Author: Irwin Collier

Minnesota. Parody letters of recommendation. Bronfenbrenner, ca. 1961

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2019-11-11

To achieve a cultural understanding of modern economics, samples of successful and unsuccessful attempts at humor by economists are valuable artifacts seeking proper interpretation. The following five parody letters of recommendation were written by an economist for whom I have achieved a sort of archival sympathy. The reader can imagine my surprise upon transcribing (especially) letter II below that casts a fairly unflattering light on its author (even allowing for his genuine satiric intent seen in the letters regarded as a whole).

Without apologies, dear colleagues, five teachable moments….

____________________

MEMORANDUM

To: Staff and Nonsense [presumably a joke at the expense of “Non-staff”], School of Business Administration, University of Minnesota
From: Administrative Assistant to the Assistant Administrator.

Subject: Letters of Recommendation.

The silly season is once more with us, when letters of recommendation are composed in connection with teaching and other positions. Five model forms are presented below. You will note that they are more than perfunctory, and show sincere interest in the candidates being recommended.

* * * * * * * * * *

I

Chairman, Department of Economics
Valley University
Death Valley, Cal.

Dear Sir:

We appreciate your inquiry regarding Dr. Wilfred (“Solid-State 880”) Jones in connection with a teaching position in Mathematical Economics and Econometrics at your eminent institution.

Minnesota is proud of Dr. Jones. In his graduate education we have established a record high marginal rate of substitution of mathematical training for native intelligence. Mr. Jones’ I.Q. was only 70 when he enrolled here. It has since been lowered systematically by special courses from the illiterate Japanese statisticians Mekura, Tsumbo, and Oshi in Summer Institutes at Swineford University. Dr. Jones has nevertheless produced a truly outstanding dissertation on the logical and topological foundations of strabismic [visual defect when both eyes are unable to focus together on an object due to an imbalance of the eye muscles] utility. This masterpiece, written under Professor Haffwitz’ [“half-wit”] O.N.R. research grant, explains not only the purchase of naval surplies [sic, either “supplies” or “surplus” or a deliberate synthesis] by cross-eyed and schizophrenic naval officers, but also the consumer behavior of civilian Siamese Twins.

The psychological trauma and Parrot Fever [disease humans can catch by inhaling bacteria from shed bird-feathers] involved in this accomplishment by a man with Dr. Jones’ handicaps have had their effects upon his personality. He started his graduate career a typical dead fish [a cold, nonresponsive person] wrapped in wet blankets [as in a wet blanket used to smother a fire, i.e. a kill-joy]. As his nickname indicates, he has been accused of becoming a desiccated robot, but we can assure you that he is not only clinically alive but likely to remain so for some time.

There are certain definite advantages to Valley University in employing Dr. Jones. Since he can no longer talk, there is no need to stockpile other econometricians or mathematical economists for him to talk to. Also, unlike many new Ph.D.s completely helpless without electronic computers, Dr. Jones can and does count on his fingers. (Also on his toes, when his shoes and stockings are taken off.)

We have humanitarian reasons for wishing particularly to place Dr. Jones at Valley University. The rigor of his Minnesota training has impaired his ability to come in out of the rain, but it never rains in Death Valley.

Cordially yours,

* * * * * * * * * *

II

Head, Division of Social Studies and Humanities
Everglades College and Seminary
Dismal Swamp, Fla.

Dear Sir:

Minnesota is delighted to hear of your interest in our Mr. Ebenezer Akubongo to teach Social Science, Economic Principles, Economic Development, Alligator Husbandry, and allied subjects at Everglades. Mr. Akubongo is perhaps the most under-developed economist in any American graduate school, just as Everglades is the most under-developed college in the country. Mr. Akubongo and Everglades fit each other very well, especially since, you tell us, Immigration Service agents have been unable to penetrate the Everglades as far as Dismal Swamp. It would be to everyone’s advantage, we are sure, for you to modify your segregationist policies in Mr. Akubongo’ s favor provided that, as you propose, he assumes full-time janitorial responsibilities in addition to your customary 24-hour weekly teaching load.

Mr. Akubongo was born in Karra-Wanga, one of the Cannibal Islands. Well-intentioned missionaries secured him a scholarship to the Minnesota Bible College in Minneapolis, but he found himself on the wrong side of University Avenue and enrolled here instead. (We have not yet determined why the University admitted him.)

Mr. Akubongo’s Americanization has been proceeding apace for the past decade. He now wears shoes and headgear habitually during the winter months. His few recent reversions into cannibalism have been inspired by succulent milk-fed Minnesotans under the age of five. (We have no evidence that he would eat a Florida Cracker [Note: not necessarily intended as a racial epithet for a white person. Apparently also a self-description by families having lived generations in Florida] or Seminole Indian of any age, but perhaps you should pay him somewhat above the usual church-related-college scale, for insurance purposes.) Although he still has communication difficulties with others, we have reason to believe that Mr. Akubongo himself understands more than half of what he says in English. After bringing to this country his wife and four children, Mr. Akubongo was passed in his M.A. examinations on his third attempt. He now has two wives and eight children, and may pass his Ph.D. examinations on his nth attempt. His thesis, however, will be delayed until September, as explained below.

Mr. Akubongo is writing his doctoral thesis on the Economic Development of Karra-Wanga, and has been waiting for Karra-Wangan source materials. Their receipt involves certain difficulties; Analgesic [drug to relieve pain], the literary language of Karra-Wanga, has not been reduced to writing. Mr. Akubongo, however, is willing to compose his own source materials to whatever extent necessary to meet a reasonable thesis deadline.

In reply to your query regarding Mr. Akubongo’s loyalty to the Free Market and the American Way of Life, we doubt that Mr. Akubongo has ever had any ideas of any kind relating to these subjects. If he had, he could express them only in Karra-Wangan, which could not be understood by your students, trustees, and American Legion post. Your cherished traditions of economic freedom (which Minnesota shares with you) are therefore entirely consistent with your employment of Ebenezer Akubongo.

Sincerely yours,

* * * * * * * * * *

III

Dean, School of Business
Hog Hollow State College
Hog Hollow, Mo.

Dear Mr. Dean:

We hear you have a vacancy in General Business, and present the name of Mr. August Dummkopf Sitzfleisch as the most vacant candidate available here or anywhere else. Gus’ devotion to Business and Education may be known to you, since your school is largely responsible for him. Unable to qualify as an Office Boy after High School graduation, he tried twice more after B.S.B. [probably “Bull-shit Bachelor”] and M.B.A. degrees from Hog Hollow State. Two more failures discouraged him not; Gus will receive his Ph.D. in Business Administration at Minnesota this June, but his age now disqualifies him for Office Boy positions and he plans to teach instead. We feel that you should have the first opportunity to hire Gus, since it was your recommendation which first won him admission to our doctoral program. If you do not hire him, we should be glad to do so ourselves—except for our reluctance to inbreed. This leaves the C.I.A. and F.B.I. as Gus’ last resorts, if you reject him now.

Gus’ record in useless abstract theory has, we admit, not been exactly outstanding but even here his manner of expressing himself has won widespread admiration. Whatever he says and writes in such courses manifests the usual effects of overindulgence in alcohol and opium derivatives, but Gus has satisfied our Dean of Students, our Health Service Psychiatrist, and several campus clergymen that the cause is pure and simple confusion! Gus has done better in such applied courses as Salesmanship, Office-Boymanship, Pickpocketry, Embezzlement, and Fraud. He has worked his way through school by practical experience in certain of these fields, and become a specialist in the production and distribution of automobile license plates in several communities. [i.e., has served time in prison, manufacturing license plates]

Gus’ Ph.D. thesis leans heavily, we are proud to say, on Professor Sodapopopoulos [“Soda-pop”-opoulos] famous course in Research Methodology in Business and Economics. Here he learned to use not only Scissors and Paste, but scotch Tape and Thermofax as well. The resulting 1500-page thesis, weighing 25 pounds (bound), which took Gus six years to write, is a veritable gold mine of case materials on all aspects of Business Administration. It is organized along strictly stochastic and aleatory [literally, “dicey”] lines, and unfortunately lacks an Index. Its French title, “Collage Commerciale,” which has no precise English equivalent, bears witness to Gus’ literary and artistic culture, unusual in most doctoral candidates in this field.

Forever thine,

* * * * * * * * * *

IV

Personnel Office,
Minnesota Manacle, Mace, and Maul Company
Mayhem and Massacre Roads, WSE
Minneapolis, Minn.

Fellow-Americans!

The Industrial Relations Center is disappointed at your reluctance to include Simon Legree II in your distinguished organization. Perhaps you will reconsider after we answer the questions you have raised about the Center itself.

In the first place, Si is a hundred-percent 4-M type. He once killed a man with a whip at his fraternity initiation. After exhausting his athletic eligibility, he put himself through school at Minnesota as a masked wrestler, under the name of “Mr. 4-M.” What greater proof do you need?

It is true that our milk-and-water State Legislature makes the Center provide training for labor agitators as well as personnel men. But these classes are not given at the same time, so red-blooded Americans are protected from contamination. It is also true that University rules require management people to take a few courses in parlor-pink “social science” outside the Center’s jurisdiction but before each class of this sort we supply sleeping pills, for your protection as well as their own.

Only one professor within the Industrial Relations Center teaches both personnel men and labor fakers. This is Professor Adolf Hitler K.M. Doppelganger, but I know your criticism of Professor Doppelganger is unfair. His heart is in the right place. Every Monday and Wednesday night he re-reads the collected works of Henry Hazlitt and also his file of the Reader’s Digest, so the Commies cannot lead him astray next day. He spends every week-end painting swastikas on synagogues somewhere in the Twin Cities. He spends every Summer in Mississippi setting up White Citizens’ Councils all over the State. Next year he will go to Spain and West Germany on sabbatical leave, helping the Government hold the line against Communist subversion by agents of the Kremlin.

Under these circumstances, I know you will want to withdraw your attacks upon Professor Doppelganger, whose distasteful affiliations with Leftist organization have been undertaken only at the special request of the House Un-American Activities Committee. And then, once Professor Doppelganger’s true position is clear, won’t you give Si Legree a personnel-office job? He lives just to be a 4-M man, and to honor the best traditions of the Industrial Relations Center in its own home town.

Yours for Free Enterprise!

* * * * * * * * * *

V

Local 1, Organizers Union
Communist Party of U.S.A.
State Department
Washington 25, D.C.

Comrades!

The Industrial Relations Center is disappointed at your reluctance to include Jefferson Lincoln Washington in your revolutionary vanguard. Perhaps you will reconsider after we answer the questions you have raised about the Center itself.

In the first place, Jeff is a hundred-percent C.P. type. He once killed a scab with one blow of his fist on the picket line. After exhausting his athletic eligibility, he put himself through school at Minnesota as a masked wrestler, under the name of “Red October.” What greater proof do you need?

It is true that our reactionary State Legislature makes the Center provide training for Fascist bloodsuckers as well as leaders of the toiling masses. But these classes are not given at the same time, so single-minded revolutionaries are protected from contamination. It is also true that University rules require revolutionary proletarians to take a few courses in bourgeois “social science” outside the Center’s jurisdiction, but before each class of this sort we supply sleeping pills, for your protection as well as their own.

Only one professor within the Industrial Relations Center teaches both fighters for labor’s rights and their mercenary exploiters. This is Professor Karl Marx A.H. Doppelganger, but I know your criticism of Professor Doppelganger is unfair. His heart is in the right place. Every Tuesday and Thursday night he re-reads the works of Nikolai Lenin and his file of Masses and Mainstream, so the Fascists cannot lead him astray next day. He spends every week-end photographing R.O.T.C. preparations for the Cuban invasion somewhere in the Twin Cities. He spends every summer in Mississippi organizing Freedom Riders all over the State. Next year he will go to Hungary and East Germany on sabbatical leave, helping the People’s Democracies hold the line against capitalist subversion by agents of Wall Street.

Under these circumstances, I know you will want to withdraw your attacks upon Professor Doppelganger, whose distasteful affiliations with Rightest organizations have been undertaken only at the special request of the Soviet Embassy. And then, once Professor Doppelganger’s true position is clear, won’t you give Jeff Washington an organizing job? He lives just to be a C.P. organizer, and to honor the best traditions of the Industrial Relations Center in the nation’s capital.

Yours for the Revolution!

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archives. Martin Bronfenbrenner Papers. Box 7, Folder “McCarthyism, 1953-62”.

Image Source: Martin Bronfenbrenner. University of Minnesota Archives/Libraries/Umedia.

Tags Bronfenbrenner

Economists Teaching Undergraduate Williams

Williams. Leading Author of Political Economy Textbooks, Arthur Lathan Perry (1830-1905)

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2019-11-10

An earlier post mentioned the late 19th century economics textbook writer, Arthur Latham Perry, whose writings in the United States were rated by leading publishers in third/fourth place (behind Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill) in 1876. This post provides some biographical information, links to most editions of his three textbooks and two prefaces that describe his personal intellectual development as an economist.

More about the economics professor Arthur Latham Perry:

Joseph Dorfman. Economic Mind in American Civilization, vol. 3 1865-1918. New York: 1949. pp. 56-63.

Stephen Meardon. A Tale of Two Tariff Commissions and One Dubious “Globalization Backlash”. Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department Working Paper 476 (November 2002), pp. 14-19.

________________________

Perry, Arthur Latham (1830-1905)
By Patrick J. McCurdy (Class of 2002)

Arthur Latham Perry, Williams Class of 1852, was born on February 27, 1830 and died on July 9, 1905. He was raised in poverty in New Hampshire but was able to attend Williams College, where he was one of the founders and charter members of the Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity.

After graduating, he taught in Washington for a year but returned immediately when offered a position at Williams as professor of history and political economy. He taught these subjects from 1854 to 1891. While at the college he also taught German language and literature 1854-1868. As a professor of Political Economy, 1859-1899, he wrote many textbooks and monographs and was considered a leading expert in the field of free trade.

For several years he toured the country during his summer holidays, giving lectures on the principle of free trade for The American Free Trade League. He also wrote important history books on Williamstown and Williams College, Origins of Williamstown (1894) and Williamstown and Williams College (1898).

In 1891 Professor Perry retired and acted as a consultant to the governors of Vermont, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Connecticut. It was for his great devotion to Williams College that the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity house was named in honor of him.

Perry married Mary Brown Smedley, whose ancestors were some of the first settlers of Williamstown and famous leaders of the Revolutionary War. With her he had five sons and one daughter: Bliss, Arthur, Walter, Carroll, Lewis and Grace. Papers for years to come would describe the brothers as a member of an old and distinguished Williamstown family.”

Source: Williams College. Special Collections Website: Perry, Arthur Latham (1830-1905) webpage.

Image Source: Arthur Latham Perry. Miscellanies. Williamstown, Mass.: Published by the Author, 1902).

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Arthur Latham Perry
Links to Editions of his Three Text-books in Political Economy

Perry, Arthur Latham. Elements of Political Economy (New York: Charles Scribner and Company). 1^st ed. (1866); 2^nd ed. (1867); 4^th ed. (1868); 5^th ed. (1869) ; 6^th ed. (1871); 7^th ed. (1872); 10^th ed. (1873); 11^th ed. (1874); 13^th ed. (1875); 14^th ed. (1877); 15?^th ed. (1878);
Title shortened to Political Economy: 18th ed. (1883); 19^th ed. (1887); 20^th ed. (1888); 21^st ed. (1892); 22^nd ed. (1895).

