Author: Irwin Collier

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Economists Harvard Lecture Notes

Harvard. Tobin’s notes to lecture by Alvin Hansen on Keynes’ General Theory, May 1938

 

The following notes were taken by James Tobin at the end of his junior year at Harvard. The notes for this lecture by Alvin H. Hansen on Keynes’ General Theory were “filed” as loose-leaf pages inserted into a bound volume of Tobin’s handwritten course notes for Economics 41 (Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises, taught by John H. Williams and Seymour Harris). Hansen’s lecture might have been a guest lecture for that course since only a recitation section taught by Kenyon Edward Poole was included in the notes for that date.  

Also on that date in history at Harvard: Gunnar Myrdal held the second lecture in his four-lecture Godkin public lecture series “The Population Problem and Social Security”.

__________________

Lecture
5/4/38
Prof. Alvin H. Hansen of Garver & Hansen
Littauer Professor of Political Economy

Keynes’ General Theory.

Not mainly concerned with trade cycle. Ch[apter] on trade cycle not very original. Cycle consists in fluctuation of rate of investment-purchase of capital-goods. Keynes holds that fluctuations in rate of invest[ment] due to fluctuations in the rate of prospective profits, in the marg[inal] efficiency of capital. Keynes emphasizes the rôle of expectations—psychology. Quick shift from prosperity to depression due to violent shifts in expectation from optimism to pessimism.

Mainly concerned with larger problem of full empl[oyment] of labor and the other factors of production. Could still have trade cycle but its booms would hit full employment. But also conceivable is a society in which ceiling of fluctuations is below full empl[oyment]—permanent under-employment. This long-run under-empl[oyment] Keynes mainly concerned with. Modern societies tend to be in a situation of chronic under-employment. He accuses classicals of working on assumption that society has long-run tendency to full empl[oyment]. Classical writers were concerned with pricing system and returns to different factors, and how much labor, etc., was used. R[ate] of int[erest] for example determined amount of saving cped [compared?] to consumption out of given income. This according to K[eynes] only goes with full empl[oyment] assumption. Rise in consumption in condition of under-empl[oyment] will lead to rise in investment as well. These are not alternatives until there is full empl[oyment]. This well realized by bus[isness] cycle theorists. Keynes applies it to long-run analysis.

What determines the volume of employment?

1) Rate of interest
2) Marg[inal] efficiency of capital. (Prospective rate of profit anticipated by bus[iness] man.)
3) Propensity to consume.

Nothing new about introducing rate of int[erest] as a determinant. Wicksell 1898 set forth determinants of expansion as prospective rate of profit on one side and r[ate] of int[erest] on the other side. Keynes adds the propensity to consume. dC/dY >0, <1, decreases. Rich societies have tendency to fail to maintain level of income once achieved. A society which consumes all of its income would have no difficulty in maintaining its level, because no deficiency in income-spending from incomes pd [paid] out to factors. If some part is not spent on consumers’ goods—just saved without a purchase of capital-goods – those who save are not actual investors-entrepreneurs—and there is not an equal amount of new investment, there is a tendency for incomes to fall. If propensity to consume is low, other determinants of employment must be very strong—high prospective rate of profit, low r[ate] of int[erest]—in order to balance saving.

“Classical” relation of r[ate] of int[erest] to saving. Later classical writers qualified argument: if r[ate] of int[erest] is very high, more saving; if low, less. But in between, there are the fixed-income savers. Keynes: determinant is level of incomes. Wouldn’t say no relation of saving to r[ate] of int[erest]. Given r[ate] of int[erest], determinant is level of incomes. There is for K[eynes] then no minimum r[ate] of int[erest], such as Cassel found: if int[erest] falls there because of shortness of human life people will say int[erest] is so low that not much income from it. Hence they will consume capital. At this p[oin]t tendency for saving to decrease, & consumption [to] increase. For K[eynes] there is another minimum point, below which there is not decrease of saving but an increase of hoarding. K[eynes] distinguishes mkt [market] & pure rates of int[erest]. Special risk in buying long-term commitment—risk is that r[ate] of int[erest] will rise a little bit in future, price of bond will drop so as to wipe out all int[erest] gain on it. Hence there is pt[point] where we won’t bother to buy securities but will hold cash. R[ate] of int[erest]not driven down below point of consump[tion] ncrease. What people will do is hold savings in liquid forms.

