature of Economics to the close of the Eighteenth Century. [William James Ashley]

1901-02. History and Literature of Economics, to the opening of the Nineteenth Century. [Charles Whitney Mixter]

1903-04. History and Literature of Economics to the opening of the Nineteenth Century [Charles Jesse Bullock]

1904-05. History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848. [Charles Jesse Bullock]

1905-06. History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848. [Charles Jesse Bullock]

1906-07. History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848 [Charles Jesse Bullock]

1907-08. History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848 [Charles Jesse Bullock]

1908-09. History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848 [Charles Jesse Bullock]

________________________

Course Description
1909-10

151. History and Literature of Economies to the year 1848. First half-year. Mon., Wed., Fri., at 11, and two additional hours to be arranged by the instructor. Professor Bullock.

The purpose of this course is to trace the development of economic thought from classical antiquity to the middle of the nineteenth century. Emphasis is placed upon the relation of economics to philosophical and political theories, as well as to political and industrial conditions.

A considerable amount of reading of prominent writers will be assigned, and opportunity given for the preparation of theses. Much of the instruction is necessarily given by means of lectures.

No undergraduates will be admitted to the course who are not candidates for honors in economics.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VI, No. 29 (23 July 1909). History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government, and Economics, 1909-10, p. 54.

_______________________

Course Enrollment
1909-10

Economics 151. Professor Bullock. — History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848.

Total 6: 6 Graduates.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1909-1910, p. 44.

_______________________

ECONOMICS 15
Mid-year Examination, 1909-10

  1. Discuss Aristotle’s criticism of Plato’s communism.
  2. Give an account of Xenophon’s “Revenues of Athens.”
  3. At what points were the economic theories of the Schoolmen most influenced by Aristotle’s economic theories?
  4. What do you think of Ingram’s account of the economic ideas of the Middle Ages?
  5. Name six of the more important mercantilist writers and summarize the views of the one you consider to be most representative.
  6. “The earth is the source or matter whence all riches are produced. … The intrinsic worth of everything is proportioned to the value of the land, labor, risk and time necessarily had in producing it into use and form.”
    Who wrote this and how do you classify him?
  7. State the doctrine of the wage fund as you have found it in the writings of its leading exponents. Why and in what sense was it given up, and how is it related to more recent theories of wages?
  8. So far as you have read the evidence, to what extent was Adam Smith indebted to the Physiocrats, and to what extent did he make original contributions in the field of economics?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 9, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1910-11; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1910), p. 49.

Image Source: Portrait of Saint Thomas Aquinas in the Demidoff Altarpiece by Carlo Crivelli (1476). The National Gallery website.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Radical Socialism Suggested Reading

Harvard. Methods of Social Reform. Readings, final exam. Carver, 1909-1910

Columbia standing with Puck's figure for the "Independent" party/vote and Puck who is holding a design drawing for a statue labeled "Reform", which is under construction behind them by "D.W. Everett, Rev. J.F. Clarke, Beecher, Col. The. Lyman, Schurz, H. White, G.F. Williams, Curtis, [and] Jones". The building blocks are labeled "Scratchem 1879, Anti-3rd Termism 1880, Tidal Wave Elections 1882, Civil Service Reform Bill, [and] Republican Revolt 1884"

The Economics in the Rear-view Mirror collection of artifacts in the form of course readings, syllabi, and exams is increased with this post that provides material from the economics course Methods of Social Reform — Socialism, Communism, the Single Tax taught by Thomas Nixon Carver during the second term of the academic year 1909-10 at Harvard.

At the risk of being unfair to an academic scribbler of a few years back who may be pronounced not guilty in the illiberal mania of our own times, I believe Harvard Professor Thomas Nixon Carver (1865-1961) could easily have been the sort of professor Turning Point USA would have embraced and promoted. 

Professor Carver’s own words about his course on Methods of Social Reform are fair game to quote (Prove me wrong):

The half course on methods of social reform attracted every kind of radical which the student body could furnish. They came armed with all the stock arguments against the existing economic system. Its defects were patent enough, while their untried schemes had not revealed to the naked eye their own defects. By listening patiently to their indictments, maintaining a reasonable attitude, and adopting the Socratic method of free discussion, I was able to steer the course, not to the satisfaction of the extreme radicals, but to that of the majority of the successive classes.

Source: Thomas Nixon Carver. Recollections of an Unplanned Life. Los Angeles: The Ward Ritchie Press, 1949. Page 172.

__________________________

Previously posted

Pre-Carver:
Carver’s courses

Post-Carver:

________________________

Course Announcement and Description
1909-10

14b 2hf. Methods of Social Reform. — Socialism, Communism, the Single Tax. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., at 1.30. Professor Carver.

A study of those plans of social amelioration which involve either a reorganization of society, or a considerable extension of the functions of the state. The course begins with a critical examination of the theories of the leading socialistic writers, with a view to getting a clear understanding of the reasoning which lies back of socialistic movements, and of the economic conditions which tend to make this reasoning acceptable. A similar study will be made of the Single Tax Movement, of State Socialism and the public ownership of monopolistic enterprises, and of Christian Socialism, so called.

This course is open only to those who have passed satisfactorily in Course 14a.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VI, No. 29 (23 July 1909). History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government, and Economics, 1909-10, pp. 53-54.