Perry, Arthur Latham. An Introduction to Political Economy (New York: Scribner, Armstrong, & Company). 1^st ed. (1877); 2^nd ed. (1880).

Perry, Arthur Latham. Principles of Political Economy. (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons). 1^st ed. (1891);

________________________

Arthur Latham Perry, LL.D.
Orrin Sage Professor of History and Political Economy in Williams College

PREFACE
14^th edition (1877) of Elements of Political Economy

THE good reception given to my book in its previous editions by many practical teachers, as well as by the general public, has prompted me to subject it to another thorough revision, by verifying former statements of fact and introducing many new ones to bring the book abreast of the present time, and by enlarging the discussion of principles at some points and curtailing it at others in the interest of symmetry and completeness; and prompts me also to write, even at this late day, a preface to the book, since I have grounds for believing that some of its friends may be pleased to learn of the circumstances under which it was originally written.

I had taught Political Economy in this Institution [Williams College] for ten or twelve years without ever forming any purpose to try my hand at a treatise on the subject. I had used for my teachers and guides the English writers, particularly Smith, Ricardo, Senior, and Mill; and had familiarized myself also with the American writers, particularly Carey, Wayland, Bowen, and Bascom. Almost from the outset of my studies, however, and increasingly as the years went by, I felt a dissatisfaction with what seemed to me to be the lack of scientific generality common to nearly all these writers. I could see no solid reason why economical discussions should be confined to tangible commodities, and not include as well personal services rendered for pay, and also credits of all kinds. I discussed this point repeatedly with Professor Bascom, at that time my colleague, and my mind had almost reached the conclusion in which it has now rested for many years, when my late friend Amasa Walker, who was even then a political economist of reputation, although he had not yet published his “Science of Wealth,” recommended to me Bastiat’s “Harmonies of Political Economy.” I had scarcely read a dozen pages in that remarkable book, when, closing it, and giving myself to an hour’s reflection, the field of Political Economy, in all its outlines and landmarks, lay before my mind just as it does to-day. I do not know how much I brought to this result, and how much towards it was derived from Bastiat. I only know that from that hour Political Economy has been to me a new science; and that I experienced then and thereafter a sense of having found something, and the cognate sense of having something of my own to say. This was in 1863.

Subsequently I learned much from Bastiat. It is a pleasure to acknowledge, in the amplest manner, one’s indebtedness to such a quickening writer as he is; and whoever will compare carefully with his book the following chapters on Value and Land, will see how much I have profited by his discussions; and he will also see that I have made an independent, not a servile, use of them. I dare to hope that the relations of utility to value are even more clearly and ultimately put than he has put them. Not to have availed myself of the truths which he has actually established would be as unjust to science, as not also to have endeavored, in the chapters on Exchange and Foreign Trade to execute the commission which he left to his readers in these words:

“I hope yet to find at least one among them who will be able to demonstrate rigorously this proposition: the good of each tends to the good of all, as the good of all tends to the good of each ; and who will, moreover, be able to impress this truth upon men’s minds by rendering the proof of it simple, lucid, and irrefragable.”
[Sterling’s Translation of the Harmonies, page 92.]

Under the impression that I could now say something about Political Economy that the public might be willing to hear, I wrote over my initials a series of articles for the “Springfield Republican,” which attracted attention, and brought me letters alike from friends and from entire strangers, – notably from the late Sidney Homer of Boston, whose name I shall always hold in grateful remembrance for this and other reasons, – urging me to continue to write on this subject, and suggesting that a formal treatise might be acceptable to the public. Thus solicited and encouraged, – Mr. Bowles kindly adding his voice to the rest, — I ventured with diffidence upon the composition of this book. It was not at all the primary purpose to prepare a text-book for the use of college students. I thought, indeed, that I might use the book with my own classes; but the general public was in my eye throughout. The supposed needs of merchants’ clerks and farmers’ sons, for example, influenced the matter and form much more than those of people intellectually further advanced. Indeed, there was, for this reason, in the first edition, a familiarity of phrase and illustration which justly elicited criticism, and which has since been gradually eliminated. While the original design, to be intelligible to all classes of readers, may doubtless have betrayed me at times into too familiar a style, it has continued, nevertheless, to control the form of every new and every altered paragraph.

That which is original in my book is perhaps rather to be sought for in the book as a whole than in the specific parts of it. The entire plan is different from that of any book published prior to 1865. I attempted a self-consistent and symmetrical development of the one idea of Value in each of the three forms in which it manifests itself. That the outline at least is complete, is confirmed by the fact that I have found no occasion since for any other chapters than the sixteen originally sketched. I dropped entirely the long-maintained distinctions between the Production, Distribution, and Consumption of Wealth. So far as I know, I was the first to drop the technical use of the term Wealth, – a term that has always proved an invincible foe to every one trying to wrestle with it scientifically: even Bastiat, athlete as he was, was floored in this encounter. I believe that new light has been thrown on the value of land, on the delicate relations between money as a medium and money as a measure, on the whole line of objections to free trade, and on the nature of property as related to every form of taxation. The historical chapters of the book cost me very great labor. In sketching the history of American tariffs, I had not before me the tracks of even a solitary pioneer. The same remark applies in the same degree to the chapter on Currency in the United States, – a subject that has since been worthily developed into a volume by my friend Professor Sumner of Yale College. In the opening chapter on the History of the Science, I was aided somewhat by the Introductory Discourse prefixed by Mr. McCulloch to his edition of Adam Smith, and also somewhat by the article “Political in the New American Cyclopedia; but all the quotations from the classical writers, as well as those from Locke, Hume, and Bastiat, were made at first hand.

Two or three editions of the present treatise had been issued before I had seen any of the books of Henry Dunning Macleod, and to the numerous points of our independent coincidence have been added, in my later editions, many points of information in matters of fact, and some distinctions in matters of science, for which I wish here to express in general my obligations to him. Mr. Macleod, in the first volume of his “Principles of Economical Philosophy.” has done me the great honor to associate my name with Condillac, Whately, Bastiat, and Chevalier, — the heads of the third great school in Political Economy. His own name is more worthy than mine, and more likely than mine, to stand permanently in that distinguished list.

The most recent writers, whom I have consulted, and to whom I feel under obligations, – and every writer who is both competent and earnest puts his readers under obligations of some sort, — are ,Governor Musgrave of South Australia, Professors Price and Jevons of England, and General Walker of New Haven; the points of the latter in respect to the so called wages-fund have led me to modify my previous views on that subject.

I can not conclude this preface without expressing my sense of indebtedness to the successive classes of intelligent young men, to whom I have presented, and with whom I have discussed, now for almost a quarter of a century, the facts and principles of this fascinating science. It seems to me as if every possible objection to the leading points in this book has been raised, at one time or another, in my own lecture-room. Sometimes I have been convicted of error in minor points, and many times been fortified in the truth, through an attempt to remove objections started thus by students. Nearly every one of the objections to free exchange answered in the chapter on Foreign Trade was broached in this way; and I deem it of the greatest advantage to any political economist, — an advantage to which Adam Smith himself was much indebted, – to have the opportunity to test views and theories over and over again in the presence of fresh and bright minds. It has not infrequently happened in my experience that new light has been thrown out upon a subject by a young man just grasping the thought for the first time.

A. L. P.

Williams College,
July 4, 1876.

Source: Arthur Latham Perry. Elements of Political Economy, 14^th edition (1877), pp. v-xi.

________________________

Arthur Latham Perry, LL.D.
Orrin Sage Professor of History and Political Economy in Williams College

PREFACE.
Principles of Political Economy (1891)

It is now exactly twenty-five years since was published my first book upon the large topics at present in hand. It was but as a bow drawn at a venture, and was very properly entitled “Elements of Political Economy.” At that time I had been teaching for about a dozen years in this Institution the closely cognate subjects of History and Political Economy; cognate indeed, since Hermann Lotze, a distinguished German philosopher of our day, makes prominent among its only five most general phases, the “industrial” element in all human history; and since Goldwin Smith, an able English scholar, resolves the elements of human progress, and thus of universal history, into only three, namely, “the moral, the intellectual, and the productive.”

During these studious and observant years of teaching, I had slowly come to a settled conviction that I could say something of my own and something of consequence about Political Economy, especially at two points ; and these two proved in the sequel to be more radical and transforming points than was even thought of at the first. For one thing, I had satisfied myself, that the word “Wealth,” as at once a strangely indefinite and grossly misleading term, was worse than useless in the nomenclature of the Science, and would have to be utterly dislodged from it, before a scientific content and defensible form could by any possibility be given to what had long been called in all the modern languages the “Science of Wealth.” Accordingly, so far as has appeared in the long interval of time since 1865, these “Elements” were the very first attempt to undertake an orderly construction of Economics from beginning to end without once using or having occasion to use the obnoxious word. A scientific substitute for it was of course required, which, with the help of Bastiat, himself however still clinging to the technical term “Richesse,” was discerned and appropriated in the word “Value” ; a good word indeed, that can be simply and perfectly defined in a scientific sense of its own; and, what is more important still, that precisely covers in that sense all the three sorts of things which are ever bought and sold, the three only Valuables in short, namely, material Commodities, personal Services, commercial Credits. It is of course involved in this simple-looking but far-reaching change from “Wealth” to “Value,” that Economics become at once and throughout a science of Persons buying and selling, and no longer as before a science of Things howsoever manipulated for and in their market.

For another thing, before beginning to write out the first word of that book, I believed myself to have made sure, by repeated and multiform inductions, of this deepest truth in the whole Science, which was a little after embodied (I hope I may even say embalmed) in a phrase taking its proper place in the book itself, — A market for Products is products in Market. The fundamental thus tersely expressed may be formulated more at length in this way: One cannot Sell without at the same instant and in the same act Buying, nor Buy anything without simultaneously Selling something else; because in Buying one pays for what he buys, which is Selling, and in Selling one must take pay for what is sold, which is Buying. As these universal actions among men are always voluntary, there must be also an universal motive leading up to them; this motive on the part of both parties to each and every Sale can be no other than the mutual satisfaction derivable to both; the inference, accordingly, is easy and invincible, that governmental restrictions on Sales, or prohibitions of them, must lessen the satisfactions and retard the progress of mankind.

Organizing strictly all the matter of my book along these two lines of Personality and Reciprocity, notwithstanding much in it that was crude and more that was redundant and something that was ill-reasoned and unsound, the book made on account of this original mode of treatment an immediate impression upon the public, particularly upon teachers and pupils; new streaks of light could not but be cast from these new points of view, upon such topics especially as Land and Money and Foreign Trade; and nothing is likely ever to rob the author of the satisfaction, which he is willing to share with the public, of having contributed something of importance both in substance and in feature to the permanent upbuilding of that Science, which comes closer, it may be, to the homes and happiness and progress of the People, than any other science. And let it be said in passing, that there is one consideration well-fitted to stimulate and to reward each patient and competent scientific inquirer, no matter what that science may be in which he labors, namely, this: Any just generalization, made and fortified inductively, is put thereby beyond hazard of essential change for all time; for this best of reasons, that God has constructed the World and Men on everlasting lines of Order.

As successive editions of this first book were called for, and as its many defects were brought out into the light through teaching my own classes from it year after year, occasion was taken to revise it and amend it and in large parts to rewrite it again and again; until, in 1883, and for the eighteenth edition, it was recast from bottom up for wholly new plates, and a riper title was ventured upon, — “Political Economy,” — instead of the original more tentative “Elements.” Since then have been weeded out the slight typographical and other minute errors, and the book stands now in its ultimate shape.

My excellent publishers, who have always been keenly and wisely alive to my interests as an author, suggested several times after the success of the first book was reasonably assured, that a second and smaller one should be written out, with an especial eye to the needs of high schools and academies and colleges for a text-book within moderate limits, yet soundly based and covering in full outline the whole subject. This is the origin of the “Introduction to Political Economy” first published in 1877, twelve years after the other. Its success as a text-book and as a book of reading for young people has already justified, and will doubtless continue to justify in the future, the forethought of its promoters. It has found a place in many popular libraries, and in courses of prescribed reading. Twice it has been carefully corrected and somewhat enlarged, and is now in its final form. In the preface to the later editions of the ” Introduction ” may be found the following sentence, which expresses a feeling not likely to undergo any change in the time to come: — “I have long been, and am still, ambitious that these books of mine may become the horn-books of my countrymen in the study of this fascinating Science.”

Why, then, should I have undertaken of my own motion a new and third book on Political Economy, and attempted to mark the completion of the third cycle of a dozen years each of teaching it, by offering to the public the present volume? One reason is implied in the title, “Principles of Political Economy.” There are three extended historical chapters in the earlier book, occupying more than one-quarter of its entire space, which were indeed novel, which cost me wide research and very great labor, and which have also proven useful and largely illustrative of almost every phase of Economics ; but I wanted to leave behind me one book of about the same size as that, devoted exclusively to the Principles of the Science, and using History only incidentally to illustrate in passing each topic as it came under review. For a college text-book as this is designed to become, and for a book of reading and reference for technical purposes, it seems better that all the space should be taken up by purely scientific discussion and illustration. This does not mean, however, that great pains have not been taken in every part to make this book also easily intelligible, and as readable and interesting as such careful discussions can be made.

A second reason is, to provide for myself a fresh text-book to teach from. My mind has become quite too thoroughly familiarized with the other, even down to the very words, by so long a course of instructing from it, for the best results in the class-room. Accordingly, a new plan of construction has been adopted. Instead of the fourteen chapters there, there are but seven chapters here. Not a page nor a paragraph as such has been copied from either of the preceding books. Single sentences, and sometimes several of them together, when they exactly fitted the purposes of the new context, have been incorporated here and there, in what is throughout both in form and style a new book, neither an enlargement nor an abridgment nor a recasting of any other. I anticipate great pleasure in the years immediately to come from the handling with my classes, who have always been of much assistance to me from the first in studying Political Economy, a fresh book written expressly for them and for others like-circumstanced; in which every principle is drawn from the facts of every-day life by way of induction, and also stands in vital touch with such facts (past or present) by way of illustration.

The third and only other reason needful to be mentioned here is, that in recent years the legislation of my country in the matter of cheap Money and of artificial restrictions on Trade has run so directly counter to sound Economics in their very core, that I felt it a debt due to my countrymen to use once more the best and ripest results of my life-long studies, in the most cogent and persuasive way possible within strictly scientific limits, to help them see and act for themselves in the way of escape from false counsels and impoverishing statutes. Wantonly and enormously heavy lies the hand of the national Government upon the masses of the people at present. But the People are sovereign, and not their transient agents in the government; and the signs are now cheering indeed, that they have not forgotten their native word of command, nor that government is instituted for the sole benefit of the governed and governing people, nor that the greatest good of the greatest number is the true aim and guide of Legislation. I am grateful for the proofs that appear on every hand, that former labors in these directions and under these motives have proven themselves to have been both opportune and effective; and I am sanguine almost to certainty, that this reiterated effort undertaken for the sake of my fellow-citizens as a whole, will slowly bear abundant fruit also, as towards their liberty of action as individuals, and in their harmonious co-operation together as entire classes to the end of popular comforts and universal progress.

A. L. PERRY.

Williams College,
November 25, 1890.