In rich community, marg[inal] efficiency of capital low; propensity to consume low; but rate of int[erest] can’t keep falling because of liquidity-preference. Hence there is not adequate volume of new invest[ment] to maintain full employment. R[ate] of int[erest] doesn’t drop to point where people stop saving & consume more, & rectify the difficulty; but is held up by liquidity preference.

Emphasizes largely r[ate] of int[erest]; Spiethoff thinks important thing in expansion is marg[ignal] efficiency of capital, which K[eynes] largely takes for granted. Spiethoff’s factors influencing prospective rate of profit on new invest[ment]: expanding market, increasing population, inventions & giant industries. All these associated with a young & growing capitalism, as in 19th.—unique century, conquering the world and revolutionizing the industrial technique and expanding population. Now decline in population, and no new mkts [markets]. K[eynes] assumes this exploitation of opportunities & emphasizes the monetary rate of int[erest], not as Spiethoff on non-monetary influences on marg[inal] efficiency. Risk & uncertainty of modern world decrease the will to invest—and perhaps also the tendency to save w[oul]d be greater. Failure of invest[ment] outlet.

K[eynes]’s solutions:

1) Artificially create a low rate of interest.
2) Stimulate consump[tion] by redistribution of income.
3) Enlarge volume of public investment.

[Qualifications]

1) How far will stimulate invest[ment] doubtful.
2) Effects of taxation for this purpose may hurt private invest[ment]
3) Public invest[ment] may be offset by private invest[ment] decline.

            Economic policies are choice among evils.

 

Source: Yale University Archives. Papers of James Tobin.  Box 6, Loose pages in bound lecture notes for Economics 41 taken by James Tobin during the 1937-38 academic year at Harvard University.

Image Source: James Tobin senior year portrait in Harvard Class Album, 1939.

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Berkeley Chicago Faculty Regulations Harvard Johns Hopkins M.I.T. Michigan Rochester Stanford Uncategorized Yale

Harvard. Report on the General Examination for an Economics PhD, 1970

 

 

What makes this report on the general examination in the economics PhD program at Harvard particularly valuable is its brief survey of the practice at eight other universities: Yale, MIT, Johns Hopkins, Rochester, Stanford, Berkeley, Michigan, and Chicago. 

_____________________

DRAFT

This draft is distributed in Professor Chenery’s absence to permit discussion at the next Department meeting, January 27, 1970.
Professor Chenery or other members of The Committee might wish to record further comments in preparation [of] a final report.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

Cambridge, Massachusetts 02135
January 16, 1970

To: The Department of Economics
From: Committee on Graduate Instruction

REPORT ON THE GENERAL EXAMINATION FOR THE PH.D.

In response to a number of requests from students and faculty, the Committee has reexamined at considerable length the requirements for the General Examination. This report summarizes our general assessment in section I and makes specific recommendations for changes in section II. Some related issues needing further consideration are listed in section III.

Although for the past several years graduate students have criticized various aspects of the generals, the main source of dissatisfaction seems to be with the rigidity of “the system” rather than with any particular aspect of it. We have taken advantage of the fact that the Committee now has three student members to try to understand some of the effects of our present procedures on students’ choices and incentives. We have also tried to strike a better balance between preparation for the general examination and other aspects of a student’s training in his first two years.

As a background for our discussion, the secretary of the Committee compiled a useful summary of the regulations in effect at other leading universities, which is attached.

 

ROLE OF THE GENERAL EXAMINATION

The primary functions [sic] of the General Examination is to evaluate the student’s formal preparation in economics before he proceeds to more advanced phases of teaching and thesis preparation. It also serves as a screening device to weed out weak candidates, as a basis for subsequent recommendations for employers, and as an indirect way of organizing the student’s course work in his first two years. These multiple functions produce much of the debate over requirements at Harvard and elsewhere, since a system that is ideal for one purpose has weaknesses for another.