________________________

ECONOMICS 14b
TOPICS AND REFERENCES

Starred references are prescribed.
Double starred references will be used as a basis for class-room discussion.

COMMUNISM
A
UTOPIAS
  1. Plato’s Republic.
  2. *Sir Thomas More. Utopia.
  3. *Francis Bacon. New Atlantis.
  4. *Tommaso Campanella. The City of the Sun. (Numbers 2, 3, and 4 may be found in convenient form in Morley’s Ideal Commonwealths.)
  5. Etienne Cabot. Voyage en Icarie.
  6. William Morris. News from Nowhere.
  7. Edward Bellamy. Looking Backward.
  8. Laurence Gronlund. The Coöperative Commonwealth.
  9. H. G. Wells. A Modern Utopia.
B
COMMUNISTIC EXPERIMENTS
  1. Charles Nordhoff. The Communistic Societies of the United States.
  2. Karl Kautsky. Communism in Central Europe in the Time of the Reformation.
  3. *W. A. Hinds. American Communities.
  4. J. H. Noyes. History of American Socialisms.
  5. J. T. Codman. Brook Farm Memoirs.
  6. Albert Shaw. Icaria.
  7. G. B. Landis. The Separatists of Zoar.
  8. E. O. Randall. History of the Zoar Society.
SOCIALISM
A
HISTORICAL
  1. *R. T. Ely. French and German Socialism.
  2. Bertrand Russell. German Social Democracy.
  3. John Rae. Contemporary Socialism.
  4. Thomas Kirkup. A History of Socialism.
  5. W. D. P. Bliss. A Handbook of Socialism
  6. William Graham. Socialism, New and Old.
  7. Peixotto. The French Revolution and Modern French Socialism.
  8. Wm. B. Guthrie. Socialism before the French Revolution.
  9. M. Hillquit. History of Socialism in the United States.
B
EXPOSITORY AND CRITICAL
  1. **J. E. Le Rossignol. Orthodox Socialism.
  2. *Albert Schaeffle. The Quintessence of Socialism.
  3. Albert Schaeffle. The Impossibility of Social Democracy.
  4. **Karl Marx. Capital.
  5. *Karl Marx and Frederic Engels. The Manifest of the Communist Party.
  6. Frederic Engels. Socialism, Utopian and Scientific.
  7. E. C. K. Gonner. The Socialist Philosophy of Rodbertus.
  8. E. C. K. Gonner. The Socialist State.
  9. Bernard Shaw and others. The Fabian Essays in Socialism.
  10. The Fabian Tracts.
  11. R. T. Ely. Socialism: an Examination of its Nature, Strength and Weakness.
  12. Edward Bernstein. Ferdinand Lassalle.
  13. Henry M. Hyndman. The Economics of Socialism.
  14. Sidney and Beatrice Web. Problems of Modern Industry.
  15. Gustave Simonson. A Plain Examination of Socialism.
  16. Werner Sombart. Socialism and the Social Movement in the Nineteenth Century.
  17. Émile Vandervelde. Collectivism.
  18. R. Flint. Socialism.
  19. A. Labriola. Essays on the Materialistic Conception of History.
  20. E. de Laveleye. The Socialism of Today.
  21. P. J. Proudhon. What is Property?
  22. W. D. P. Bliss. A Handbook of Socialism
  23. John Spargo. Socialism
ANARCHISM
  1. Max Stirner (pseudonym for Kaspar Schmidt). Der Einzige und sein Eigenthum.
  2. *Leo Tolstoi. The Slavery of Our Times.
  3. William Godwin. Political Justice.
  4. P. Kropotkin. The Scientific Basis of Anarchy. Nineteenth Century, 21: 238.
  5. P. Kropotkin. The Coming Anarchy. Nineteenth Century, 22: 149.
  6. Elisée Reclus. Anarchy. Contemporary Review, 14: 627.
  7. E. V. Zenker. Anarchism, a Criticism and History.
RELIGIOUS AND ALTRUISTIC SOCIALISM
  1. Lamennais. Les Paroles d’un Croyant.
  2. Charles Kingsley. Alton Locke.
  3. *Kaufman. Lamennais and Kingsley. Contemporary Review, April, 1882.
  4. Washington Gladden. Tools and the Man.
  5. Josiah Strong. Our Country.
  6. Josiah Strong. The New Era
  7. William Morris, Poet, Artist, Socialist. Edited by Francis Watts Lee. A collection of the socialistic writings of Morris.
  8. Ruskin, the Communism of John Ruskin. Edited by W. D. P. Bliss. Selected chapters from Unto this Last, The Crown of Wild Olive, and Fors Clavigera.
  9. Carlyle, The Socialism and Unsocialism of Thomas Carlyle. Edited by W. D. P. Bliss. Selected chapters from Carlyle’s various works.
THE SINGLE TAX
  1. **Henry George. Progress and Poverty.
  2. Henry George. Our Land and Land Policy.
  3. Alfred Russell Wallace. Land Nationalization.
  4. Thomas G. Shearman. Natural Taxation.
  5. Louis F. Post. The Single Tax.
STATE SOCIALISM

An indefinite term, usually made to include all movements for the extension of government control and ownership, especially over means of communication and transportation, also street lighting, etc.