Source: Preface to Arthur Latham Perry, Principles of Political Economy (New York: Charles Schribner’s Sons), pp. vii-xii.

Tags PerryAL

Economics Programs Faculty Regulations M.I.T.

M.I.T. “Industrial Economics” Ph.D. name changed to “Economics”, Economics S.M. recognized as exit ramp, 1965

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2019-11-09

Somewhat surprising is the late date (1965!) of the name-change for the economics Ph.D. at M.I.T. from “Industrial Economics” to “Economics”. Also interesting in the transcribed memorandum below is the request to lower the math and science prerequisites for the economics S.M. to that of the Ph.D. in order to facilitate the graceful, early exit of graduate students unlikely to complete the Ph.D.

____________________

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Department of Economics and Social Science

MEMORANDUM

February 5, 1965

To: Committee on Graduate School Policy
From: Robert L. Bishop, Head, Department of Economics and Social Science

For some time now, there has been a strong sentiment in our Department that our graduate degree programs should be changed and supplemented. The changes that we should now like to propose officially will require action by the Faculty and the Corporation, because they involve changes in degree titles, in one instance a change in prerequisites and content of the degree, and in another instance the addition of a new degree. On the other hand, the changes are not really of a radical nature and will not involve any additional staff or any augmenting of the numbers of our graduate students.

At present we have programs for a Ph.D. in Industrial Economics, a Ph.D. in Political Science, and an S.M. in Economics and Engineering or in Economics and Science. Our proposals are: (1) to change the title of the Ph.D. in Industrial Economics to a Ph.D. in Economics; (2) to substitute for the present S.M. degrees a single S.M. in Economics, with admission requirements the same as for the Ph.D. in Economics; and (3) to add an S.M. in Political Science, having an analogous relationship to the existing Ph.D. in Political Science.

Dropping the adjective “Industrial” from the title of our Economics Ph.D. is merely a belated recognition of the considerable broadening of that program that has taken place since it was first established in the years just prior to World War II. At that time, the designation of Industrial Economics appropriately reflected the limited kind of study that was then visualized. Since then, however, our program has expanded in its scope and diversity so that the original designation has become a decided anachronism for the majority of our Ph.D. recipients.

Even in the beginning, as now, the admission requirements for our Economics Ph.D. have differed from those in most Departments, in that they did not include the amount of mathematics and science taken by M.I.T. undergraduates. Instead, only one full year of college mathematics and one full year of college work in science have been required. These requirements reflect, of course, a desire to make our program accessible to most Economics majors in liberal arts colleges. The requirements for our present S.M. degrees, by contrast, constitute essentially the subjects taken by an undergraduate in the Economics option of Course XIV. It is those admission requirements that we propose to change, so that a candidate for the Ph.D. might alternatively be a candidate for an S.M.

Professional training for a career in Economics is such that the Ph.D. has really become the essential degree for anyone who aspires to the fullest professional status. Nor is it our intention to admit candidates solely for the S.M., except in very special circumstances. Over the years, however, we have felt the desirability of being free to award and S.M. in Economics to some students. These include some foreign students, often connected with research programs at the Center for International Studies, who can profit significantly from graduate study at M.I.T. but who are unable to stay long enough for the full Ph.D. program. In all frankness, too, it must be confessed that we have sometimes wished that we were free to divert a Ph.D. candidate toward the lesser degree because of inadequacies of performance after enrollment at the institute. Naturally, the student whose performance is acutely disappointing should not be given any favorable consideration. In many cases, however, performance is not up to the high standard that I think we have maintained for the Ph.D., but still high enough to merit continuance for an S.M.

The reasons supporting a new S.M. degree in Political Science are exactly the same. The only difference here is that there is no S.M. of any kind available in Political Science.

These changes involving S.M. degrees are also in line with some changes that we are simultaneously proposing to the Committee on Curricula with respect to our undergraduate degrees in Course XIV. It is being proposed that these degrees be redesignated more simply as in Economics (Course XIV-A) or in Political Science (Course XIV-B). A copy of these proposals is attached.

Provided that both the undergraduate and graduate program changes are approved, we shall then adopt the same distinction between Course XIV-A and Course XIV-B at the graduate level as at the undergraduate. This will achieve the important administrative reform of distinguishing, as is not now the case, the Economics and Political Science graduate students.

As to the details of the revised graduate degrees, I enclose alternative catalogue copy that would replace the descriptions on pages 142-144 in the present catalogue.

To the extent that the Committee on Graduate School Policy may wish some further discussion of these changes, my colleagues and I will be very pleased to provide it.

RLB:e

Source: MIT Institute Archives. Department of Economics records. Box 1, Folder “Comm. On Grad. School Policy”.

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Economists Williams

Great-Granddad of Sam Bowles who encouraged Arthur L. Perry to write an economics textbook, 1860s.

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2019-11-08

That the economist Sam Bowles of the Sante Fe Institute and the CORE Project comes from a distinguished New England family is well-known. Today while tracking down different editions of the economics textbook written by the Williams College professor, Arthur Latham Perry, I stumbled upon his acknowledgement of the encouragement given him by the editor of the Springfield Republican, Samuel Bowles, to write an economics textbook. Putting on my genealogical gumshoes, I checked that the two Sams of the case were indeed related. It wasn’t hard work. This post shares the result of my queries.

About the economics professor Arthur Latham Perry:

Joseph Dorfman. Economic Mind in American Civilization, vol. 3 1865-1918. New York: 1949. pp. 56-63.

Stephen Meardon. A Tale of Two Tariff Commissions and One Dubious “Globalization Backlash”. Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department Working Paper 476 (November 2002), pp. 14-19.

________________________

Samuel Bowles, Great-Grandfather of economist Samuel Stebbins Bowles
(b. 9 Feb 1826; d. 16 Jan 1878)

Arthur Latham Perry’s expression of gratitude to Samuel Bowles
Preface to Elements of Political Economy (4th ed.)

Samuel Bowles of the “Springfield Republican” invited me, in 1864, to write a series of articles for his paper on some of the topics of Political Economy. These articles met the eye and the approbation of Sidney Homer of Boston, and of Amasa Walker of North Brookfield. Both these gentlemen communicated to me by letter their desire that I would continue to address the public on those subjects. Thus encouraged, and wishing also to furnish myself and other practical teachers with a manual in which the principles of the science should be laid down as I understand them, I proceeded to write this book. But the hazards of publication were not to be run without subjecting the work to the critical eye of a competent thinker. President Woolsey of Yale College very kindly rendered me this service.

To these four gentlemen, then, each of whom I am happy to reckon as my friend, is this fourth edition very cordially dedicated. My sense of obligation to many other friends, and to a generous public also, is expressed in an endeavor to make the book more worthy than before of their continued favor.

A.L.P.

Williams College, February, 1868.

Source: Arthur Latham Perry, Professor of History and Political Economy in Williams College. Elements of Political Economy (4^th ed.), p. iii. New York: Charles Scribner and Company, 1868.

Biography: George S. Merriam. The Life and Times of Samuel Bowles (Volume I; Volume II). New York: The Century Co., 1885.

Image Source: Portrait of Samuel Bowles. Mason A. Green. Springfield, 1636-1886. History of Town and City (Boston: C.A. Nichols & Co., 1888), following p. 542.

________________________

Charles Allen Bowles, Grandfather
(b. 19 Dec 1861; d. 14 Nov 1933)
&
Chester Bliss Bowles, Father of economist Samuel Stebbins Bowles
(b. 5 Apr, 1901; d. 25 May 1986)

Charles A. Bowles, Obituary

Charles P. Harris of Morris inn, West street, has received word of the death Friday at his home in Springfield, Mass., of his brother-in-law, Charles Allen Bowles, 71, second and last surviving son of Samuel Bowles. He was the grandson of the elder Samuel Bowles, founder of the Springfield Republican.

Besides his wife, Mrs. Nellie Seaver Harris Bowles, a daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Joel B. Harris of Rutland, Mr. Bowles leaves a daughter, Miss Dorothy Bowles of Springfield; two sons, Charles Allen Bowles, jr., of Springfield and Chester Bliss Bowles of New York: two sisters, Mrs. William H. King of Winnetka, Ill., and Mrs. Ruth S. Baldwin of New Canaan, Conn., and four grandchildren.

Mr. Bowles was born in New York December 19, 1861. He was a graduate of the Sheffield Scientific school of Yale university in the class of 1883. For many years he was in business in Springfield.

Source: Rutland Daily Herald (Rutland Vermont). 20 November 1933, p. 10.

Charles A. Bowles House, 81 Mulberry Street, Springfield, MA, ca. 1938-39.

This massive house is one of Springfield’s finest examples of Colonial Revival architecture, and was designed by Guy Kirkham, one of the city’s leading architects of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Completed in 1894, it was among his earliest works, and was designed for Charles A. Bowles, a paper manufacturer whose father, Samuel Bowles, had been the prominent editor of the Springfield Republican from 1851-1878. Charles’s older brother Samuel succeeded their father as editor after his death in 1878, but Charles went into the manufacturing business instead. He attended Sheffield Scientific School at Yale for a year, but did not graduate. Instead, he worked briefly for the Pennsylvania Railroad before entering the papermaking industry in 1884.

In 1885, at the age of 24, he married Nellie S. Harris of Rutland, Vermont, and early in their marriage they lived in a house nearby at 34 Avon Place. By the time they moved into this house on Mulberry Street in 1894 they had two children, Charles and Dorothy, and they would have one more son, Chester, who was born in 1901. During this time, Charles went into business for himself, becoming a partner in the firm of Dexter & Bowles, which sold paper pulp and other supplies for paper manufacturers.

Charles Bowles lived here until his death in 1933, but Nellie was still living here with her daughter Dorothy when the first photo was taken at the end of the 1930s. Dorothy was in her early 40s at the time, and she worked as a dressmaker, with a shop on Vernon Street. She lived here in this house until her mother’s death in 1943, and she subsequently moved to a house on Maple Court. In the meantime, Charles and Nellie’s older son, Charles, Jr., lived here with his parents until his marriage in 1917, and he and his wife Helen lived in Springfield’s Forest Park neighborhood until his death in 1946.

It was Charles and Nellie’s youngest child, Chester, who would go on to have the most prominent career, becoming a successful politician, diplomat, and advertising executive. He grew up here in this house and lived here until the mid-1920s, around the time that he married his first wife, Julia Fisk. He briefly worked as a reporter for the Springfield Republican from 1924 to 1926, but he saw limited opportunities for himself in a newspaper that was crowded with other family members. So, he moved to New York City and, in 1929, established the advertising agency of Benton & Bowles, which would go on to become highly successful in the early years of radio advertising. The firm introduced soap operas to radio programming, largely in an effort to advertise to housewives who listened to the radio at home, and during the 1930s the company’s clients included General Foods, Bristol-Myers, Colgate, Dr. Pepper, Prudential Life Insurance, Columbia Records, and Procter & Gamble.

However, Bowles left the advertising industry in 1941, and he went on to become a member of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration during World War II. From 1943 to 1946 he served as the administrator of the Office of Price Administration, and then served one term as governor of Connecticut from 1949 to 1951. Later in 1951, he was appointed as ambassador to India, and served until the end of Harry Truman’s administration in 1953. He served one term in Congress, from 1959 to 1961, and after being defeated for re-election he was appointed Under Secretary of State by John F. Kennedy. In 1963, Kennedy appointed him as ambassador to India again, and Bowles went on to serve in this capacity until the end of Lyndon Johnson’s presidency in 1969.

By the time Bowles was in the midst of his political and diplomatic career, his childhood home here on Mulberry Street had been converted into apartments. It would remain a multi-family home until 1991, when it was severely damaged by a fire that gutted the back of the house and destroyed much of the roof. For the next decade, the house stood vacant and exposed to the elements, and was nearly demolished by the city several times. However, it was sold in 2000 and restored the following year, earning an award from the Springfield Preservation Trust in the process. Today it hardly looks any different from when the Bowles family lived here 80 years ago, and it still stands as one of the finest homes in the Ridgewood Local Historic District.

Source: Derek Strahan, “Charles A. Bowles House, Springfield, Mass” at the Lost New England Website (Feb. 23, 2018)

Image Source: Samuel Bowles (2015). Wikimedia.

Tags Bowles, PerryAL

Columbia Salaries

Columbia. Major increase in salaries for instructional staff announced, 1928

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2019-11-07

Several interesting aspects to this post: (1) there was a major across-the-board increase in the salary scale at Columbia University in 1928; (2) the salary scale was not differentiated according to faculties or departments; (3) E.R.A. Seligman’s salary was at the top of the full professor scale.

Pro-tip: Clicking on the “salaries” keyword at the bottom of this post will take you to other artifacts with salary information.

__________________

Columbia University
in the City of New York
President’s Room

April 5, 1928

My dear Professor Seligman

It is with great pleasure and profound satisfactions that I advise you of action taken by the Trustees at their meeting on April 2, 1928, greatly to improve the scale of compensation paid to full-time teachers and administrative officers who are appointed directly by the Trustees of Columbia University. This action, effective from July 1, 1928, affects every member of the teaching and administrative staff on full-time service, 450 in number, with two exceptions,–first, those who have heretofore, and as exceptional cases, been advanced in the manner now made general for their group; and, second, those who, by the provisions of the Budget for 1928-29 as just adopted, have been just now, through promotion or advancement in salary, brought up to the present minimum level of the group to which they belong. The salaries of this latter class, 32 in number, will naturally be increased to the new minimum scale in the next or following years, as may be found practicable.

By the terms of the new salary scale, the full Professor will receive a normal minimum salary of $7,500 instead of $6,000 as heretofore, and there will be groups at $9,000, at $10,000, and at $12,000, to which, for special reasons or under exceptional circumstances, individuals may be from time to time advanced or appointed.

The Associate Professor will receive a normal minimum salary of $5,000, instead of $4,500 as heretofore, and there will be a group at $6,000, to which, for special reasons or under exceptional circumstances, individuals may be from time to time advanced or appointed.

The Assistant Professor will receive a normal minimum salary of $3,600, instead of $3,000 as heretofore, and there will be groups at $4,000, at $4,500, and at $5,000, to which, for special reasons or under exceptional circumstances, individuals may be from time to time advanced or appointed.

The Instructor will receive a normal minimum salary of $2,400, instead of $2,000 as heretofore, with advancement in subsequent years, if reappointed, to $2,700 and $3,000.

Fourteen officers of administration will receive additional compensations amounting in all to $9,500 annually; and seventeen members of the Library Staff will receive additional compensations amounting in all to $5,300 annually.

The compensation paid for service in the Summer Session or in University Extension is not to be increased because of the changes now made in the general salary schedule. Officers who accept Summer Session or University Extension service do so voluntarily, and the present stipends are as large as the resources of the University will permit.

I congratulate the entire University staff upon this most important action by the Trustees, which will do so much to make more comfortable and more satisfying the conditions of academic life and service at Columbia.

I have particular pleasure in advising you that your salary from July 1, 1928 has been fixed in the Budget as amended at $12,000.

With cordial regards,

I am,

Faithfully yours,

[signed] Nicholas Murray Butler
President

Professor E. R. A. Seligman

__________________

Response by E.R.A. Seligman
Carbon copy

April 11, 1928

President Nicholas Murray Butler,
Columbia University.