One of the main criticisms of the existing Harvard system is its psychological impact on the student. The need to satisfy the requirements in all fields within a period of several months inhibits most students from exploring non-required topics until after they have passed the generals. On balance, we are impressed with the desirability of adopting a more flexible timing that will encourage the student to get most of his tool requirements out of the way in the first year and use the second year to explore the fields of his special interest and get some taste of actual research. We have tried to maintain the undoubted benefits of an overall examination, however, as compared to a set of course requirements.

Our survey of other departments shows a significant trend toward breaking down the requirements into separate parts and focusing less on the culminating oral examination. Most departments use the qualifying examination in theory as a device for screening first year students, which also reduces the burden of preparing all fields in the second year. In most departments the minimum proficiency in quantitative techniques and economic history is demonstrated by a satisfactory course grade rather than by inclusions in the general examination. Although we have made our own judgements on these questions, we recommend movement in these directions.

Another consideration which makes greater flexibility desirable is the growing proportion of students who are already well prepared in one or more required fields. For many students, the present system therefore encourages too much review of material they have already covered. We feel that those who are adequately prepared on one of the required fields (theory, quantitative method, history) should have an opportunity to satisfy this requirement in their first year in order to make better use of their time thereafter.

Our recommendations are directed toward achieving greater flexibility in the timing of courses and examinations to allow the student to make more effective use of his time. This should enable many students to get started earlier on their optional fields and to make a better choice of their field of specialization. We do not envision any reduction in the total work done in the first two years or any lowering of standards of performance.

 

SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

General Principles

  1. The general examination should be separated into four component parts—theory, quantitative method, economic history, and special fields—each of which would be graded separately.
  2. The minimum requirement in quantitative method and economic history should be regarded as a “tool requirement” or “literacy test” as has become the practice in the quantitative field. Students wishing to specialize in these fields may offer them at a higher level as one of their special fields.
  3. The term “general examination” would apply to the oral examination on the special fields. (The question of a general grade on all parts as at present was left open.)
  4. There should be no prescribed timing of the four components, other than the stipulation that the required fields be either completed (or write-off courses in progress) at the time of the oral examination on the special fields. Qualified students would be encouraged to complete one or more requirements in the first year.
  5. Two write-offs should be allowed rather than one.
  6. A subcommittee would be set up for economic history (and retained in theory and quantitative method). The standards and ways of satisfying them in the three required fields should be proposed by the three subcommittees and ratified by the GIC and the Department.

The Theory Requirement

  1. The present coverage (roughly 201a, 201b, 202a) should be retained. The examination would continue to be written.
  2. The examination should be offered two or three times a year. (A straw vote by students showed a preference for June, September and January and a margin for September over January.) Most students would take the examination at the end of their first year—in June or September.

The Quantitative Requirement

  1. The present de facto standard of the written examination should be accepted as the “literacy test”.
  2. The requirement can be met either by the present type of written examination (given twice a year) or by a grade of B+ in 221b or 224a. (It is estimated that roughly 75% would be able to qualify by course examination.)

The Economic History Requirement

  1. The history requirement be made parallel to the quantitative requirement in that:
    1. It can be satisfied by course or special departmental examination.
    2. It can either be offered at a minimum level or at a higher level as a special field.
  2. The minimum requirement would be satisfied by a course grade that would allow a similar proportion to qualify in this way (B+ or A- pending further information).
  3. Alternatives to the present 233 sequence (if any) to be established by the history subcommittee.
  4. Minimum standards in both history and quantitative method could be demonstrated by course examination.