  1. R. T. Ely. Problems of To-day. Chs. 17-23.
  2. J. A. Hobson. The Social Problem.
WORKS DISCUSSING THE SPHERE OF THE STATE IN SOCIAL REFORM
  1. Henry C. Adams. The Relation of the State to Industrial Action.
  2. *D. G. Ritchie. Principles of State Interference.
  3. D. G. Ritchie. Darwinism and Politics.
  4. *Herbert Spencer. The Coming Slavery.
  5. W. W. Willoughby. Social Justice.

Source: Harvard University Archives. HUC 8522.2.1. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 1. Folder: 1909-1910.

_______________________

Course Enrollment
1909-10

Economics 14b 2hf. Professor Carver. — Methods of Social Reform. Socialism, Communism, the Single Tax, etc.

Total 59: 14 Graduates, 16 Seniors, 18 Juniors, 5 Sophomore, 6 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1909-1910, p. 44.

 _______________________

ECONOMICS 14b
Year-End Examination, 1909-10

  1. State and discuss the doctrine of “Evolution through class struggle.”
  2. What does Mackaye mean by “conditional compensation,” and how does he propose that it shall be put into practice?
  3. Give a brief account of the origin of the Social Democratic party in Germany.
  4. What is the difference between Utopian and “scientifie” Socialism?
  5. What problem did Henry George attempt to solve in his Progress and Poverty? Did he solve it? Explain your answer.
  6. Is the single tax a step in the direction of Socialism? Explain your answer.
  7. Why does Fillebrown think that the single tax would improve the conditions on Cornhill Street, Boston? Is he justified in his belief?
  8. Discuss the question: Would the single tax be confiscation?

 Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 9, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1910-11; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1910), pp. 48-49.

Image Source: “Men may come, and men may go; but the work of reform shall go on forever” by J. Keppler in Puck (5 November 1884). Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

Categories
Distribution Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Distribution of Wealth. Course description, enrollment, final exam. Carver, 1909-1910

"Shall I be wise and great, or rich and powerful" wonders a schoolboy standing outside a "Public School"; on the left is Charles M. Schwab sitting atop a large money bag labeled "Manager of Steel Trust $1,000,000 yearly salary," resting on a steel factory, and on the right is a Supreme Court justice holding a balance scale in one hand and a tiny money bag with the label "Chief Justice of U.S. $10,500 yearly salary," sitting on a large book labeled "Law and Constitution."

Thomas Nixon Carver’s Cornell Ph.D. dissertation “The theory of wages adjusted to recent theories of value” was published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics (July 1894). This followed the publication of his paper “The place of abstinence in the theory of interest” that appeared in the October 1893 issue. It was this theoretical work on the functional distribution of income that caught the eye of the Harvard economics department. Thus it was natural for the topic of distribution to have been included in Carver’s portfolio of courses.

Carver later wrote about the importance of these two articles for his professional advancement:

Considering the time 1900, the place Harvard, and the subjects which I was to teach, the position to which I was appointed was undoubtedly the most important teaching position in the country, or the world. How a green country boy from an Iowa prairie moved through various stages, each one a surprise to himself, to such a position has been and still is a source of wonderment to me. It must surprise, even if it does
not interest, some other people.

I was deeply curious to know how President Eliot had heard of me and what had led him to write to me about coming to Harvard, but I restrained myself. Years afterward I asked him how he came to look me up, and he replied that Professor Dunbar had been impressed by two articles which I had sub- mitted to him as editor of the Quarterly Journal of Economics, which he had published, and which he, President Eliot, had read. “Besides,” said he, with a smile, “I know a great many people from Ohio.” I learned from other sources that he had talked with some of my former students who had come from Oberlin to Harvard for graduate work. I was fortunate in having some warm friends among the Oberlin men then at Harvard.

Source: Thomas Nixon Carver. Recollections of an Unplanned Life. Los Angeles: The Ward Ritchie Press, 1949. Page 3.

________________________

From earlier semesters

1904-05
1905-06
1907-08
1908-09

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

__________________________

Course Announcement and Description
1909-10

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

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

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VI, No. 29 (23 July 1909). History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government, and Economics, 1909-10, p. 53.

__________________________

Course Enrollment
1909-10

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

Total 67: 15 Graduates, 16 Seniors, 23 Juniors, 7 Sophomores, 6 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1909-1910, p. 44.

__________________________

ECONOMICS 14a1
Mid-year Examination, 1909-10

  1. What is the relation of cost of production to value?
  2. Would you include wages, rent, interest and profits all under cost of production? State your reasons for your answer in each case.
  3. What is the relation of the law of diminishing returns to the law of rent?
  4. How would you distinguish between the rate of interest and the income from capital? How is each determined?
  5. -6. How would you answer the following questions? Is land productive?
    Is capital productive?
    State briefly your reasons for each answer.
  1. -8. How would you answer the following questions?
    Is rent earned? Is interest earned?
    State briefly your reasons for each answer.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 9, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1910-11; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1910), p. 48.

Image Source: Young America’s Dilemma by Louis Dalrymple. Puck (12 June 1901). Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

Categories
Economic History Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. European Economic History. Description, Enrollment, Exams. Gray and Gay, 1909-1910

Historical time and cultural space are dimensions that have collapsed in the training of the the 21st century economist. We again take you back to view some of the economic history course offerings found in early 20th century Harvard. OK, let’s be honest, even at that time we can see from the course enrollments that there were only three graduate students with Latin skills robust enough to handle medieval texts (Si verum quaeris). It is also charming to see that Edwin F. Gay’s  “modern economic history” goes all the way up to … the beginning of the 19th century.