My dear Mr. President:

I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter of April 5^th. I need not say with what appreciation the news has been received among all my colleagues and I want to thank you very warmly also on my own behalf for what constitutes a notable step forward in the history of higher education.

When this is coupled with what you told me the other day, it will certainly be a landmark in university history.

What we must now try to do is to insist upon the highest possible standard in the quality of the scholars connected with Columbia.

Respectfully yours,

[unsigned copy: E.R.A. Seligman]

Source: Columbia University Libraries, Manuscript Collections. Edwin Robert Anderson Seligman Collection, Box 37, containing “Box 100: Columbia 1924-30”.

Image Source: Art and Picture Collection, The New York Public Library. (1913). Library Columbia University, New York City. Retrieved from http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e2-8bad-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

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Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Economics of Mobilization and War. Syllabus, exam questions. Harris, 1952

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2019-11-06

Just as the Harvard economics department saw it fit to offer a course on the economic aspects of war at the start of the Second World War, there was a course on the economics of mobilization and war at the time of the Korean War taught by Seymour Harris, who had organized the earlier departmental course on war economics in 1940. Enrollment numbers for courses taught during the academic year 1951-52 were not included in the Harvard College Report of the President, so I am unable to include that information in this post. However, we have the course catalogue description, course reading list, and the final examination as transcribed below.

________________

Course Description

Economics 120. Economics of Mobilization and War

Half-course (spring term). Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 12. Professor Harris.

This course deals with the following problems on both a historical and current basis: the allocation of resources; income policies; the financing problems; the avoidance of inflation; the incidence of inflation; the relevance of controls; international aspects.

Source: Final Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences During 1951-52. Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XLVIII, No. 21 (September 10, 1951) p. 77.

________________

Course Syllabus and Readings

Spring Term 1951-52
Economics 120
Economics of Mobilization and War

*Books to be bought

I. Introduction (1 week)

Nature of the problem: mobilizations of World War II and the 1950’s
Three models: peacetime economy, mobilization economy, war economy
Real costs and money costs
Prospects for the civilian standard of living

Reading

*1. Harris: Economics of Mobilization and Inflation, Ch. 1 (pp. 3-25)
2. Keynes: How to Pay for the War, Chs. 1, 2 (pp. 1-12)
3. Hart: Defense Without Inflation, Ch. 9 (pp. 165-185)
4. Pigou: The Political Economy of War, Ch. IV (pp. 47-55)

II. The Problem in Real Terms: Optimal Division of Resources (3 weeks)

Allocation of resources, manpower, and facilities; changing nature of output
International aspects
Production scheduling; “bottlenecks”
Administration of military procurement

Reading

1. Pigou: The Political Economy of War, Ch. III (pp. 29-47)
2. Harris: Economics of Mobilization and Inflation, Chs. 2-6 (pp. 25-85)
3. Office of Defense Mobilization: Three Keys to Strength (Third Quarterly Report to the President) or subsequent reports.
*4. Chandler and Wallace: Economic Mobilization and Stabilization, Chs. 4, 5 (pp. 91-136)

III. The Problem in Money Terms: Adequate Funds Without Runaway Inflation (3 weeks)

Financing the War; the “inflationary gap”
Why is inflation harmful? Uneven incidence of inflation
The Fiscal Policy attack on inflation
The Direct Controls attack on inflation
Interrelatedness of Fiscal Policy and Direct Controls

Reading

1. Keynes: How to Pay for the War, Ch. 2 (above)
2. Pigou: The political Economy of War, Chs. VII, VIII (pp. 72-94)
3. Harris: Economics of Mobilization and Inflation, Chs. 7-10, 18, 19, 22 (pp. 85-119; 197-214; 245-256)
4. Hart: Defense Without Inflation, Chs. 1, 4 (pp. 3-18, 59-77)
5. Galbraith: A Theory of Price Control, Chs. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 (pp. 28-75)
6. Scitovsky, Shaw and Tarshis: Mobilizing Resources for War, Ch. 2 (pp. 101-144) and pp. 145-149 of Ch. 3
7. Chandler and Wallace: Economic Mobilization and Stabilization, pp. 34-59 and Ch. 26 (pp. 569-592)
8. Harris: Price and Related Controls in the United States, Ch. II (pp. 29-38)

IV. Fiscal Policy: Its Implementation and Effects (3 weeks)

Funds for financing mobilization: taxes or loans?
Reducing aggregate demand: taxes, savings, or deferred payment?
Burden of the public debt

Reading

1. Pigou: The Political Economy of War, Chs. VII VIII (above)
2. Harris: Economics of Mobilization and Inflation, Chs. 11-17, Chs. 22-24 (pp. 119-197, 245-286)
Chandler and Wallace: Economic Mobilization and Stabilization, Part III and Ch. 15 (pp. 180-272, 273-315)
4. Keynes: How to Pay for the War, Ch. V (pp. 27-34)

V. Direct Controls: Principles and Techniques (3 weeks)

Allocation of resources: priorities
Price control, rationing, wage control, rent control
Costs, prices, subsidies, supplies
International Aspects

Reading

1. Hart: Defense Without Inflation, Ch. 5 (pp. 78-97)
2. Harris: Price and related Controls in the United States, Chs. III-VIII, XI, XII, XVIII, XXI, XXII, XXV, XXVII
3. Galbraith: A Theory of Price Control, Ch. 8 (above)
4. Harris: Economics of Mobilization and Inflation: Ch. 20, 21 (pp. 214-245)

VI. Summary and Alternative Policies

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1), Box 5, Folder “Economics, 1951-1952 (1 of 2)”.

________________

Reading Period Assignment

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics
Reading Period Assignments
May 5 – May 24, 1952

Economics 120:

Bureau of the Budget: THE U.S. AT WAR. Chs. 5 through 7, 9 through 12, 15 and 16.

D. N. Chester (Ed.): LESSONS OF THE BRITISH WAR ECONOMY.

Baruch: AMERICAN INDUSTRY IN THE WAR, First Annual Report of the Activities of the Joint Committee on Defense Production. Read 250 pages dealing primarily with stabilization agencies. (Superintendent of Documents)

Joint Committee on the Economic Report: MONETARY POLICY AND MANAGEMENT OF THE PUBLIC DEBT, Part I. Read either pp. 1-194 or 207-492.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1), Box 5, Folder “Economics, 1951-1952 (1 of 2)”.

________________

Final Examination
May 1952

1951-52
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 120

Instructions: Answer both questions in Part I, and any two questions in Part II.

Please write legibly!

Part I

(a) Summarize the “disequilibrium system” and the “pay-as-you-go” approaches to stabilization. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each as applied to the current mobilization period? (20 points)
(b) Most practicable programs involve some combination of direct and indirect controls. Discuss the theoretical bases for monetary, fiscal, and direct controls, respectively, and explain clearly the theoretical interrelatedness of these measures. (20 points)
Write a critical summary of some phases of your reading period assignment. (10 points)

Part II

(a) Indicate briefly—by chart, if you prefer—the organizational hierarchy of the present mobilization and stabilization agencies and summarize briefly the function of each agency. (5 points)
(b) Summarize the economic issues of the current Steel Case. Include in your answer such points as the WSB recommendations, the criteria for the recommendations, controversial issues, etc. (20 points)
Define or identify and then discuss the significance of five (5) of the following: (5 points each)
(a) Low end problem
(b) Formula pricing
(c) Controlled Materials Plan
(d) Little Steel Formula
(e) Differential pricing
(f) Margin of tolerance and the Inflationary Gap
(g) Simplification programs
(h) Priority inflation
(i) Export controls
Outline the major economic institutions of the ideal “free enterprise” system and indicate what functions they perform. How are these functions carried out in a war economy such as the current one? (25 points)
Discuss the problems which mobilization brings to the following areas:
(a) Agriculture (5 points)
(b) National Debt Management (10 points)
(c) Welfare Expenditures (10 points)

Source: Harvard University Archives. Final Examinations, 1853-2001. Box 27. Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Papers Printed for Final Examinations: History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …, Air Sciences, Naval Science. June, 1952.

Image Source: Seymour Harris in Harvard College, Class Album 1957, p. 67.

Tags Harris

Harvard History of Economics Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. History of Economics. First semester readings and exams. O. H. Taylor, 1955-56

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2019-10-13

Overton H. Taylor described his book, A History of Economic Thought: Social Ideals and Economic Theories from Quesnay to Keynes (McGraw-Hill, 1960), as “an outgrowth from, or reduction to book form of, a part of the course of lectures, covering the same ground, which I have given annually for many years at Harvard University.” This post provides the graduate course outline for the first semester and final examinations for both semesters of his course for the 1955-56 academic year. It is something of a mystery that no syllabus with reading assignments for the second semester of the course can be found in the Harvard archive’s collection of course syllabi (also not for the previous year either). Perhaps the second semester was structured according to the interests of the students in the course and Taylor simply announced reading assignments as they went along. At least the final examination questions from June 1956 give some indication of the material covered (Marx, Austrian value theory, neo-classical economics in general and Marshall in particular, Veblen…but not Keynes).

* * * * * *

Earlier syllabi and exams by Taylor in the history of economics have been posted earlier:

Syllabus. Economics 115 (Fall Term, 1948-49). Economics and Political Ideas in Modern Times.

Final Exam. Economics 115 (Fall Term, 1948-49). Economics and Political Ideas in Modern Times.

Syllabus and Final Exam. Economics 115 (Spring Term, 1947-48). Economics and Political Ideas in Modern Times.

A much earlier version of the material for a one semester course:

Syllabus. Economics 1b (Spring Term, 1940-41). The Intellectual Background of Economic Thought.

Final Exam. Economics 1b (Spring Term, 1940-41). The Intellectual Background of Economic Thought.

Greater emphasis on economic theory was given in his graduate course:

Syllabus. Economics 205a (Fall Term, 1948-49). Main Currents of Thought in Economics and Related Studies over Recent Centuries.

In the Preface to his 1960 book Taylor described his purpose in writing as follows:

Perhaps I have a desire to be a ‘missionary’ in both directions–to convert as many noneconomist or lay readers as I can into interested students of economic theory and its history, and to convert more fellow-economists into interested students, also, of the diverse, general views or perspectives on all human affairs which formerly concerned all philosophical political economists.

______________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics
Fall Term, 1955-56

Economics 205
History of Economic Theory
[O. H. Taylor]

I. Sept. 26-30. Introduction.

Reading due Sept. 30. (1) J. A. Schumpeter, History of Economic Analysis, Part I, (45 pp.). (2) Review of the Schumpeter History, by O. H. Taylor, in (Harvard) Review of Economics and Statistics, Feb. 1955. (3) Essay, “Philosophies and Economic Theories in Modern Occidental Culture,” by O. H. Taylor in volume, Ideological Differences and World Order, ed. by F. C. S. Northrup. (Also available in O. H. Taylor essays, Economics and Liberalism).

Mon., Sept. 26. Introductory lecture: Aims, scope, and plan of course. Reasons for studying history of economic thought. Interrelations of the history of our “science”, history of popular politico-economic thought, and general backgrounds of economic, social, political, and intellectual history.

Wed., Sept. 28. Second Lecture: A preliminary survey of our subject matter and its-over-all pattern; characters of main developments in antiquity, the middle ages, early-modern times (“mercantilism”), the eighteenth century, classical political economy and its critics, socialism and Marxism, the historical schools, neo-classical systems, and 20^th century economics.

Fri., Sept. 30. Class Discussion (no lecture), chiefly on Schumpeter History, Part I.

II. Oct. 3-7. Antiquity—Plato and Aristotle and Stoicism, Roman Law, and Early Christianity.

Reading due Oct. 7. (1) G. H. Sabine, History of Political Theory, first 6 chapters. (2) Schumpeter, History, Part II, Ch. 1.

Mon., Oct. 3. Lecture: Ancient Athenian life and thought, and Plato’s philosophy, politics, and economics.

Wed., Oct. 5. Lecture: Aristotle’s philosophy, politics, and economics; and effects on later economics, that of Stoicism, Roman Law, and early Christianity.

Fri., Oct. 7. Class discussion.

III. Oct. 10-14. The Middle Ages—Scholastic Thought—Aquinas.

Reading due Oct. 14. (1) Sabine, History of Political Theory, Ch. 13 (“Universitas Hominum”: St. Thomas and Dante). (2) Schumpeter, History of Economic Analysis, Part II, Ch. 2, 1^st 5 sections.

Mon., Oct. 10. Lecture: Mediaeval Europe, its life and thought; scholastic philosophy and economics; St. Thomas Aquinas.

Wed., Oct. 12. Holiday.

Fri., Oct. 14. Discussion.

IV. Oct. 17-21. Early Modern Europe—Growth of capitalism, national states, the modern (as opposed to mediaeval) intellectual climate, and the ideas and practices of political absolutism and “mercantilism”. (2) The general and political philosophy of Hobbes.

Reading due Oct. 21: (1) Schumpeter, History, Part II, Ch. 2, Secs. 6, 7; and Chs. 3, 4. (2) Hobbes, Leviathan, Chs. 1-6 incl., and 13, 14, 15, 17, 21, 24.

Mon., Oct. 17. Lecture: From Mediaevalism to modernity; Evolution of the main elements of modern-western civilization, in the England and Western Europe of the 16^th and 17^th centuries.

Wed., Oct. 19. Lecture: The general and political philosophy of Hobbes, and its relation to “mercantilist” economic thought and policy.

Fri., Oct. 21. Discussion.

V. Oct. 24-28. Economic Analysis in the Age of “Mercantilism.”

Reading due Oct. 28: (1) Schumpeter, History, Part II, chs. 5, 6, and 7. (2) Look at, read in, “sample,” some of following: Sir T. Mun, England’s Treasure by Foreign Trade; Sir J. Child, A New Discourse on Trade; J. Locke, Considerations on Lowering Interest by Law and Raising the Value of Money; Sir D. North, Discourses on Trade; Sir W. Petty, Economic Writings (Hull, Editor, vol. 1, especially Editor Hull’s introduction and pp. 43-49, 74-77, 89-91, 105-114).

Mon., Oct. 24. Lecture: “Mercantilism” and the 17^th century beginnings of modern economic science.

Wed., Oct. 26. Lecture: The transition from “mercantilist” to 18^th century “liberal” thought in economics.

Fri., Oct. 28. Discussion.

VI. Oct. 31-Nov. 4. Liberalism, Locke, and the 18^th Century Enlightenment.

Reading due Nov. 4: (1) O. H. Taylor essays, “Economics and Ideas of Natural Law,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 44, pp. 1 ff, and 205 ff. (also available in O. H. Taylor, Economics and Liberalism). (2) Review Schumpeter, History, Part II, Ch. II, Secs. 5, 6, 7. (3) J. Locke, Second Treatise on Civil Government, Chs. 2-9 incl.

Mon., Oct. 31. Lecture: History of ethical-juristic and natural-scientific “natural law” ideas, and early-modern liberalism; Grotius and others.

Wed., Nov. 2. Lecture: Newton, Locke, and the 18^th century’s philosophic vision of the “natural order.”

Fri., Nov. 4. Discussion.

VII. Nov. 7-11. The Philosophy and Economics of the Physiocrats.

Reading due Nov. 11: (1) G. H. Sabine, History of Political Theory, Ch. 27 (“France: the Decadence of Natural Law.”) (2) Review, O. H. Taylor Essays, “Economics and Ideas of Natural Law,” and Schumpeter, History, Part II, Ch. IV.