The Requirement in Special Fields

  1. Two special fields would be required as the basis for the oral examination, which would also cover general analytical ability.
  2. Advanced theory, econometrics and economic history would be eligible as special fields, but the first two could not both be included. (In the majority view, one applied field apart from history would be required in order to eliminate the possibility of a candidate offering only the three required fields.)
  3. The candidate would be encouraged (or required?) to submit a research paper to be made part of the subject matter and record of the general examination (He is now “expected” to have presented a paper to a working seminar by the end of his second year.)
  4. The general oral examination would normally be taken at the end of the second year, but could not be taken before the qualifying exams in theory, quantitative and history have been passed (or prospective write-offs are in progress.)

QUESTIONS OF GRADING

  1. Should all examinations be either pass-fail or on a more limited grading scale than at present?
  2. Should the passing standard for the course option in both quantitative methods and history be B+?
  3. Should the four requirements be graded separately or combined (as at present) into an overall grade on the General Examination? (The committee favors first the alternative, but would also require “distinguished” performance in at least one area.)

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Examination Requirements at Other Places

Below I summarize examination requirements at eight other places, including Yale, MIT, Hopkins, Rochester, Stanford, Berkeley, Michigan and Chicago. The main findings of the survey are:

  1. It appears that the massive type of “generals” (where all fields and theory are combined in one session) has almost disappeared. With the exception of Hopkins, all of the above schools seem to settle the theory examination at the end of the first year, with special fields examined at the end of the second year.
  2. Among the schools surveyed, only Yale has a written examination in history. Hopkins, Stanford, Chicago and Berkeley require a course, with “satisfactory” grade. MIT and Rochester have no requirement.
  3. Only Yale gives a written in quantitative aspect of the generals. All the other schools have course requirements (satisfactory grade) only.
  4. Practices vary with regard to number of special fields and type of examination. MIT and Hopkins require three, the others two special fields. Examinations at Yale are oral, at the other places written, in some cases both written and oral. In most places the special field examinations must be taken together, but in some (Rochester, Chicago) they can be separated. Throughout, these special examinations seem to be given by the department, and not merely as course examination.
  5. Some provisions of special interest:
    1. Chicago and Rochester’s second year research paper as part of general examination
    2. Stanford’s requirement for distinction in at least one field.

 

I. Yale

Comprehensive Examination

  1. Written examination in theory and econometrics, usually August or September after first year.
  2. Written examination on economic history; usually late spring of second year.
  3. Oral examination in two applied fields, chosen from six and in general analytical ability; late spring of second year. Given by four examiners. Student excused from general examination in special field courses at end of second year. Oral examination in theory, history, quantitative or field outside economics may be substituted for one of the applied fields if candidate has done year’s course work in applied field “with sufficient distinction”.

History and Quantitative

  1. History—written, end of second year, and option to substitute for one special field.
  2. Quantitative—written, end of first year, and option to substitute for one special field.

Other requirements

  1. Has apparently been dropped.
  2. One course credit of explicit research training, second year.
  3. Dissertation to be completed in fourth year.

 

II. MIT

General examination

  1. General examination in theory consists of two written papers—micro and macro, given in final exam period of first year. May be substituted for final examinations in theory courses.
  2. General examination normally at end of second year. Consists of:
    1. written examinations on three of 12 special fields. These may include advanced theory, econometrics or economic history.
    2. oral examination in the three fields after written.
    3. a fourth field is required but may be written off by B grade in full year course.

History and Quantitative

  1. History—no requirement. May be a special field.
  2. Quantitative—no generals examination. May be a special field.

Other requirements

  1. Two languages

 

III. Johns Hopkins

First Year Oral Examination

A first year oral examination is given in the spring of the first year, covering the fields in which the student has worked during that year.

Comprehensive Examination

Normally taken in spring of second year. Consists of:

  1. Two written examinations in theory, micro and macro.
  2. Three written examinations in special fields, one of which may be outside economics.
  3. Oral examination: Covers theory, special fields, statistics.

History and Quantitative

  1. History—satisfactory work in course.
  2. Statistics—satisfactory work in course.

Other Requirements

  1. One language.
  2. In addition to the departmental special examination, an examination is given by the graduate board, which includes members of other departments.