________________________

Earlier Courses
European Economic History

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

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

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

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

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

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

1909-10. Economics 6a. European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century. [E.F. Gay with H. L. Gray]

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

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

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

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

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

Other Economic History Material

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

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

________________________

Mediaeval Economic History
of Europe

Course Announcement and Description
1909-10

10 2hf. Mediaeval Economic History of Europe. Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 2.30. Dr. [Howard Levi] Gray.

After a preliminary examination of early economic and social institutions, this course aims to give a general view of the economic development of society during the Middle Ages. Among other topics, the following will be considered: medieval agriculture and serfdom; the manorial system and the economic aspects of feudalism; the beginnings of town life and the gild-system of industry; and the Italian and Hanseatic commercial supremacy.

It is essential that students should possess some reading knowledge of Latin.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VI, No. 29 (23 July 1909). History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government, and Economics, 1909-10, p. 56.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Course Enrollment
1909-10

Economics 10 2hf. Dr. [Howard Levi] Gray. — Mediaeval Economic History of Europe.

Total 3: 3 Graduates.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1909-1910, p. 44.

________________________

Modern Economic History
of Europe

Course Announcement and Description
1909-10

  1. Modern Economic History of Europe. Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., al 10. Professor Gay.

At the outset a survey will be made of economic and social conditions in the chief European countries at the close of the Middle Ages. The history of agriculture, industry, and commerce in the succeeding periods down to the beginning of the nineteenth century will then be treated in some detail. England will receive the emphasis due to its increasing importance during this period.

Course 11 is open to students who have taken Economics 1 or History 1.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VI, No. 29 (23 July 1909). History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government, and Economics, 1909-10, p. 56.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Course Enrollment
1909-10

Economics 11. Professor Gay. — Modern Economic History of Europe.

Total 12: 4 Graduates, 4 Juniors, 2 Sophomores, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1909-1910, p. 44.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

ECONOMICS 11
Mid-year Examination, 1909-10

  1. Explain briefly: —
    1. the open field system,
    2. the manorial system,
    3. copyhold,
    4. Meierrecht,
    5. Erbuntertänigkeit,
    6. yeomanry.
  2. —
    1. The second chapter in the class outline of the “Decline of the Manorial System” was entitled “The Decline of Serfdom.” Write this chapter in as full detail as your time permits.
    2. State briefly why, in your opinion, serfdom disappeared earlier in England than on the Continent.
  3. Describe the chief changes in the English craft gild in the sixteenth century.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 8, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1909-10.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

ECONOMICS 11
Year-end Examination, 1909-10

  1. —
    1. Discuss this statement:
      “In many ways the Statute of Artificers marks the transition between the gild system and the later methods of labor regulation, although the intention of the Statute to accomplish this transition is by no means certain.”
    2. Outline the policy of public regulation of prices and wages in England from the Statute of Laborers to the beginning of the nineteenth century.
  2. State the extent, causes, and results of the price movement of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
  3. —
    1. Describe the forms of company organization in England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Account for the change in the attitude of public opinion toward the companies.
    2. Compare the development of mercantile companies in England, France, and Holland.
  4. In 1665 a Dutch merchant desired to ship from Amsterdam to London the following commodities: Portuguese wine, currants, olive-oil, herring, Russian timber, Prussian grain, Java coffee, and Delft tiles. How legally could he ship each commodity? Would he have shipped in the same way ten years earlier?
  5. Define (a) the manorial system, (b) the gild system, (c) the domestic system. Comment briefly on (d) John Hales, (e) the Fuggers, (f) Colbert.

Write on one of the following topics in English economic history
prior to 1800:—

  1. The problem of interest.
  2. The poor laws.
  3. Indirect taxation.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 9, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1910-11; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1910), pp. 47-48.

Image Source: Regts Delft Tiles website.

Categories
Economists Harvard International Economics

Harvard. Economics professors who signed petition supporting Congressman Jerry O’Connell’s resolution, 1938

Haberler, Hansen Leontief, Mason

In a random search for interesting newspaper reports about the Austrian economist Gottfried Haberler during his early years on the Harvard faculty, I came upon a report of a Spanish Civil War rally held at Harvard featuring the Montana one-term Congressional democrat, Jerry O’Connell, that had taken place on March 27, 1938 in Emerson Hall. The U.S. Communist Party newspaper The Daily Worker reported that a number of Harvard faculty members signed a petition to support an anti-fascist amendment to U.S. neutrality legislation of the time. They included the economists:

Gottfried Haberler
Alvin Hansen
Wassily Leontief
Edward Mason.

The amendment would have prohibited commerce with aggressor nations [Germany and Italy] and have opened American markets to the victims of aggression [the Loyalist Republicans].

This naturally leads to questions as to why these economists took a side and why other senior colleagues did not? I presume lower ranks of the faculty (instructor-tutors) also signed the petition, but all my casual research has uncovered is found in the article transcribed below.