Mon., Nov. 7. Lecture: The Physiocrats.

Wed., Nov. 9. Lecture: The Physiocrats (continued).

Fri., Nov. 11. Discussion.

VIII. Nov. 14-18. Adam Smith I. His forerunners in moral philosophy (Shaftesbury, Hutcheson, Hume), and his Theory of Moral Sentiments; and the relation of this material to the Wealth of Nations.

Reading due Nov. 17: Selby-Bigge, British Moralists, Selection from Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments.

Mon., Nov. 14. Lecture: The psychology and ethics, and philosophy of “the natural order,” of the 18^th century Scottish “sentimental” moralists.

Wed., Nov. 16. Lecture: Adam Smith’s philosophy, psychology and ethics, and economics.

IX. Nov. 21-25. Adam Smith II. Economics.

Reading due Nov. 25: Wealth of Nations, Book I, first 7 chapters.

Mon., Nov. 21. Lecture: Adam Smith’s Inquiry into The Wealth of Nations (scope and nature of the book, etc.); and his theory of production, economic progress, “the system of natural liberty,” and “natural” prices, wages, profits, and rents.

Wed., Nov. 23, Lecture: Smith on capital, money, international trade, and other topics.

Fri., Nov. 25. Discussion.

X. Nov. 28-Dec. 2. Utilitarian Liberalism, Benthamism, and Classical (Ricardian) Political Economy.

Reading due Dec. 2: (1) G. H. Sabine, History of Political Theory, Chapter “Liberalism.” (2) Schumpeter, History of Economic Analysis, Part III, first 3 chapters. (3) Selby-Bigge, British Moralists, Selection from Bentham’s Introduction to Principles of Morals and Legislation. (4) J. Bentham, Rationale of Reward, Part II.

Mon., Nov. 28. Lecture: Liberal thought in the “natural law” and “utilitarian” versions; Benthamism; and the relation of this wider system of thought to “classical” economics.

Wed., Nov. 30. Lecture: Benthamism and classical economics, concluded.

Fri., Dec. 2. Discussion.

XI. Dec. 5-9. Malthus and Ricardo.

Reading due Dec. 9: (1) Schumpeter, History, Part III, Chs. 4, 5. (2) Ricardo, Principles, Chs. 1-6.

Mon., Dec. 5. Lecture: The Malthusian population principle, its ideological and scientific backgrounds and bearings, and its place in “classical” economics. (2) Malthus vs. Ricardo on other questions in economics.

Wed., Dec. 7. Lecture: Ricardo and his fundamental doctrines.

Fri., Dec. 9. Discussion.

XII. Dec. 12-16. Contemporary Criticisms of Classical Economics, and Rival Currents of Thought in the Same Epoch.

Reading due Dec. 16: (1) T. Carlyle, Past and Present, parts I and III. (2) J. Ruskin, Unto This Last. (3) A. Comte, Positive Philosophy, tr., Harriet Martineau, Introduction and Ch. 1 and Book VI, ch. 1.

Mon. Dec. 12. Lecture: Old and new currents and cross-currents of thought in this period. Advances in economic analysis in other quarters apart from the “classical” one. Contemporary Ideologies and “Lay” criticisms—Romantic, Positivistic, and “Reactionary” and “Radical.”

Wed., Dec. 14. Lecture: (1) Romantic-Conservative Thought in the Period vs. the Utilitarian-Liberal and Classical-Economic viewpoints. (2) Positivism and Comtism vs. liberalism and economics.

Fri., Dec. 16. Discussion.

Reading Period:

J. S. Mill, Principles of Political Economy

Book I—Chs. 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, 12
Book III—Chs. 1-4 incl., and 11, 15, 16
Book III [sic]

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003. Box 6, Folder “Economics, 1955-1956 (1 of 2) and (2 of 2)”.

______________________

1955-56
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 205
[Mid-year exam, January 1956]

Write half-hour essays on six (6) of the following:

(a) Summarize, and discuss, the main ideas on “economic” (?) subjects that appear in Plato’s Republic. (b) With what tenets of Plato’s philosophy were those ideas connected? Explain these connections. (c) Do you think that modern economics presupposes other, very un-Platonic views in philosophy? Explain and defend your answer to (c).
(a) What principal achievements in economic analysis does Schumpeter credit to the mediaeval scholastic doctors? (b) How, if at all, were their contributions affected (1) in Schumpeter’s view and (2) in your own view, by Scholastic doctrines in philosophy and ethics?
Try to say as concisely and fully as you can, what seem to you the most important things to be said about “mercantilism” as a cluster of economic ideas and policies.
(a) Who were the “econometricians” who are referred to as such in the title of Schumpeter’s chapter “The Econometricians and Turgot”? Identify as many of them as you can, giving names, approximate dates, and when possible, titles of their best-known writings. Then (b) characterize, a little more fully, the work, ideas, and contributions of one important member of that group.
Explain and discuss either (a) the nature and significance of Quesnay’s tableau economique, (b) the Physiocratic philosophy of “the natural order”; or (c) the assumptions and reasoning behind the Physiocratic doctrines leading to identification of the land-rent-income of the proprietary class, with the entire national produit net, and to the views about taxation and other matters based upon that.
“Adam Smith’s economic liberalism resulted logically, not from his ideas in economic theory only, but jointly from those and his fundamental views in philosophy, ethics, psychology, and sociology.” What main Smithian ideas, in each of those fields, in your view, played what parts in the full Smithian argument for economic liberalism?
How do you explain both (1) the very high estimate, by Ricardo’s admirers in England, of the value of his contributions to economic science, and (2) Schumpeter’s rather low estimate of the same? Finally, what kind of an estimate would you offer as your own, and how would you defend it?
Explain, and discuss critically, what you think J. S. Mill meant to assert, in his dictum about the laws of economic production vs. those of distribution—the dependence of the latter but not of the former on human institutions.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Final Examinations, 1853-2001. Box 23. Papers Printed for Final Examinations. History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …, Naval Science, Air Science (January, 1956).

______________________

1955-56
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 205
[Final exam, June 1956]

Write one-hour essays on three (3) of the following subjects:

A comparative discussion of the theories of economic development of Ricardo, Marx and Schumpeter.
A comparative discussion of the Ricardian, Austrian, and Marshallian theories of the foundations and adjustment (into equilibrium) of the values and prices of different goods in a competitive economy.
Your own views and arguments as to whether and how far the body of “marginal analysis” worked out in “neo-classical” economics was (1) a great advance in giving economics the precision and rigor of aa real science; or (2) a sad decline into a deadly-dull, unrealistic, and unimportant kind of theorizing, preoccupied with trivialities.
Your own “sorting out,” in Veblen’s thought, of what you regard as his valid insights, and his to-be-rejected notions, (a) as a critic of traditional economic theory, and (b) as a critic of capitalism or the business culture.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Final Examinations, 1853-2001. Box 24. Papers Printed for Final Examinations. History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …, Naval Science, Air Science (June, 1956).

Image Source: Harvard Class Album 1952.

Tags TaylorOH

Berkeley Exam Questions

Berkeley. Topics and exam questions for advanced economics. Mitchell, 1906

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2019-10-11

One might consider the following course taught at the University of California in 1906 by assistant professor Wesley Clair Mitchell to be a very early draft of what was to become his legendary course on Types of Economic Theory at Columbia University. Below we have transcriptions of his handwritten outline of topics and final examination questions.

___________________

Course Announcement

45. Advanced Economics. Assistant Professor Mitchell.

This course is designed for students who wish to make a more thorough study of economic theory than can be undertaken in Courses 1 [Introduction to Economics] and 2 [Principles of Economics]. The aim is to work out a tenable system of economics on the basis of an examination of the theories of leading writers, past and present.

2 hrs., first half-year. Tu Th, 9. Prerequisite: Course 2, and at least Senior standing.

Source: University of California. Announcement of Courses 1906-1907. Berkeley (July, 1906), p. 44.

___________________

Course Topics

Advanced Economics

2 hour course August to December 1906.
continued as reading of Schmoller evening meetings Jan-Apr. 1907.

Different types of economic theory

Concept of the economic man

Preconceptions of economic theorists

Carver’s [or possibly “Cairnes’s”] treatment [?] of wealth.

Schmoller’s Grundriss.

Conclusion: Meaning of and need for evolutionary theory of economics.

Source: Columbia University Library Manuscript Collections. Mitchell, W.C. Collection. Box A, 1898-1917, Folder “8/21/06 A519”.

___________________

Handwritten examination questions

Advance Econ (45) Exam. Dec 17, 1906

State and discuss Cairnes’ attitude on economic method.
What influence did hedonism have on development of classical political economy?
What do you regard as the most effective method of treating economics?
How do you explain the shifting of preconceptions in economics from say the Physiocrats to Schmoller or Veblen?

Source: Columbia University Library Manuscript Collections. Mitchell, W.C. Collection. Box A, 1898-1917, Folder “17/17/06 A”.

Image Source: Thumbnail image from a 1900 picture of Wesley Clair Mitchell at the University of Chicago in Lucy Sprague Mitchell’s Two Lives: The Story of Wesley Clair Mitchell and Myself.

Tags Mitchell

Exam Questions M.I.T. Suggested Reading Syllabus

M.I.T. First core graduate macroeconomics. Syllabus, readings, exams. Domar and Harris, 1967-68

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2019-09-30

Four out of the five times that the first term of the macroeconomics sequence at M.I.T. (Theory of Income and Employment) was taught in the second half of the 1960’s, it was taught by Evsey Domar . Earlier posts with materials for Domar’s course include the reading list and final exam for 1960-61, reading list and exams for 1965-66 , the exams for 1968-69, and the course evaluations for 1967/68-1969/70.

Responsible for the course section in 1967-68 was the assistant professor John Rees Harris (b. 1934, d. 2018, 1967 Northwestern Ph.D. in economics) [copy of his c.v. archived 14 February 2019]. Here is link to a video lunchtime talk by Harris at the Boston University conference “Development that Works” (March 11, 2011). The picture is a screen-capture from the video.

______________________

M.I.T.
THE THEORY OF INCOME AND EMPLOYMENT
14.451
1967-68
[first session]

I. ADMINISTRATIVE QUESTIONS

1. Course number, my and Harris’s name, our office numbers, office hours Tu 2:30-3:30.
2. Sitting chart. No compulsory attendance.
3. Reading list. First part only. Required and recommended or optional. Responsible for all required reading, but not for the details. I don’t know them myself. Lectures are the skeleton of the course. Reserve in Dewey. Inform me if some books are absent.
4. The National Income problem. It is due….
5. Midterm exam in November. Final exam.
6. Other administrative problems?

II. THE PURPOSE AND NATURE OF THE COURSE

To fill in the gaps and bring everyone to a common denominator, without pulling anyone down. Hence, some will find it a bit boring. Attendance is not compulsory.

It is an introductory course. Almost everything will be discussed in other courses, except National Income, Index of Industrial Production, etc. Growth and fluctuations; monetary economics, consumption function, investment decisions, etc.

III. COMMENTS ON MACROECONOMICS

At the beginning, was a very hot subject—the most interesting part of economics. Two reasons: (1) it was new: (2) the greatest deficiency was in the macro area. Emphasis in those days was on full employment, not growth. Growth came in after the second world war.

The close connection between macro economics and governmental policies.

Three [sic] aspects:

(1) understanding of macro problems by economists

(2) persuading the public—easy in England, very difficult here.

(3) Forecasts of the future—improvement

(4) The effectiveness of methods—also part of forecasts.

On the whole macro-policy has been very successful, sometimes by design, sometimes by luck. The tax reduction of 1964 was the first one for fiscal policy specifically. Less fear of a deficit—witness the present situation. But the tax rise is still a test.

Next step—economic growth. First models—macro type with one kind of goods, and investment with capital coefficients. Still being used, but they don’t get us far.

Growth is to a considerable extent a micro-problem, or at least a mixture of the two. Much more difficult for the government to legislate. How does one improve efficiency? Evaluation of investment projects, of economic effects of education, etc.

Some exaggeration—but the traditional macro theory suffers from its own success.

PART I NATIONAL INCOME AND RELATED ITEMS

First—to state the objectives, such as welfare (whose?), capacity to produce (what?), national prestige, evaluation of policies, curiosity about growth, etc.

How to bring order out of the chaos? Which goods and services, which transactions are to be recorded?

Define the purpose of economic activity:

(1) Welfare of all people (or citizens) of a given area

(2) Welfare of some people only (slaves or relatives excluded). Weights?

(3) Welfare of animals? The old lady and her cat?

The definition of welfare may lead to a definition of activities to be included.

Special activities: warfare (Sparta), capital formation, police protection, etc.

Market vs. non-market goods. Imputed items.

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Evsey D. Domar Papers. Box 17, Folder “Macroeconomics. Theory of National Income and Employment”.

_________________________

THEORY OF INCOME AND EMPLOYMENT
14.451
Fall Term 1967-68

E.D. Domar
J.R. Harris

READING LIST

The purpose of this list is to suggest to the student the sources in which the more important topics of the course are discussed from several points of view. His objectives should be the understanding of these topics and not the memorization of opinions and details.

The “optional” reading has been included for those students who wish to pursue some of the subjects in greater detail. Some of the items on the optional list may be more effective in their exposition, at least for some individuals, than those on the required list.

There exists a good (if a bit obsolete) textbook on macroeconomics—Gardner Ackley, Macroeconomic Theory (The Macmillan Company, New York, 1961). Its knowledge is necessary but not sufficient for passing the course. While several copies are on reserve at Dewey, the acquisition of private copies is recommended.

Students may also find it convenient to acquire the following books: Readings in Macroeconomics edited by M.G. Mueller (which contains a number of relevant articles) and possible the three National Income volumes published by the U.S. Department of Commerce and listed in Section I.

I. NATIONAL INCOME AND RELATED ITEMS
(September 19 – October 12)

REQUIRED

Ackley, Chapters 1-4.

Kuznets, S., National Income and Its Composition, Vol. I (New York, 1941), Chap. 1.

National Income 1954 Edition, A Supplement to the Survey of Current Business, U.S. Department of Commerce (Washington, D.C., 1954), pp. 27-60, 153-58.

U.S. Income and Output, A Supplement to the Survey of Current Business, U.S. Department of Commerce (Washington, D. C., 1958), pp. 50-105.

The National Income and Product Accounts of the United States, 1929-1965. U.S. Department of Commerce (Washington, D.C., 1966). Browse through the statistics tables of the three volumes to find out what is available where.

Bergson, A. The Real National Income of Soviet Russia since 1928, Ch. 3 on “Methods and Procedures”, (Cambridge, Mass., 1961).

Griliches, Z. “Notes on the Measurement of Price and Quality Changes”, in Models of Income Determination, Studies in Income and Wealth, Vol. 28 by the Conference on Research in Income and Wealth, National Bureau of Economic Research, 1964, pp. 381-418.

Leontief, W. W., “Output, Employment, Consumption and Investment,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 58 (February, 1944), pp. 290-314.

Leontief, Studies in the Structure of the American Economy (New York, 1953), pp. 27-35.

Dorfman, R., “The Nature and Significance of Input-Output,” Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 36 (May, 1954), pp. 121-33.