 

IV. Rochester

Qualifying Examination

  1. Theory and econometrics courses are required but are not part of Qualifying Examination.
  2. Qualifying Examination taken in May of second year. Consists of
    1. Written examination in two fields. These may include mathematical economics and econometrics. Need not be taken simultaneously.
    2. A second year research paper which is to be presented to a departmental seminar at the end of second year.
    3. After (a) and (b) are met, an oral examination in the special fields.

History and Quantitative

  1. Econometrics and mathematical economics requirements (courses), extent depending on fields.
  2. No history requirement.

Other Requirements

  1. Certain distribution requirement.
  2. Language and mathematics.

 

V. Stanford

Comprehensive Examination

  1. Written in micro and macro theory at end of first year. Cover course materials.
  2. Selection of special fields under two plans:
    1. If no minor subject is taken, student chooses four out of ten fields. These may include history, econometrics, mathematical economics. One field may be outside economics.
    2. Student may choose a minor subject (in another department) and choose only one out of the ten special economics fields.

Comprehensive written examinations for each field scheduled annually, usually at close of course sequence. Must show distinction in at least one field.

History and Quantitative

  1. History—Include at least two courses from offerings in economic history, history of thought, comparative economics, development.
  2. Quantitative—Econometrics course required.

Other Requirements

  1. Language or particular quantitative skills.
  2. Two seminars and research papers.

 

VI. Berkeley

Departmental Examination in Theory

  1. Must be passed by end of first year. Students with strong background take it in November of first term, others in June (end of first year).
  2. Written qualifying examinations given in two out of thirteen special fields at end of second year. Examinations given twice a year, must be taken together.
  3. Within one year after written qualifying examinations are completed, student presents himself for oral, based on prospectus (and interim results) of his thesis. General assessment of competence.

History and Quantitative

  1. Course in economic history at 210 level.
  2. Course in statistics at 240 level.

Other Requirements

  1. No language.

 

VII. Michigan

Preliminary Examination

  1. At end of theory courses in micro and macro, an “augmented examination” is given which serves as preliminary examination in theory.
  2. Two fields of specialization are required. One field is satisfied by satisfactory grades in two courses. For the other field a written preliminary examination is required.
  3. After this, oral examination on research topic and surrounding area.

Economic History and Quantitative

  1. No history requirement.
  2. Course requirement in statistics and econometrics.

Other Requirements

  1. No general language requirement.

 

VIII. Chicago

Preliminary Examination

  1. A “course [sic, “core” probably intended] examination” covering micro and macro theory is given twice a year (separate from course examinations) and is usually taken at end of first or middle of second year.
  2. Two special fields are chosen. Written examinations in these fields, separate from course examinations. Need not be taken together.
  3. Student presents a thesis prospectus before thesis seminar, usually in third year. Must pass on this for candidacy.

History and Quantitative

  1. History course required as part of distribution requirements.
  2. Course work in statistics required.

Other Requirements

  1. Math, no languages.

 

Source: John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. John Kenneth Galbraith Papers. Series 5. Harvard University File, 1949-1990. Box 526. Folder “Harvard University Department of Economics: General Correspondence, 1967-1974 (2 of 3)”.

Image Source: Harvard Class Album, 1946.

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Dartmouth Economists Germany Michigan Princeton Suggested Reading Syllabus

Princeton. Course readings for “Government and Business”. Frank Haigh Dixon, 1924-25

 

 

According to the Princeton catalogue for 1922/23, the undergraduate course Economics 407 “Corporations: Finance and Regulation” was taught by Professor Frank Haigh Dixon. The course was designated as a senior course that graduate students could attend with supplementary work and a weekly conference. Frank W. Fetter took Economics 407 (that appears to have had the title “Government and Business” during the first semester of the academic year 1924-25. In his papers at the Economists’ Papers Archive at Duke University, one finds 47 pages of lecture notes for this course taken by Fetter (in which clear references to Dixon as the lecturer are found) plus about 40 pages of notes he took on his reading assignments. 

This post is limited to providing links to the texts and the weekly reading assignments of Dixon’s course. The course outline is followed by a memorial faculty minute for Professor Frank Haigh Dixon that provides career and biographical information.