_______________________________

Backstory of the O’Connor Peace Bill

In March 1938 Representative Jerry O’Connell introduced a House resolution to amend the existing neutrality legislation, including the Spanish embargo. Sam McReynolds, chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee, initially agreed to hearings before finally refusing. James Roosevelt claimed that the hearings were stopped by the State Department to avoid public discussion of the Spanish embargo. On 24 March Breckinridge Long, employed as a lobbyist by pro-Loyalists, visited Roosevelt to argue in favor of repealing the embargo. FDR, sympathetic but noncommittal, suggested that Long talk to Hull. A week later Hull told Long that the embargo might be lifted if fascist intervention could be proved: ‘‘Hull said he would reconsider if he received sufficient factual information about Italo-German invasion in Spain—so sufficient to justify a change of policy so the president could revoke the Proclamation of Neutrality and embargo of war implements. The Spanish Ambassador today furnished him with substantial proof of alleged ‘invasion’ of Spain. Whether that is sufficient remains to be seen.’’

Long did secure a promise that the embargo issue would be placed before the president. But on 10 April Long thought that no change of policy was likely, primarily because the Loyalists looked close to military collapse. Late March was also the height of the fight in Congress over reorganizing executive agencies, and FDR was particularly reluctant at this time to engage in a violent political quarrel to lift the embargo. On 5 April Byron Scott introduced a House resolution to repeal the Spanish embargo, but this effort also failed. Hull, who favored wider neutrality reform but not the repeal of the Spanish embargo, telegraphed the U.S. embassy in Spain in early April to state that repeal was ‘‘not in prospect.’’ But a few weeks later Roosevelt was told that Senator Key Pittman, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, might act on the Spanish question. On 2 May Senator Gerald Nye introduced a resolution to allow arms sales to Loyalist Spain.

… there is little evidence that Roosevelt sought to lift the Spanish embargo in the spring or summer of 1938.

Source: Dominic Tierney. FDR and the Spanish Civil War Neutrality and Commitment in the Struggle that Divided America, Chapter 7: Covert Aid. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2007, pp. 92-94.

_______________________________

46 Harvard Faculty Members
Back O’Connell Peace Bill
16 Professors Among Signers of Petition

Montana Representative Main Speaker at Peace Rally in Cambridge
— Points to Danger From Reactionaries in U.S.

(Special to the Daily Worker)

BOSTON, Mass., March 27. —A group of 16 prominent Harvard professors in addition to 30 other members of the university faculty presented a petition supporting the O’Connell Peace Bill, yesterday afternoon to Representative Jerry O’Connell of Montana on the occasion of his address at a peace rally of undergraduates in Emerson Hall.

The professors who signed the petition for the Act, which would empower the President to name the aggressor nation in case of war, and apply economic sanctions against that aggressor, were:

Professors:

Arthur Holcombe—Government
Ralph Burton Perry—Philosophy
David Prall—Philosophy
Walter B. Cannon—Harvard Medical School
Hassler Whitney—Mathematics
Gordon Allport—Psychology
Gottfried Haberler—Economics
Alvin Hansen—Economics
Wassily Leontieff—Economics
Edward Mason—Economics
Kenneth Murdock—English
H. L. Blumgart—Harvard Medical School
T. Morrison—English
C. L. Kuhn—Fine Arts
Ernest Simmons—English
W. C. Greene—Classics

Speaks on Fascist Danger

In his address, Rep. O’Connell stressed the recent unparalleled spread of fascism through Europe. He pointed out the danger to American democracy from certain reactionary business interests in this country. O’Connell traced the recent development of collective security sentiment in the country and in Congress. After drawing a vivid picture of Loyalist Spain under the bombs of fascism, O’Connell urged his audience to write letters to the House Foreign Affairs Committee urging immediate consideration and passage of his Peace Act. “To keep America out of war,” he said, “keep war out of the world.”

The meeting was sponsored jointly by the Harvard Student Union (local A.S.U, chapter), the American League for Peace and Democracy, and the Cambridge Teachers’ Union.

The petition read: “We wholeheartedly support the proposed O’Connell amendment to the Neutrality Act. This amendment would prohibit commerce with aggressor nations and open American markets to the victims of aggression.”

Source: Daily Worker (New York), March 28, 1938, p. 4.

Image Source: Harvard Class Album, 1942.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Industrial Organization Paper Topics

Harvard. Economics of Corporations. Reports assignment and final exam. Ripley, 1909-10

An angry Uncle Sam holding up a lantern labeled “Congressional Legislation” to illuminate a rotund man wearing a crown labeled “Trusts” and a robe decorated with dollar signs, there is a ring with many keys hanging from a cord around his waist, and he is sitting on a stack of books that are labeled “Day Book, Ledger, Entry Book, Stock Book, [and] Cash Book”, he has his right hand on an open book. All the books are locked with padlocks.

In the early decades of the twentieth century William Zebina Ripley was the institutional economist at Harvard who covered courses in organized labor and organized capital as well as statistics. This post provides the course description, enrollment, report assignment, and final exam for the 1909-10 version of the course. His teaching assistants are very briefly identified, a couple of Harvard men who went on to careers in law and business.

________________________

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

Problems of Labor and Industrial Organization, 1902-1903.

Economics of Corporations, 1903-1904.

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

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

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

Economics of Corporations, 1908-09 (with Edmund Thornton Miller)

Economics of Corporations, 1914-1915.

_________________________

Meet Ripley’s teaching assistants
1909-10

Herman William Goepper, Jr., A.B. 1909, M.B.A. 1911.

Charles Augustus Whipple, magna cum laude Economics A.B. 1909

_________________________

Course Announcement, Description
1909-10

[9b2hf. Economies of Corporations. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 10. Professor Ripley.]