Domar, E. D., “On the Measurement of Technological Change,” The Economic Journal, Vol. 71 (December, 1961), pp. 709-29. [Read only pp. 709-14, 726-29.]

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Industrial Production 1959 Revision (Washington, 1960), pp. iii-41. [Look for the method, not for statistical details.]

Domar, E. D., “An Index-Number Tournament,” The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. LXXXI (May, 1967), pp. 169-88.

Sigel, S. J., “A Comparison of the Structures of Three Social Accounting Systems,” National Bureau of Economic Research, Input-Output Analysis: An Appraisal, The Conference on Research in Income and Wealth, Studies in Income and Wealth, Vol. 18 (Princeton, 1955), pp. 253-89.

OPTIONAL READINGS:

Jaszi, G., “The Statistical Foundations of the GNP,” Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 38 (May, 1956), pp. 205-14.

Lewis, Wilfred, Jr., “The Federal Sector in National Income Models,” and comments by Hickman and Pechman, in Conference on Research in Income and Wealth, Models of Income Determination (Princeton, 1964), Vol. 28, pp. 233-78.

Bailey, M. J., National Income and the Price Level (New York, 1962), pp. 269-300.

Kuznets, S., National Income and Its Composition (New York, 1941).

Ruggles, R. and N., National Income Accounts and Income Analysis (New York, 1956).

Ruggles, “The U.S. National Accounts,” American Economic Review, Vol. 49, (March, 1959), pp. 85-95.

National Bureau of Economic Research, The National Economic Accounts of the United States, Review, Appraisal and Recommendations, General Series 64, (Washington, 1958).

Organization for European Economic Cooperation, A Standardised System of National Accounts, (Paris, 1952).

Gilbert, M. and I. B. Kravis, An International Comparison of National Products and the Purchasing Power of Currencies, A Study of the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy, Organization for European Economic Cooperation (Paris, 1954).

Gilbert, M., Comparative National Products and Price Levels, A Study of Western Europe and the United States, Organization of European Economic Cooperation, (Paris, 1958).

United Nations, Yearbook of National Accounts Statistics, the latest issue.

United Nations, National Income Statistics, the latest issue.

United Nations, World Economic Survey and other Economic Surveys.

Studenski, The Income of Nations. Theory, Measurement, and Analysis: Past and Present (New York, 1958). [A wealth of information, particularly of historical character.]

Nove, A., “The United States National Income A La Russe,” Economica, Vol. 23, 1956.

Bergson, A. The Real National Income of Soviet Russia Since 1928 (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1961). (The rest of the book).

Kravis, I. B., “Relative Income Shares in Fact and Theory,” American Economic Review, Vol. 49 (December, 1959), pp. 917-49.

Samuelson, P. A., “Evaluation of Real National Income,” Oxford Economic Papers (New Series), 1950, pp. 1-29.

Samuelson, “The Evaluation of ‘Social Income’: Capital Formation and Wealth,” in F. A. Lutz and D. C. Hague, editors, The Theory of Capital (London, 1961).

Leontief, W. W., The Structure of American Economy (New York, 1941).

Leontief, Studies in the Structure of the American Economy (New York, 1953).

Taskier, C. E., Input-Output Bibliography 1955-1960, United Nations (New York, 1961).

Evans, W. D., and M. Hoffenberg, “The Interindustry Relations Study for 1947,” Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 34, (May, 1952), pp. 97-142.

Stewart, I. G., “The Practical Uses of Input-Output Analysis,” Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 5, (February, 1958).

Dosser, D. and A. T. Peacock, “Input-Output Analysis in an Under-Developed Country: A Case Study,” Review of Economic Studies, Vol. 25 (October, 1957).

Input-Output Analysis: An Appraisal, Studies in Income and Wealth by the Conference on research in Income and Wealth, Vol. 18 (Princeton, 1955).

Solow, R. M. “Technical Change and the Aggregate Production Function,” Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 39 (August, 1957), pp. 312-20.

Abramovitz, M., “Resources and Output in the United States Since 1870,” American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings, Vol. 46 (May, 1956), pp. 5-23, reprinted as National Bureau of Economic Research, Occasional Paper 52 (New York, 1956).

Kendrick, J. W., Productivity Trends in the United States (Princeton, 1961).

Denison, E. F., Sources of Economic Growth in the United States and the Alternatives Before Us (New York, 1962).

Abramovitz, M., “Economic Growth in the United States,” American Economic Review, Vol. 52 (September, 1962), pp. 762-82. [This is a review of Denison’s Book.]

Moorsteen, R. H., “On Measuring Productive Potential and Relative Efficiency,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 75 (August, 1961), pp. 451-67.

Fabricant, S., The Output of Manufacturing Industries, 1899-1937 (New York, 1940), particularly Chapter 1.

United Nations, Statistical Office, Index Numbers of Industrial Production, St/Stat/ Ser/ F1 (New York, 1950).

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Flow of Funds in the United States 1939-53 (Washington, D. C., 1955).

Powelson, J. P., National Income and Flow-Of-Funds Analysis (New York, 1960).

Measuring the Nation’s Wealth, National Bureau of Economic Research, Studies in Income and Wealth, Vol. 29 (Washington, D. C., 1964).

READING LIST—SECOND INSTALLMENT
II. GENERAL AGGREGATIVE SYSTEMS—FIRST APPROXIMATION
(October 17 – October 31).

REQUIRED:

Ackley, Parts II and III.

Keynes, J. M., The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (London and New York, 1936). [Omit the appendixes to Chapters 6 and 19.]

Note: Neither book is arranged in the order of this reading list. Hence these two assignments apply to other sections of it as well.

Wells, P., “Keynes’ Aggregate Supply Function: A Suggested Interpretation,” The Economic Journal, Vol. 70 (September, 1960), pp. 536-42.

Johnson, H. G. and the discussants, “The General Theory After Twenty-five Years,” American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, Vol. 60 (May, 1961), pp. 1-25.

Klein, L. R., “The Empirical Foundations of Keynesian Economics,” in K. K. Kurihara, ed., Post Keynesian Economics(New Brunswick, N. J., 1954), pp. 277-319.

OPTIONAL READINGS:

Lekachman, Robert, Keynes’ General Theory: Reports of Three Decades, (New York and London, 1964).

Patinkin, D., Money, Interest, and Prices, Second Edition, (New York, 1965).

American Economic Association, Readings in Business Cycle Theory (Philadelphia, 1944), Essays 5, 7, 8.

American Economic Association, Readings in the Theory of Income Distribution (Philadelphia, 1946), Essay 24.

Metzler, “Three Lags in the Circular Flow of Income,” in Income, Employment and Public Policy, Essays in Honor of Alvin H. Hansen (New York, 1948), pp. 11-32.

Harris, S. E., The New Economics (New York, 1947), Essays 8-19, 31-33, 38-46.

Lerner, A. P., Economics of Control (New York, 1944), Chapters 21-23, 25.K

Kurihara, K. K., Post Keynesian Economics (New Brunswick, N. J., 1954).

Klein, L. R., The Keynesian Revolution, (New York, 1947), Chapters 3-5.

Ellis, H. S., A Survey of Contemporary Economics, Vol. 1, (Philadelphia, 1948), Chapter 2.

Burns, A. F., “Economic Research and the Keynesian Thinking of Our Times,” in his The Frontiers of Economic Knowledge, (Princeton, 1954), or in the Twenty-Sixth Annual Report of the National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.(New York, 1946). See also the discussion by Hansen and Burns in the Review of Economic Statistics (November, 1947).

Dillard, D., “The Influence of Keynesian Economics on Contemporary Thought,” American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings, 1957.

Hutt, W. H., Keynesianism: Retrospect and Prospect (Chicago, 1963).

Friedman, Milton, and G. S. Becker, “A Statistical Illusion on Judging Keynesian Models,” Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 55 (February, 1957), pp. 64-75.

III. PRICE FLEXIBILITY AND EMPLOYMENT
(November 2-9)

REQUIRED:

Patinkin, D., Money, Interest, and Prices, Second ed., (New York, 1965), Chapters 9-11.

Pigou, A. C., “The Classical Stationary State,” Economic Journal (December, 1943).

Power, J. H., “Price Expectations, Money Illusion and the Real Balance Effect,” Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 67 (April, 1959).

Mayer, T., “The Empirical Significance of the Real Balance Effect,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 73 (May, 1959).

OPTIONAL READINGS:

Readings in Monetary Theory, Essay 13.

Schelling, T. C., “The Dynamics of Price Flexibility,” American Economic Review (September, 1949).

Lange, O., Price Flexibility and Employment (Bloomington, Indiana, 1944). [Get the main idea and omit the details.]

Friedman, M., “Lange on Price Flexibility and Employment,” American Economic Review (September, 1946).

Patinkin, D., Money, Interest, and Prices (Evanston, Illinois, 1956).

Hicks, J. R., “A Rehabilitation of ‘Classical Economics’,” Economic Journal, Vol. 47, (June, 1957).

IV. The Theory of Interest and the Demand for Money

Required:

Keynes, General Theory, Chapters 13-17.

Hansen, A., Monetary Theory and Fiscal Policy, Chapters 3,4.

Hicks, J. R., Value and Capital, Chapters 11, 12.

Friedman, M., “The Quantity Theory of Money—A Restatement,” Studies in the Quantity Theory of Money.

Patinkin, D., Money, Interest and Prices, 2^nd ed., Chapters VIII, XV.

Tobin, J., “Liquidity Preference as Behavior Towards Risk,” The Review of Economic Studies, February 1958, pp. 65-86.

Optional:

American Economic Association, Readings in the Theory of Income Distribution (Philadelphia, 1946), Essays 22, 23, 26.

American Economic Association, Readings in Monetary Theory, (New York, 1951), Essays 6, 11, 15.

Friedman, M. and A. J. Schwartz, A Monetary History of the United States 1867-1960 (Princeton, 1963).

Gurley, J. G., and E. S. Shaw, “Financial Aspects of Economic Development,” AER, vol. 65, September 1955, pp. 515-38.

Gurley, J. G., and E. S. Shaw, Money in a Theory of Finance (Washington, 1960).

Hart, A. G., and P. B. Kenen, Money, Debt and Economic Activity, Third Ed., (Englewood Cliffs, N. J., 1961).

Lydall, H., “Income, Assets, and the Demand for Money,” Review of Economics and Statistics, vol. 40, February 1958, pp. 1-14.

Lutz, F. A., “The Interest Rate and Investment in a Dynamic Economy,” AER, December 1945).

Matthews, R. C. O., “Liquidity Preference and the Multiplier,” Economica, vol. 28, February 1961, pp. 37-52.

Patinkin, D., “Liquidity Preference and Loanable Funds: Stock and Flow Analysis,” Economica, Vol. 25, November 1958.

Review of Economics and Statistics Supplement, vol. 45, February 1963, on “The State of Monetary Economics.”

Wright, A. L., “The Rate of Interest in a Dynamic Model,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 72, August 1958, pp. 327-50.

Reading List—Third Installment
V. Consumption and Saving

Required:

Clower, R.W., “The Keynesian Counterrevolution: A Theoretical Appraisal,” in Hahn and Brechling (eds.), The Theory of Interest Rates (Macmillan, 1965).

Davidson, P., “A Keynesian View of Patinkin’s Theory of Employment,” E.J., September 1967.

Leijonhufvud, A., “Keynes and the Keynesians: A Suggested Interpretation,” AER, May 1967.

Ackley, Chapters 10, 11, 12.

Keynes, General Theory, Chapters 8, 9, 10.

Hagen, E.,”The Consumption Function: A Review Article,” Review of Economics and Statistics, XXXVII, Feb. 1955, pp. 48-54.

Duesenberry, J. S., Income, Saving, and the Theory of Consumer Behavior, Chapters 3, 4.

Friedman, M., A Theory of the Consumption Function, Chapters 1, 2, 3, 9.

Ando, A. and Modigliani, F., “The ‘Life Cycle’ Hypothesis of Saving,” AER, March 1963, pp. 55-85; March 1964, pp. 111—113.

Farrell, M. J., “The New Theories of the Consumption Function,” E.J., vol. 69, December, 1959, pp. 678-96.

Lintner, J., “The Determinants of Corporate Saving,” Savings in the Modern Economy (W. Heller, ed.), pp. 230-55.

Lintner, J. and discussants, “Distribution of Income of Corporations Among Dividends, Retained Earnings, and Taxes,” AER, vol. 46, May 1956, pp. 97-118.

Friend, I., and Kravis, I.B., “Entrepreneurial Income, Saving and Investment,” AER, vol. 47, June 1957, pp. 269-301.

Lubell, H., “Effects of Redistribution of Income on Consumers’ Expenditures,” AER, vol. 37, March 1947, pp. 157-170.

________, “A Correction,” AER, vol. 37, December 1947, p. 930.

Domar, E. D., Essays in the Theory of Economic Growth (New York, 1957), pp. 154-67, 195-201.

Bronfenbrenner, Yomana and Lee, “A Study in Redistribution and Consumption,” Review of Economics and Statistics, May 1955, pp. 149-59.

Tobin, J., “Asset Holdings and Spending Decisions,” AER May 1952, pp. 109-23.

Crockett, Jean, “Income and Asset Effects on Consumption: Aggregate and Cross Section,” and comments by D. B. Suits, in N.B.E.R., Models of Income Determination, pp. 97-136.

Tobin, J., “On the Predictive Value of Consumer Intentions and Attitudes,” The Review of Economics and Statistics, vol. 41, February 1959, pp. 1-11.

Optional

Bailey, M. J., “Saving and the Rate of Interest,” Journal of Political Economy, vol. 45, August 1957, pp. 279-305. Reprinted in Landmarks in Political Economy, edited by E. J. Hamilton, A. Rees, and H.G. Johnson (Chicago, 1962), pp. 583-622.

Brown, B., and F. M. Fisher, “Negro-White Savings Differentials and the Modigliani-Brumberg Hypothesis,” Review of Economics and Statistics, vol. 40, February 1958, pp. 79-81.

Brown, E. C., Solow, R. M., Ando, A., and J. Karekan, “Lags in Fiscal and Monetary Policy,” in Commission on Money and Credit, Stabilization Policies (Englewood Cliffs, 1963), pp. 1-165.

Clark, J.M., “Note on Income Redistribution and Investment,” AER, vol. 37, December 1947, p. 931.

Dennison, E. F., “A Note on Private Saving,” Review of Economics and Statistics, August 1958.

Dobrovolsky, S. P., Corporate Income Retention 1915-43 (New York, 1951). (Omit the details.)

Domar, E.D., Essays in the Theory of Economic Growth (New York 1957), pp. 154-67, 195-201.

Ferber, R., “The Accuracy of Aggregate Savings Functions in the Post-War Years,” Review of Economics and Statistics, vol. 37, May 1955, pp. 134-48.

Friedman, M., and G. Becker, “A Statistical Illusion in Judging Keynesian Models,” JPE, vol. 65, February 1957.

Friend, I., and S. Schor, “Who Saves?,” The Review of Economics and Statistics, vol. 41, May 1959, pp. 213-45.

Goldsmith, R. W., A Study of Saving in the United States, three volumes (Princeton, 1952).

Gordon, M. J., “The Optimum Dividend Rate,” presented at the sixth Annual International Meeting of the Institute of Management Sciences, Paris, September 1959. (On library reserve.)