__________________

Princeton University, 1924-1925

Government and Business
Economics 407

Links to Course Texts

Gerstenberg, Charles W. Financial Organization and Management. New York: Prentice-Hall, 1924. [Revised in 1923, Second revised edition 1939, Fourth Revised Edition, 1959]

Jones, Eliot. The Trust Problem in the United States. New York: Macmillan, 1921.

Ripley, William Z. (ed.). Trusts, Pools and Corporations, rev. ed. Boston: Ginn and Company, 1916.   [1905 edition]

Morgan, Charles Stillman. Regulation and the Management of Public Utilities. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, Riverside Press Cambridge, 1923. [Awarded second prize in Class A of the Hart, Schaffner & Marx competition]

Assignments

Sept. 26 Gerstenberg Ch. 4-7
Sept. 30 Gerstenberg Ch. 8-12
Oct. 6 Gerstenberg Ch. 13, 18, 19, 22
Oct. 13 Gerstenberg Ch. 27, 28, 29
Oct. 20 Gerstenberg Ch. 30, 31, 32
Oct. 27 Gerstenberg Finish book
Nov. 3 Jones

Ripley

 Ch. 1, 2, 3, 4, 19

old ed. pp. 244-249
rev. ed. pp. 465-470
Nov. 10 Jones

Ripley

 Ch. 13, 14

Ch. 1 and 2
Nov. 17 Jones

Ripley

 Ch. 5, 7

Ch 4 (rev.) or 5 (old)

8 (rev. only)
Nov. 24 Jones Ch. 6, 9, 10.
Dec. 1 Jones Ch. 17 & 18
Dec. 8 Jones

Ripley

 Ch. 8

Ch 18 (rev ed.) &

pp. 545-549 (rev. ed)
Dec. 15 Jones

Ripley

Morgan

 Ch. 15

Ch 19 (rev. ed.)

Ch. 1 & 2
Jan. 12 Morgan Ch. 3, 5
Jan. 19 Morgan Ch. 6, 7

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Frank Whitson Fetter Papers, Box: 49, Folder:  “Student Papers, Graduate Courses (Princeton University) EC 407 Government and Business Notes 1924-1925”.

__________________

Faculty Minute adopted March 6, 1944

FRANK HAIGH DIXON

The death, on January 27, 1944, of Frank Haigh Dixon, professor of economics, emeritus, closed a scholarly career of national distinction in his special field of transportation and public utilities. Professor Dixon was born in Winona, Minn., on October 8, 1869, the son of Alfred C. and Caroline A. D. Dixon. He pursued his collegiate studies at the University of Michigan until his attainment of the doctorate in 1895. This was followed by a year of study at the University of Berlin. Returning to Michigan, he served one year as an instructor in history before becoming an assistant professor of economics. At the University of Michigan he had the good fortune to have as his teacher and later as colleague that able economist and remarkable man, Henry Carter Adams, who at that time was organizing the uniform accountancy system of all the American railroads under the jurisdiction of the Interstate Commerce Commission. As a young economist Dixon was thus attracted to the subject of transportation, in which he wrote his doctoral thesis. Declining an invitation to go to Cornell University, he in 1898 accepted a call to an assistant professorship at Dartmouth College.

Professor Dixon’s record of academic and public services is outstanding. Following a visit to England in 1900 to get information, he largely prepared the plans for the establishment at Dartmouth of a graduate school of commerce and business, the Amos Tuck School of Administration and Finance, of which he became the first director. In 1903 he attained full professorial rank. Giving up the Tuck School position, he retained the chairmanship of the department of economics and at the time of his resignation to come to Princeton was recognized as one of the most influential leaders in the Dartmouth faculty.