Omitted in 1909-10.
[NOTE: this course was actually offered in 1909-10]

This course will treat of the fiscal and industrial organization of capital, especially in the corporate form. The principal topic considered will be industrial combination and the so-called trust problem. This will be broadly discussed, with comparative study of conditions in the United States and Europe. The development of corporate enterprise, promotion, and financing, accounting, liability of directors and underwriters, will be described, not from their legal but from their purely economic aspects; and the effects of industrial combination upon efficiency, profits, wages, prices, the development of export trade, and international competition will be considered in turn.

The course is open to those students only who have taken Economics 1. Systematic reading and report work will be assigned from time to time.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VI, No. 29 (23 July 1909). History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government, and Economics, 1909-10, p. 59.

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Course Enrollment
1909-10

Economics 9b 2hf. Professor Ripley, assisted by Mr. Herman Goepper and Mr. C. A. Whipple. — Economics of Corporations.

Total 129: 7 Graduates, 39 Seniors, 60 Juniors, 12 Sophomores, 3 Freshmen, 8 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1909-1910, p. 44.

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ECONOMICS 92
ASSIGNMENT OF REPORTS.

1910

→ Exact references by title, volume, and page must be given in foot-notes for all facts cited. This condition is absolutely imperative. Failure to comply with it will vitiate the entire report.

GROUP A

Students will report upon the organization and present character of one industrial combination in the United States. This will be indicated by a number, placed against the student’s name on the enrolment slip, which number refers to the industrial combination similarly numbered on this sheet. See directions on last page.

GROUP B

Students will compare the character and extent of industrial control in two different industries in the United States. These are indicated by numbers given below, which are posted against the student’s name on the enrolment slip. The aim should be to point out and explain any discoverable differences in the nature or extent of the industrial monopoly attained in the two industries concerned. Mere description of conditions in either case will not suffice; actual comparison is demanded. The parallel column method is suggested. See directions on last page.

GROUP C

Students will compare industrial combinations in different countries of Europe with one another, or with corresponding ones in the United States. The assignment of industries will be made by numbers, referring to the list below, these numbers being posted against the student’s name on the enrolment slip. Mere description will not be accepted; the student will be judged by the degree of critical comparison offered. Parallel columns may be used to advantage. See directions on last page.

→ The letters preceding the assignment number against the student’s name refer to the group in which the report is to be made. Thus, for example: “31 A” on the enrolment slip indicates that the student is to report upon the American Cotton Oil Co.; “2 & 64 B,” that a comparison of the American Bridge Co. and the United States Leather Co. in the United States is expected; while “59 & 158 C” calls for an international comparison of industrial organizations in thread manufacture as described under Group C.

INDUSTRIAL COMBINATIONS
IN THE UNITED STATES

A star indicates that data will be found in Industrial Commission Reports, Vol. I or XIII.