Heller, W. W., Boddy, F. M., and C. L. Nelson, Savings in the Modern Economy, a Symposium (Minneapolis, 1953).

Katona, G., and E. Mueller, Consumer Expectations 1953-56 (Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1956).

Rees, and Johnson, H. G., (Chicago, 1962), pp. 583-622.

Klein, L. R., “The Friedman-Becker Illusion,” JPE, vol. 66, December 1958.

Klein, L. R., (ed.), Contributions of Survey Methods to Economics (New York, 1954).

Morgan, J. N., Consumer Economics (New York, 1955).

Modigliani, F., and R. Brumberg, “Utility Analysis and the Consumption Function: An Interpretation of Cross-Section Data,” in Kurihara, K. K., (ed.), Post Keynesian Economics (New Brunswick, N. J., 1954), pp. 388-436.

Mincer, J., “Employment and Consumption,” Review of Economics and Statistics, vol. 42, February 1960, pp. 20-26.

Zellner, Arnold, “The Short-Run Consumption Function,” Econometrica, (October, 1957).

VI. Investment

Required

Ackley, Chapter 17.

Keynes, General Theory, Chapters 11, 12.

White, W. H., “Interest Inelasticity of Investment Demand,” AER, vol. 46, September 1956, pp. 565-587.

Knox, “The Acceleration Principle and the Theory of Investment,” Economica, August 1952, pp. 269-97.

Meyer, J., and E. Kuh, The Investment Decision, Chapters 2, 8, 12.

Eisner, R., “Investment: Fact and Fancy,” Jorgenson, D.W., “Capital Theory and Investment Behavior,” Kuh, E., “Theory and Institutions in the Study of Investment Behavior,”: all three in AER, May 1963, pp. 237-268.

Lovell, M.C., “Determinants of Inventory Investment,” in N.B.E.R., Models of Income Determination, pp. 177-216.

Solomon, E., ed., The Management of Corporate Capital, pp. 48-55, 67-73.

Witte, J. G., “The Microfoundations of the Social Investment Function,” Journal of Political Economy, vol. 71, October 1963, pp. 441-56.

Optional

Andrews, P.W.S., “Further Inquiry into the Effects of Rates of Interest,” Oxford Economic Papers, February 1940, pp. 32-73.

Brockie, M.D., and A.L. Grey, “The Marginal Efficiency of Capital and Investment Programming,” Economic Journal, vol. 46, December 1956.

Cunningham, N.J., “Business Investment and the Marginal Cost of Funds,” Metroeconomica, vol. 10, August 1958.

Cunningham, N.J., “Business Investment and the Marginal Cost of Funds,” Part II, Metroeconomica, December 1958.

Duesenberry, J., Business Cycles and Economic Growth (New York, 1958), Chapters 4-7.

Ebersole, J.F., “The Influence of Interest Rates,” Harvard Business Review, vol. 17, 1938, pp. 35-39.

Foss, M.F., “Manufacturers’ Inventory and Sales Expectations—A Progress Report on a New Survey,” Survey of Current Business, August 1961.

Foss, M.F., and V. Natrella, “Ten Years’ Experience with Business Investment Anticipations,” Survey of Current Business, January 1957.

Foss, M.F., “Investment Plans and Realizations—Reasons for Differences in Individual Cases,” Survey of Current Business, June 1957.

Friend, I., and J. Bronfenbrenner, “Business Investment Programs and Their Realization,” Survey of Current Business, December 1950.

Grey, A.L., and M.D. Brockie, “The Rate of Interest, Marginal Efficiency of Capital and Net Investment Programming: A Rejoinder,” Economic Journal, June 1959.

Heller, W.W., “The Anatomy of Investment Decisions,” Harvard Business Review, March 1951, pp. 95-103.

Henderson, H.D., “The Significance of the Rate of Interest,” Oxford Economic Papers, October 1938, pp. 1-13.

Hirschleifer, J., “On the Theory of Optimal Investment Decision,” The Journal of Political Economy, vol. 66, August 1958, pp. 329-352. (An excellent but difficult paper.)

James, E., A Reconsideration of the Theoretical Criteria for Optimum Investment Planning (M.I.T. doctoral dissertation 1961).

Lerner, A.P., “On the Marginal Product of Capital and the Marginal Efficiency of Investment,” Journal of Political Economy, vol. 51, February 1953, pp. 1-14. Reprinted in Landmarks in Political Economy edited by E.J. Hamilton, A. Rees, and H.G. Johnson (Chicago, 1962), pp. 538-58.

Lovell, M.C., “Determinants of Inventory Investment,” in Conference on Research in Income and Wealth, Models of Income Determination (Princeton, 1964), vol. 28, pp. 177-232.

Lutz, F.A., and V., The Theory of Investment of the Firm (Princeton, 1951).

Lydall, H.F., “The Impact of the Credit Squeeze on Small and Medium Sized Manufacturing Firms,” Economic Journal, vol. 47, September 1957.

Meade, J.E., and P.W.S. Andrews, “Summary of Replies to Questions on Effects of Interest Rates,” and “Further Inquiry into the Effects of Rates of Interest,” Oxford Economic Papers, No. 1, 1938 and No. 3, 1940.

N.B.E.R., The Quality and Economic Significance of Anticipations Data, A Conference of the Universities—National Bureau Committee for Economic Research (Princeton, 1960).

Penrose, E.T., The Theory of the Growth of the Firm (Oxford, 1959).

Penrose, E.T., “Limits to the Growth and Size of Firms,” AER Papers and Proceedings, vol. 45, May 1955, pp. 531-43.

Pitchford, J.D. and A.J. Hagger, “A Note on the Marginal Efficiency of Capital,” Economic Journal, vol. 48, September 1958, pp. 597-600.

Robinson, J., The Accumulation of Capital (London, 1956). (Wish we had time for it.)

Sayers, R.S., “Business Men and the Terms of Borrowing,” Oxford Economic Papers, February 1940, pp. 23-31.

Spiro, A., “Empirical Research and the Rate of Interest,” Review of Economics and Statistics, vol. 40, February 1958.

Lintner, J., “Corporation Finance: Risk and Investment,” in N.B.E.R., Determinants of Investment Behavior (Robert Ferber editor), pp. 215-54.

Jorgenson, D.W., “The Theory of Investment Behavior,” in N.B.E.R., Determinants of Investment Behavior, pp. 129-55.

Miller, M.H. and F. Modigliani, “Estimates of the Cost of Capital Relevant for Investment Decisions under Uncertainty,” in N.B.E.R., Determinants of Investment Behavior, pp. 179-214.

Miller, M.H. and F. Modigliani, “Reply,” in N.B.E.R., Determinants of Investment Behavior, pp. 260-70.

Lovell, M.C., “Sales Anticipations, Planned Inventory Investment, and Realizations,” in N.B.E.R., Determinants of Investment Behavior, pp. 537-80.

Reading List—Fourth Installment
VII. Multiplier and Accelerator

Required

Kahn, R.F., “The Relation of Home Investment to Unemployment,” Economic Journal, 1931. Republished in Hansen and Clemence, Readings in Business Cycles and National Income (New York, 1953), Essay 15.

Readings in Business Cycle Theory, Essays 9-12.

Haavelmo, T., “Multiplier Effects of a Balanced Budget,” Econometrica, 1945, reprinted in Readings in Fiscal Policy, pp. 335-343.

Salant, William A., “Taxes, Income Determination, and the Balanced Budget Theorem,” The Review of Economics and Statistics, May 1957. Reprinted in Gordon and Klein (eds.) A.E.A. Readings in Business Cycles (1965).

Tsiang, S.C., “Accelerator, Theory of the Firm, and the Business Cycle,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 65, 1951.

Optional

Tinbergen, “Statistical Evidence on the Acceleration Principle,” Economica, vol. 5, 1938.

Eisner, R., “Capital Expenditures, Profits, and the Acceleration Principle,” and comments by G.H. Hickman, in Conference on Research in Income and Wealth, Models of Income Determination, (Princeton, 1964), vol. 28, pp. 137-176.

Peston, M.H., “Generalizing the Balanced Budget Multiplier,” and “Comment” by W.A. Salant, The Review of Economics and Statistics (August, 1958).

Bowen, W.G., “The Balanced-Budget Multiplier: A Suggestion for a More General Formulation,” The Review of Economics and Statistics, May 1957.

Goodwin, R.M., “The Multiplier” in Seymour E. Harris, ed., The New Economics (New York, 1947), pp. 482-99.

Chenery, H.B., “Overcapacity and the Acceleration Principle,” Econometrica, vol. 20, January 1952, pp. 1-28.

Caff, J.T., “A Generalization of the Multiplier-Accelerator Model,” The Economic Journal, vol. 69, March 1961, pp. 36-52.

Kuznets, S., “Relation Between Capital Goods and Finished Products in the Business Cycle,” in Economic Essays in Honor of Wesley Clair Mitchell, (New York, 1935).

Knox, A.D. “The Acceleration Principle and the Theory of Investment: A Survey,” Economica, vol. 19, 1952.

Harrod, R.F., Towards a Dynamic Economics (London, 1948).

Hicks, J.R., A Contribution to the Theory of the Trade Cycle (Oxford, 1950).

Goodwin, R.M., “Problems of Trend and Cycle,” Yorkshire Bulletin, vol. 5, August 1953.

Ott, A.E., “The Relation Between the Accelerator and the Capital Output Ratio,” Review of Economic Studies, vol. 25, June 1958.

Minsky, H., “Monetary Systems and Accelerator Models,” American Economic Review, vol. 47, 1957.

Friedman, M. and D. Meiselman, “The Relative Stability of Monetary Velocity and the Investment Multiplier in the United States, 1897-1958,” Stabilization Policies, Commission on Money and Credit (New Jersey, 1963), pp. 165-268.

Hester, D.D., “Keynes and the Quantity Theory: A Comment on the Friedman-Meiselman CMC Paper,” the reply by Friedman and Meiselman, and the rejoinder by Hester, The Review of Economics and Statistics, vol. XLVI, November 1964, pp. 364-377.

VIII. Employment and Inflation

Required

Ackley, Chap. XVI.

Bronfenbrenner, M. and F.D. Holzman, “Survey of Inflation Theory,” American Economic Review, LIII (Sept., 1963), pp. 593-661.

Higher Unemployment Rates, 1957-60, “Structural Transformation or Inadequate Demand,” Subcommittee on Economic Statistics of the Joint Economic Committee, Washington, 1961.

Hines, G.G., “Trade Unions and Wage Inflation in the United Kingdom,” R.E. Studies (October 1964).

Killingsworth, C.L., “Automation, Jobs and Manpower,” from Nation’s Manpower Revolution, Hearings before the Subcommittee on Employment and Manpower of the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, 88^th Congress, 1^stsession, Washington, D.C., part 5, pp. 1461-1480.

Lipsey, Richard, “The Relation Between Unemployment and the Rate of Change in Money Wage Rates in the United Kingdom, 1862-1957: A Further Analysis,” Economica N.S. 27 (Feb. 1960). Reprinted in Klein and Gordon (eds.), Readings in Business Cycle Theory (1965).

Perry, George L., Unemployment, Money Wage Rates and Inflation (1966).

Phillips, “The Relation Between Unemployment and the Rate of Change of Money Wage Rates,” Economica (Nov., 1958), pp. 283-99.

Samuelson, P.A. and R. Solow, “Analytical Aspects of Anti-Inflation Policy,” American Economic Review (May 1960), pp. 177-94.

Solow, R.M., “The Case Against the Case Against the Guidelines,” in G. Schultz (ed.), Guidelines (1966).

Optional

Smithies, A., “The Behavior of Money National Income Under Inflationary Conditions,” Readings in Fiscal Policy, pp. 121-36.

Machlup, F., “Another View of Cost-Push and Demand-.Pull Inflation,” Review of Economics and Statistics, XLII, (May 1960), pp. 125-39.

Galbraith, J.K., “Market Structure and Stabilization Policy,” Review of Economics and Statistics (May 1957), pp. 124-33.

Hicks, J.R., “Economic Foundations of Wage Policy,” Economic Journal, (Sept. 1955), pp. 389-404.

Morton, W.A., “Trade Unionism, Full Employment and Inflation,” American Economic Review, (March 1950), pp. 13-39.

Slichter, S., “Do Wage-Fixing Agreements Have an Inflationary Bias,” American Economic Review, (May 1954), pp. 332-46.

Berman, B., “Alternative Measures of Structural Unemployment,” Employment Policy and the Labor Market, A.M. Ross, ed.

Joint Economic Committee, Higher Unemployment Rates, 1957-60, U.S. 87^th Congress.

Galloway, “Labor Mobility, Resource Allocation and Structural Unemployment,” American Economic Review (Sept. 1963), pp. 694-716.

Gordon, R.A., “Has Structural Unemployment Worsened,” Industrial Relations (May 1964), pp. 53-77.

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Evsey D. Domar Papers. Box 15, Folder “Macroeconomics. Old Reading Lists”.

______________________

The Theory of Income and Employment
14.451
E. D. Domar [and] J. R. Harris

Midterm Examination
November 30, 1967

(One hour and fifteen minutes)

Please answer all questions. Use a separate book for each question.

(25%) After the discovery that an hour of dancing a day increases a person’s efficiency, a hitherto unemployed dancing teacher was hired (to teach dancing to their employees or themselves) by the following units, one at a time;
1. A beginning sculptor
2. The Ford Foundation
3. Sears, Roebuck & and Co.
4. The Town of Concord
5. The Head of the Mafia
6. The Embassy of South Vietnam in Washington

Disregarding any indirect effects (such as the multiplier), indicate and explain how national income and product and the relevant subdivisions in money and in real terms are affected by this act on the assumption that (1) dancing is really effective, and (2) that it is not. Your reasoning is at least as important as your answer.

(20%) “The Federal Reserve-type index is a poor numerator for the measurement of the Residual (Total Factor Productivity), or of any other productivity.”
Comment fully.
A visitor to M.I.T. has suggested recently that if the Federal Reserve Board buys bonds in the open market in periods of unemployment, then real output, prices and the interest rate—all three—will increase.
Are these predictions consistent with those of Patinkin and Keynes? How would their predictions and your own results (you may or may not agree with those sages) be changed under conditions of full employment? Explain fully. (35%)
(20%) A Russian economist once stated that Keynes’ variables were as follows:

Independent variables	Dependent variables
1. Propensity to consume	1. Savings
2. Marginal efficiency of capital	2. Investment
3. Rate of interest	3. Level of employment
4. Liquidity preference

Comment. Be specific

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Evsey D. Domar Papers. Box 17, Folder “Macroeconomics. Examinations (1 of 3)”.

______________________

THE THEORY OF INCOME AND EMPLOYMENT
14.451
E. D. Domar [and] J. R. Harris

FINAL EXAMINATION
January 23, 1968

Three Hours

PLEASE ANSWER ALL QUESTIONS. THEY CARRY EQUAL WEIGHTS. USE A SEPARATE BOOK FOR EACH QUESTION.

(A) National Product is defined by the U.S. Department of Commerce as the sum of all final goods (and services), each multiplied by its price.

(B) National Income is defined by it as the sum of all net incomes of certain recipients.

Discuss the following questions:

1. What is a final good (or service) in (A)? What is the reason for this definition?
2. What is the rationale for multiplying each good (or service) by its price? What assumptions are implied in this procedure? Are they realistic?
3. Whose net incomes are aggregated? Why? What is a net income? What assumptions does this procedure imply? Are they realistic?
4. Could you suggest changes or improvements in the above procedures? Justify them.