Professor Dixon came to Princeton in 1919 with ripe scholarship, broad experience and outstanding ability as a lecturer and teacher of college classes, as was further evidenced at once by the large enrollments in his Princeton courses. His coming put Princeton in the first rank of American universities for the distinction of its graduate work in this field. His Alma Mater, Michigan, tried in vain to lure him away from us. His services as chairman of the department of economics and social institutions from 1922 to 1927, on various faculty committees, and particularly in the building up of the Pliny Fisk Collection of research material in the fields of railroad and corporation finance, were marked by clear vision, practical judgment, and unwavering loyalty to the best interests of the University as a whole. In 1938, having reached the age for retirement, he became professor emeritus.

From the first of his career Professor Dixon was very active professionally outside the classroom. In 1907-1908 he served as a consulting expert for the Interstate Commerce Commission and in the following year in a similar capacity for the National Waterways Commission. During the first world war he was a special expert for the U.S. Shipping Board and he was a member of the executive board of the New Hampshire Commission on Public Safety. From 1910 to 1918, without giving up his college work, he was chief statistician of the Bureau of Railway Economics at Washington. For a full half century he was a member of the American Economic Association, serving repeatedly on its executive committee, and in 1927 he was vice-president of the Association. His writings, which with few exceptions were on transportation, are too numerous to be listed here. One of the most notable items in his bibliography was his authoritative text published after his coming to Princeton, “Railroads and Government: their Relations in the United States, 1910-1921.”

In 1900 Professor Dixon married Alice L. Tucker, daughter of the Rev. William J. Tucker, then president of Dartmouth College. In coming to Princeton Professor and Mrs. Dixon left in Hanover many close professional and personal friends. In turn they quickly won in Princeton many others whose number and regard have grown with the passing years. We rejoice that Mrs. Dixon is keeping the family residence among us. To her and to her three children, William Tucker, Roger Colt, and Caroline Moorhouse Dixon, the faculty of Princeton University wishes to express its deep sympathy as well as the high appreciation of the large contributions which Frank Haigh Dixon made to this University community.

Frank A. Fetter
William S. Carpenter
Stanley E. Howard, Chairman

 

Source:  Princeton Alumni Weekly, Vol. 44 (April 28, 1922), p. 25.

Image Source: Frank Haigh Dixon faculty portrait Tuck School, Dartmouth College. Rauner Special Collections Library.

Categories
Chicago Economists

Columbia. PhD alumnus. William J. Shultz, 1924

 

Today we meet a Columbia Ph.D. alumnus who was brought to the Department of Political Economy at the University of Chicago in 1926 by Paul H. Douglas. He was mentioned in the course description of the previous post. Both Douglas as well as the University of Chicago publications people consistently misspelled William J. Shultz’s last name as “Schultz”. We can be sure that the correct spelling of the last name is without the Chicago “c”. Cf. both the Columbia College yearbook of 1922 and his obituary in the New York Times (below).

While Shultz did not write a dissertation in economics, he immediately produced a work on inheritance taxation that  won him the first prize in the Hart, Schaffner and Marx prize in economics. He went on to teach economics and later marketing.

While the New York Times obituary (see below) stated that Shultz was an assistant professor at the University of Chicago in 1926, the University of Chicago’s Annual Register covering the Academic Year Ending June 30, 1926, with Announcements for the Year 1926-1927 (p. 137) gives his rank as “instructor” for the summer quarter of 1926 and lists him as “lecturer” for the 1926-27 academic year.

Shultz is a nice specimen of the utterly brilliant young graduate whose great expectations resulted in just a pretty good career without leaving a lasting impression in the history of economics.

____________________________

Abstract of Shultz’s dissertation

“The book written by William J. Shultz introduces us to the Humane Movement in America that is dedicated to the protection of animals and children. It represents a continuation of an older work by Professor Roswell C. McCrea. At the present time in America there are 539 organizations with approximately 200,000 members active in this movement: 307 link the protection of animals with the protection of children and 175 are dedicated strictly to the protection of animals. The common motive here is the Prevention of Cruelty. The author documents the development of these organizations during the period 1910-1922, together with the organizational structures, methods of fund-raising and their inner-workings….”

Source: Own translation of the review by Agnes v. Zahn-Harnack published in Zeitschrift Für Die Gesamte Staatswissenschaft, 80(2), 379-380.