  1. American Axe and Tool Co., 1889.
  2. American Bridge Co., 1900. (See No. 139.)
  3. American Iron and Steel Mfg. Co., 1899.
  4. American Steel Foundries Co., 1902.
  5. *American Radiator Co., 1899.
  6. *American Sheet Steel Co., 1900. (See No. 139.)
  7. *American Steel and Wire Co. of New Jersey, 1899, (See No. 139.)
  8. American Steel Casting Co., 1894.
  9. *American Steel Hoop Co., 1899. (See No. 139.)
  10. *American Tin Plate Co., 1898. (See No. 139.)
  11. *Federal Steel Co., 1898. (See No. 139.)
  12. International Steam Pump Co., 1899.
  13. *National Shear Co., 1898.
  14. *National Steel Co., 1899. (See No. 139.)
  15. National Tube Co., 1899. (See No. 139.)
  16. *Otis Elevator Co., 1898.
  17. Republic Iron and Steel Co., 1899.
  18. United Shoe Machinery Co., 1899.
  19. United States Cast Iron Pipe and Foundry Co., 1899.
  20. American Beet Sugar Co., 1899.
  21. *American Chicle Co., 1899.
  22. Corn Products Co., 1902.
  23. *American Sugar Refining Co., 1891.
  24. *Glucose Sugar Refining Co., 1897.
  25. *National Biscuit Co., 1898.
  26. National Sugar Refining Co., 1900.
  27. *Royal Baking Powder Co., 1899.
  28. United States Flour Milling Co., 1899.
  29. *American Fisheries Co., 1899.
  30. American Agricultural Chemical Co., 1899.
  31. *American Cotton Oil Co., 1889.
  32. American Linseed Co., 1898.
  33. *Fisheries Co., The, 1900.
  34. *General Chemical Co., 1899.
  35. *National Salt Co., 1899.
  36. *National Starch Manufacturing Co., 1890.
  37. *Standard Oil Co., 1882.
  38. Virginia-Carolina Chemical Co., 1895.
  39. American Shot and Lead Co., 1890.
  40. American Smelting and Refining Co., 1899.
  41. American Type Founders Co., 1892.
  42. *International Silver Co., 1898.
  43. National Lead Co., 1891.
  44. American Malting Co., 1897.
  45. American Spirits Manufacturing Co., 1895.
  46. Kentucky Distilleries and Warehouse Co., 1899.
  47. Pittsburgh Brewing Co., 1899.
  48. St. Louis Brewing Association, 1889.
  49. Standard Distilling and Distributing Co., 1898.
  50. *American Bicycle Co., 1899. (Now Pope Bicycle Co.)
  51. American Car and Foundry Co., 1899.
  52. *Pressed Steel Car Co., 1899.
  53. Pullman Co., The, 1899.
  54. American Snuff Co., 1900.
  55. *American Tobacco Co., 1890.
  56. *Continental Tobacco Co., 1898.
  57. *National Cordage Co., 1887. (See No. 62.)
  58. American Felt Co., 1899.
  59. *American Thread Co., 1898.
  60. American Woolen Co., 1899.
  61. New England Cotton Yarn Co., 1899.
  62. *Standard Rope and Twine Co., 1895. (See No. 57.)
  63. American Hide and Leather Co., 1899.
  64. *United States Leather Co., 1893-1905.
  65. American Straw Board Co., 1889.
  66. American Writing Paper Co., 1899.
  67. International Paper Co., 1898.
  68. *National Wall Paper Co., 1892-1905.
  69. Union Bag and Paper Co., 1899.
  70. United States Envelope Co., 1898.
  71. American Clay Manufacturing Co., 1900.
  72. American Window Glass Co., 1899.
  73. International Pulp Co., 1893.
  74. National Fire Proofing Co., 1899.
  75. *National Glass Co., 1899.
  76. *Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co., 1895.
  77. United States Glass Co., 1891.
  78. American School Furniture Co., 1899.
  79. Diamond Match Co., 1889.
  80. National Casket Co., 1890.
  81. United States Bobbin and Shuttle Co., 1899.
  82. American Glue Co., 1894.
  83. American Ice Co., 1899.
  84. American Shipbuilding Co., 1899.
  85. American Soda Fountain Co., 1891.
  86. *General Aristo Co. (Photography), 1899.
  87. Rubber Goods Manufacturing Co., 1899.
  88. United States Rubber Co., 1892.
  89. Allis-Chalmers Co., 1901.
  90. American Cigar Co., 1901.
  91. American Grass Twine Co., 1899.
  92. American Light and Traction Co., 1901.
  93. American Locomotive Co., 1901.
  94. American Machine and Ordnance Co., 1902.
  95. American Packing Co., 1902.
  96. American Plow Co., 1901.
  97. American Sewer Pipe Co., 1900.
  98. American Steel Foundries Co., 1902.
  99. Associated Merchants Co., 1901.
  100. Chicago Pneumatic Tool Co., 1902.
  101. Consolidated Railway Lighting and Refrig. Co., 1901.
  102. Consolidated Tobacco Co., 1901.
  103. Corn Products Co., 1902.
  104. Crucible Steel Co., of America, 1900.
  105. Eastman Kodak Co., 1901.
  106. International Harvester Co., 1902.
  107. International Salt Co., 1901. (Also National Salt Co.)
  108. *Jones & Laughlin Steel Co., 1902.
  109. *National Asphalt Co., 1900.
  110. New England Consolidated Ice Co., 1902.
  111. New York Dock Co., 1901.
  112. Pacific Hardware and Steel Co., 1902.
  113. Pennsylvania Steel Co., 1901,
  114. Railway Steel Spring Co., 1902.
  115. International Mercantile Marine Co., 1902.
  116. Northern Securities Co., 1901. (See Library Catalogue.)
  117. United Box, Board and Paper Co., 1902.
  118. United Copper Co., 1902.
  119. United States Cotton Duck Corporation, 1901.
  120. United States Realty and Construction Co., 1902.
  121. United States Reduction and Refining Co., 1901.
  122. United States Shipbuilding Co., 1902.
  123. American Tobacco Co., 1903.
  124. Central Leather Co.
  125. American Ice Securities Co.
  126. Amalgamated Copper Co.
  127. General Electric Co.
  128. United Shoe Machinery Co.
  129. American Telephone and Telegraph Co.
  130. United Gas Improvement Co.
  131. Interborough-Metropolitan Co.
  132. Mass. Electric Companies.
  133. Mass. Gas Companies.
  134. Philadelphia Rapid Transit Co.
  135. Brooklyn Rapid Transit Co.
  136. N. Y. Consolidated Gas Co.
  137. American Express Co.
  138. Adams Express Co.
  139. United States Steel Corporation; Promotion.
  140. United States Steel Corporation; Financial Development.
  141. United States Steel Corporation; Bond Conversion.
  142. United States Steel Corporation; Relations to Employees.
  143. United States Steel Corporation; Earnings, Quotations and Business.
  144. The American Silk Co.
  145. The Association of Licensed Cement Manufacturers.
  146. The Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers.
  147. The United Fruit Co.
  148. The Quaker Oats Co.
  149. Du Pont de Nemours Powder Co.

INDUSTRIAL COMBINATIONS IN EUROPE.

[Consult: Industrial Commission, Vol. XVIII; U.S. Special Consular Reports, Vol. XXI, Part III; and London Economist on England since 1895; Griffin’s Library of Congress List of Books on Trusts, 1902, p. 35; and for the respective countries, Stock Exchange Official Intelligence (Lib 5230.7), Salling’s Börsenpapiere (Lib. 5234.5.2), and Annuaire Général des Sociétés françaises par Action (5232.5), On Germany consult also Kontradictorische Verhandlungen über deutsche Kartelle (Lib., Econ. 3871.1).]