1. “A high ratio of depreciation to investment is a sign of old age.”
2. Why is a special definition of money required in the “Price Flexibility and Employment” problems? What is the definition? What assumptions does it rest on?
3. “If the Balanced-Budget Multiplier is correct, isn’t Say’s Law also correct?

Assume that this country is being threatened by inflation and discuss the pros and cons of the following measures allegedly directed against it. Whenever you can, indicate the positions which several economists whose theories were discussed in the course would take on these measures:
1. (i) A temporary Federal sales tax on all goods and services, or
  (ii) a permanent tax of the same kind.
2. (i) A redistribution of income from wages to profits, or
  (ii) a more equal distribution of income.
3. Setting the rate of growth of labor productivity in each industry as the limit for the rate of increase of wages in that industry.
4. (i) Remitting domestic taxes on American exports, or
  (ii) a reduction in import duties.
5. A tax on all capital goods.

1. Define and discuss the applicability to investment decisions of the marginal efficiency of investment (also called marginal efficiency of capital, or the internal rate of return) and the discounted present value. Can they give different ranking of investment projects? Why? Which measure would you use?
2. What major modifications of investment criteria would be required if the investment was done by the U.S. Government in times of unemployment?
3. Same, if the investment was done by the government of some underdeveloped country?

Attempts to estimate the parameters of an aggregate consumption function for the U.S. have yielded the following results:
1. Cross-section and short-term series analyses estimate a marginal propensity to consume somewhere in the range of .55-.70, this magnitude being lower than the average propensity to consume.
2. Long-run time series analyses estimate a marginal propensity to consume equal to the average propensity of about .88.

Compare and contrast the assumptions, rationale and implications of the “Previous Peak Income”, “Permanent Income”, and “Lifetime Cycle” hypotheses, each of which purports to reconcile the above observations.

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Evsey D. Domar Papers. Box 17, Folder “Macroeconomics. Final Exams (2 of 3)”.

Image Source: Evsey D. Domar at the MIT Museum legacy website.

Tags Domar, HarrisJR

Bryn Mawr Columbia Economists Germany Pennsylvania

Columbia. Appointments of H. L. Moore, H. R. Seager, and A. S. Johnson, 1902

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2019-09-29

Memorial minutes of the Columbia University Faculty of Political Science for both Henry L. Moore and Henry R. Seager have been transcribed earlier here at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror. This post takes us back to the start of their Columbia University careers, namely the 1902-03 academic year. Professor Richmond Mayo-Smith’s suicide in November 1901 left a significant gap in Columbia’s economics faculty which was then closed with the appointment of Henry L. Moore.

_______________________

Columbia Announcement of the appointments of Henry L. Moore (Prof.) and Henry R. Seager (Adjunct Prof.), 1902

It seems fitting to introduce to the acquaintance of the readers of the QUARTERLY those who come from other universities to occupy professors’ chairs in our own. Professors Moore and Seager enter the service of the University in the School of Political Science…

Professor Henry L. Moore, who comes to us from Smith College, is thirty-two years of age; a native of Maryland and a graduate of Randolph-Macon College in Virginia. His special training in economics was received at the Johns Hopkins University, from which he received, in 1896, the degree of Ph.D., and in Vienna, where he was a pupil of Professor Karl [sic, “Carl”] Menger. He was appointed to an instructorship in economics in the Johns Hopkins University in 1896, and to a professorship in Smith College in 1897, though he continued after this, for a time, to give, in the Johns Hopkins University, lectures which treated of the application of mathematical principles to economic problems.

His chief published work is an essay on Von Thünen’s “Theory of Natural Wages,” which, beside throwing new light on a scientific problem, offers to the English reading student the best introduction to the study of the works of Von Thünen and of the extensive literature which has grown up about them.

Henry R. Seager, the new adjunct-professor of political economy, was graduated from the University of Michigan in 1890. During the next four years he studied at Johns Hopkins, Halle, Berlin, Vienna and the University of Pennsylvania, receiving the degree of Ph.D. from the last-named institution in 1894. From that date he was on the teaching force of the University of Pennsylvania, holding successively the titles of instructor and assistant professor of economics, till he accepted the call to Columbia. Professor Seager was for three years Secretary of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences, and in 1900 he became editor-in-chief of the Annals, the magazine published by the Academy. His publications in periodicals have been numerous, and his more important works include “The Finances of Pennsylvania,” “The Teaching of Economics at Berlin and Vienna,” [JPE, March 1893] “The Fallacy of Saving,” and “The Teaching of Economics and Economic History.”

Source: Columbia University Quarterly, v. 4, June 1902, pp. 293-94.

_______________________

Announcement of the Columbia appointments of Henry R. Seager (Adjunct Prof.) and Alvin Saunders Johnson (Reader), 1902

Columbia University.- Doctor Henry R. Seager has resigned his position of Assistant Professor of Political Economy at the University of Pennsylvania, and has accepted the position of Adjunct Professor of Political Economy in Columbia University. His duties in Columbia University will begin with the opening of the coming academic year.

Mr. Seager has published the following papers:

“German Universities and German Student Life.” The Inlander, June, 1892.

“Economics at Berlin and Vienna.” Journal of Political Economy, March, 1893.

“Philippovich’s Grundriss der Politischen-Oekonomie.” ANNALS, July, 1893.

“Pennsylvania Tax Conference.” Ibid., March, 1894.

“Seventh Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association.” Ibid., March, 1895.

“Malloch’s Labour and the Popular Welfare, and Dyer’s The Evolution of Industry.” The Citizen, June, 1895.

“Cunningham’s Outlines of English Industrial History.” ANNALS, January, 1896.

“Bruce’s Economic History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century.” Ibid., 1896.

“The Fallacy of Saving.” Supplement to Economic Studies, American Economic Association, April, 1896.

“Smart’s Studies in Economics.” The Citizen, August, 1896.

“Stray Impressions of Oxford.” The Pennsylvanian, February, 1897.

“Higgs’ The Physiocrats.” ANNALS, July, 1897.

“Gibbins’ Industry in England.” Ibid., September, 1897.

“Bullock’s Introduction to the Study of Economics.” Ibid., November, 1897.

“The Consumers’ League.” Bulletin of American Academy, April, 1898.

“George’s Political Economy.” Political Science Quarterly, December, 1898.

“Devine’s Economics.” ANNALS, March, 1899.

“Hull’s The Economic Writings of Sir William Petty.” Ibid., May, 1900.

“Smart’s The Distribution of Income.” Ibid., July, 1900.

“Clark’s The Distribution of Wealth: A Theory of Wages, Interest and Profits.” Ibid., September, 1900.

Editorial. Ibid., January, 1901.

“Meeting of American Economic Association.” Ibid., March1901.

“Professor Patten’s Theory of Prosperity.” Ibid., March, 1902.

Editorial. Ibid.

“Meeting of American Economic Association.” Ibid.

“Crowell’s The Distribution and Marketing of Farm Products.” Report of United States Industrial Commission, Vol. VI, 1901. Political Science Quarterly, March, 1902.

Mr. Alvin Saunders Johnson, at present Reader in Economics at Bryn Mawr College, Pa., has been appointed Tutor in Economics at Columbia University, New York City. His work in Columbia will begin at the opening of the coming academic year.

Source: Personal Notes, Annals of the American Academy, Vol. 19 (May, 1902), pp. 103-104.

Image Sources: Henry Moore (left) Smith College, Classbook of 1902, p. 11. and Henry Seager (right) Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

Tags JohnsonA, Moore, Seager

MEMORANDUM

I

II

III

IV

V

Perry, Arthur Latham (1830-1905) By Patrick J. McCurdy (Class of 2002)

Arthur Latham Perry Links to Editions of his Three Text-books in Political Economy

Arthur Latham Perry, LL.D. Orrin Sage Professor of History and Political Economy in Williams College

PREFACE 14th edition (1877) of Elements of Political Economy

Arthur Latham Perry, LL.D. Orrin Sage Professor of History and Political Economy in Williams College

PREFACE. Principles of Political Economy (1891)

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Department of Economics and Social Science

MEMORANDUM

Samuel Bowles, Great-Grandfather of economist Samuel Stebbins Bowles (b. 9 Feb 1826; d. 16 Jan 1878)

Arthur Latham Perry’s expression of gratitude to Samuel Bowles Preface to Elements of Political Economy (4th ed.)

Charles Allen Bowles, Grandfather (b. 19 Dec 1861; d. 14 Nov 1933) & Chester Bliss Bowles, Father of economist Samuel Stebbins Bowles (b. 5 Apr, 1901; d. 25 May 1986)

Charles A. Bowles, Obituary

Charles A. Bowles House, 81 Mulberry Street, Springfield, MA, ca. 1938-39.

Columbia University in the City of New York President’s Room

Response by E.R.A. Seligman Carbon copy

Course Description

Economics 120. Economics of Mobilization and War

Course Syllabus and Readings

Spring Term 1951-52 Economics 120 Economics of Mobilization and War

I. Introduction (1 week)

II. The Problem in Real Terms: Optimal Division of Resources (3 weeks)

III. The Problem in Money Terms: Adequate Funds Without Runaway Inflation (3 weeks)

IV. Fiscal Policy: Its Implementation and Effects (3 weeks)

V. Direct Controls: Principles and Techniques (3 weeks)

VI. Summary and Alternative Policies

Reading Period Assignment

HARVARD UNIVERSITY Department of Economics Reading Period Assignments May 5 – May 24, 1952

Economics 120:

Final Examination May 1952

1951-52 HARVARD UNIVERSITY ECONOMICS 120

Part I

Part II

HARVARD UNIVERSITY Department of Economics Fall Term, 1955-56

Economics 205 History of Economic Theory [O. H. Taylor]

I. Sept. 26-30. Introduction.

II. Oct. 3-7. Antiquity—Plato and Aristotle and Stoicism, Roman Law, and Early Christianity.

III. Oct. 10-14. The Middle Ages—Scholastic Thought—Aquinas.

IV. Oct. 17-21. Early Modern Europe—Growth of capitalism, national states, the modern (as opposed to mediaeval) intellectual climate, and the ideas and practices of political absolutism and “mercantilism”. (2) The general and political philosophy of Hobbes.

V. Oct. 24-28. Economic Analysis in the Age of “Mercantilism.”

VI. Oct. 31-Nov. 4. Liberalism, Locke, and the 18th Century Enlightenment.

VII. Nov. 7-11. The Philosophy and Economics of the Physiocrats.

VIII. Nov. 14-18. Adam Smith I. His forerunners in moral philosophy (Shaftesbury, Hutcheson, Hume), and his Theory of Moral Sentiments; and the relation of this material to the Wealth of Nations.

IX. Nov. 21-25. Adam Smith II. Economics.

X. Nov. 28-Dec. 2. Utilitarian Liberalism, Benthamism, and Classical (Ricardian) Political Economy.

XI. Dec. 5-9. Malthus and Ricardo.

XII. Dec. 12-16. Contemporary Criticisms of Classical Economics, and Rival Currents of Thought in the Same Epoch.

Reading Period:

1955-56 HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 205 [Mid-year exam, January 1956]

1955-56 HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 205 [Final exam, June 1956]

Course Announcement

Course Topics

Handwritten examination questions

M.I.T. THE THEORY OF INCOME AND EMPLOYMENT 14.451 1967-68 [first session]

I. ADMINISTRATIVE QUESTIONS

II. THE PURPOSE AND NATURE OF THE COURSE

III. COMMENTS ON MACROECONOMICS

PART I NATIONAL INCOME AND RELATED ITEMS

THEORY OF INCOME AND EMPLOYMENT 14.451 Fall Term 1967-68

READING LIST

I. NATIONAL INCOME AND RELATED ITEMS (September 19 – October 12)

READING LIST—SECOND INSTALLMENT II. GENERAL AGGREGATIVE SYSTEMS—FIRST APPROXIMATION (October 17 – October 31).

III. PRICE FLEXIBILITY AND EMPLOYMENT (November 2-9)

IV. The Theory of Interest and the Demand for Money

VI. Investment

Reading List—Fourth Installment VII. Multiplier and Accelerator

VIII. Employment and Inflation

The Theory of Income and Employment 14.451 E. D. Domar [and] J. R. Harris

Midterm Examination November 30, 1967

THE THEORY OF INCOME AND EMPLOYMENT 14.451 E. D. Domar [and] J. R. Harris

FINAL EXAMINATION January 23, 1968

Columbia Announcement of the appointments of Henry L. Moore (Prof.) and Henry R. Seager (Adjunct Prof.), 1902

Announcement of the Columbia appointments of Henry R. Seager (Adjunct Prof.) and Alvin Saunders Johnson (Reader), 1902

Perry, Arthur Latham (1830-1905)
By Patrick J. McCurdy (Class of 2002)

Arthur Latham Perry
Links to Editions of his Three Text-books in Political Economy

Arthur Latham Perry, LL.D.
Orrin Sage Professor of History and Political Economy in Williams College

PREFACE
14^th edition (1877) of Elements of Political Economy

Arthur Latham Perry, LL.D.
Orrin Sage Professor of History and Political Economy in Williams College

PREFACE.
Principles of Political Economy (1891)

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Department of Economics and Social Science

Samuel Bowles, Great-Grandfather of economist Samuel Stebbins Bowles
(b. 9 Feb 1826; d. 16 Jan 1878)

Arthur Latham Perry’s expression of gratitude to Samuel Bowles
Preface to Elements of Political Economy (4th ed.)

Charles Allen Bowles, Grandfather
(b. 19 Dec 1861; d. 14 Nov 1933)
&
Chester Bliss Bowles, Father of economist Samuel Stebbins Bowles
(b. 5 Apr, 1901; d. 25 May 1986)

Columbia University
in the City of New York
President’s Room

Response by E.R.A. Seligman
Carbon copy

Spring Term 1951-52
Economics 120
Economics of Mobilization and War

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics
Reading Period Assignments
May 5 – May 24, 1952

Final Examination
May 1952

1951-52
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 120

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics
Fall Term, 1955-56

Economics 205
History of Economic Theory
[O. H. Taylor]

VI. Oct. 31-Nov. 4. Liberalism, Locke, and the 18^th Century Enlightenment.

1955-56
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 205
[Mid-year exam, January 1956]

1955-56
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 205
[Final exam, June 1956]

M.I.T.
THE THEORY OF INCOME AND EMPLOYMENT
14.451
1967-68
[first session]

THEORY OF INCOME AND EMPLOYMENT
14.451
Fall Term 1967-68

I. NATIONAL INCOME AND RELATED ITEMS
(September 19 – October 12)

READING LIST—SECOND INSTALLMENT
II. GENERAL AGGREGATIVE SYSTEMS—FIRST APPROXIMATION
(October 17 – October 31).

III. PRICE FLEXIBILITY AND EMPLOYMENT
(November 2-9)

Reading List—Fourth Installment
VII. Multiplier and Accelerator

The Theory of Income and Employment
14.451
E. D. Domar [and] J. R. Harris

Midterm Examination
November 30, 1967

THE THEORY OF INCOME AND EMPLOYMENT
14.451
E. D. Domar [and] J. R. Harris

FINAL EXAMINATION
January 23, 1968