  1. Canadian Iron Founders’ Association. (See Canadian Commission on Trusts, 1888.)
  2. *Bleachers’ Association, England.
  3. *Iron Combination, France.
  4. *Iron Combination, Germany. (Stahlwerkverband.)
  5. *Rhenish-Westphalian Coal Syndicate.
  6. *Spirits Combination, Germany.
  7. *United Pencil Factories’ Company, Germany.
  8. *Portland Cement Manufacturers’ Association, England.
  9. *Bradford Dyers’ Association, England.
  10. *Brass Bedstead Association, England.
  11. *British Cotton and Wool Dyers’ Association.
  12. *British Oil and Cake Mills.
  13. *Calico Printers’ Association, England.
  14. *Wall Paper Manufacturers’ Association, England.
  15. *English Sewing Cotton Co.
  16. *Petroleum Combination, Germany.
  17. *Petroleum Combination, France.
  18. *Sugar Combination, Germany.
  19. *Sugar Combination, Austria.
  20. German Salt Combination.
  21. German Potash Combination.
  22. International Sulphur Trust.

DIRECTIONS.

All books here referred to are reserved in Gore Hall.

First.—Secure if possible by correspondence, enclosing ten cents postage, the last or recent annual reports of the company. Unless they are “listed” on the stock exchanges, no reports will be furnished. P. O. addresses for American corporations will be found in the latest Moody’s Manual of Corporation Securities; in 12th U. S. Census, 1900, Manufactures, Part I, p. lxxxvi; in the latest Investors’ Supplement, N. Y. Commercial and Financial Chronicle; or in the Manual of Statistics.

Second.—In all cases where possible (starred on list) consult Vols. I, XIII, or XVIII, U. S. Industrial Commission Reports. Read appropriate testimony in full, consulting lists of witnesses, Vol. I, p. 1263, and Vol. XIII, p. 979; and also using the index and digests freely. Always follow up all cross references in foot-notes in the digests. Duplicate sets of these Reports are in Gore and Harvard Halls.

Third.—For companies organized prior to 1900 look through the bibliography and index in Halle or Jenks for references; and also in Griffin’s Library of Congress List.

Fourth.—Work back carefully through the files of Moody’s Manual of Corporations and of the Investors’ Supplement, N. Y. Commercial and Financial Chronicle. These Supplements, prior to 1902, are bound in with the regular issues of the Chronicle, one number in each volume. Since 1901 they are separately bound for each year. The Investors’ Supplement will be recognized by its gray paper cover, and must be carefully distinguished from the other supplements of the Chronicle. Market prices of securities are given in a distinct Bank and Quotation Supplement, also bound up with the Chronicle. Having found the company in the Investors’ Supplement, follow up all references to articles in the Commercial and Financial Chronicle as given by volume and page. Also use the general index of the latter, separately, for each year since the company was organized.

The files of Bradstreets should also be used, noting carefully that the index in each volume is in three separate divisions, “Editorials” being the most important. The course of prices is summarized at the end of each year in January Bradstreets, and also in Bulletin U. S. Dept. of Labor, No. 29.

Fifth.—The files of trade publications should also be consulted. Among these are Bulletin of the National Wool Manufacturers’ Association, The Iron Age, Dry Goods Economist, etc. Many of these are now in Gore Hall, a special list is to be seen at the desk.

Sixth.—Read carefully in the U.S. Census the special reports on industries; and compile all data possible as to the growth and development of the industry in general, by means of statistics of production, exports and imports, number of employees and capital invested.

The course of prices of securities in detail for many companies is given in Industrial Commission Reports, Vol. XIII, p. 918, et seq.

As for the form of the reports all pertinent matter may be introduced, proper references to authorities being given. Particular attention is directed to the extent of control, nature and value of physical plant, mode of selling products and fixing prices, amount and character of capitalization, with the purpose for which it was issued, relative market prices of different securities as well as of dividends paid through a series of years, degree of publicity in reports, etc. Mere history is of minor importance, unless it be used to explain some features of the existing situation.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 1, Folder “Economics, 1909-1910”.

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ECONOMICS 9b
Year-end Examination, 1909-10

  1. Describe the course of state anti-trust legislation, with approximate dates. What were the main causes on each occasion?
  2. Concerning payment of unearned dividends out of capital, a writer on trusts, pools, and corporations, commenting on German company law, observes: “The distinction between the depreciation of fixed and circulating capital, which is the basis of these (British) decisions, is unsound from a mercantile point of view.” What were some of these British decisions? Give hypothetical cases if you please.
  3. How does the so-called Trust Problem in the United States differ from the British situation? State points of difference concisely, in separate paragraphs.
  4. What changes in corporation law would most effectively discourage speculative promotion of new companies?
  5. What is the economic argument advanced in support of the policy of “dumping” in foreign countries? Any fallacy in it?
  6. What is the common law? Illustrate its mode of growth by concrete instances.
  7. Define in a sentence in each case: —
    1. A sinking fund.
    2. A reorganization.
    3. A “guinea pig” director.
    4. An underwriting syndicate.
    5. Good-will.
  8. Outline the attitude towards labor organizations of some of the leading industrial combinations.
  9. What is the precise form of organization of the two great industrial combinations now on trial before the Supreme Court of the United States? What was the nature of the decision in the leading case bearing upon the points involved?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 9, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1910-11; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1910), pp. 46-47.

Image Source: “The kind of anti-trust legislation that is needed” by  J.S. Pughe. From Puck, 1902 February 5.