____________________________

Links to copies of books by William J. Shultz available on-line.

The Taxation of Inheritance. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1926.

American Public Finance (3rd edition). New York: Prentice-Hall, 1946.

Outline of Marketing. Ames, Iowa: Littlefield, Adams & Co., 1956.

American Marketing. San Francisco: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1961.

____________________________

Paul Douglas on William J. Shultz (1925)

The University of Chicago
The School of Commerce and Administration

October 22, 1925

Professor J.A. Field
Faculty Exchange

My dear Field:

I quite forgot the other day in the Department meeting to suggest Dr. William J. Schultz [sic] as a person that I thought we ought to keep our eye on.

I got acquainted with Schultz’s work last year as a result of his application for an Amherst Memorial Fellowship and he seemed to me the most brilliant youngster that I have ever known, with the exception of Viner. Schultz took his Ph.D. at Columbia in 1924 at the age of 23. He wrote his dissertation on “The Humane Movement in the United States” which was published in the Columbia Studies. In addition to that, he has translated the important portions of Rignano’s book on the inheritance tax and Knopf has published this with an introduction by Seligman. On top of all this, in collaboration with another person he has written a history of commerce; while he submitted last June a manuscript on the inheritance tax in the Hart, Schaffner & Marx series, which Viner tells me was easily the best in its completed form. Viner thinks it was really a marvelous piece of work.

In addition to all this, Schultz is an accomplished musician and has command over some four or five European languages. He spent a summer in Mexico and has written on that country.

During the last year he was teaching at Hunter College but had some thought this year of going to Japan if he received an appointment at one of the universities there.

I met him and liked him very much. Seligman thinks him very brilliant, although one or two men at Columbia complained of his artistic temperament. I was in favor of his receiving an Amherst Fellowship, but the business men on the committee were afraid of his precocious brilliance and were fearful that he might “blow up.” It may be that he is somewhat unsteady, although I detected no signs of it. On the other hand, he is certainly close to being a genius, and there are all too few of those in economics. It would be a great card for us to get him in the Department, or in some way attached to the University of Chicago. It would be easier to get him before he wins the Hart, Schaffner & Marx prize, if he does.

He seems to be a person that we should fish for and that at the very least we should try to get him for next summer and then possibly we might also make connections with him for a later engagement.

Faithfully yours,

[signed] Paul H. Douglas

Source: The University of Chicago Archives. Department of Economics. Records. Box 6, Folder 7.

____________________________

1922 Columbia College Yearbook
William J. Shultz….BROOKLYN, N.Y.

Freshman Fencing Team (1), Morningside (3), History Club (2)(3)(4), Junta (3), Assistant in History Department (4).

Bill enjoys the distinction of being the only Columbia man who raised a mustache at the age of eighteen. He is also quite proud of his curly locks. “That,” said Bill as he pointed to one of his raven curls, “is what makes ‘em fall.” Bill is also a history shark. He can tell you when Abe Lincoln first donned long trousers and what size collar Napoleon wore at Waterloo. If Bill can do other things as well as he can sell books, he will not only read history but also make it.

Source: The 1922 Columbian, p. 153.

____________________________

Obituary

WILLIAM J. SHULTZ OF BARUCH SCHOOL
The New York Times, May 29, 1970

Dr. William J. Shultz, economist and author, who retired in 1964 as professor of business administration at the Bernard M. Baruch School of Business Administration of the City University of New York, died Saturday of a heart attack in Camden, Me. He was 68 years old and lived in New Harbor, Me.

Dr. Shultz was the author of several books in his field, the last of which was “American Marketing,” published in 1961.

He was born in Brooklyn on April 25, 1902, and graduated in 1922 from Columbia College, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He received a Ph.D. degree from Columbia University in 1924 and an LL.B. degree from New York Law School in 1930.

Early in his career he lectured on history at Columbia and taught history at City College and social science at Hunter College. He was assistant professor of economics at the University of Chicago in 1926.

Dr. Shultz was a financial consultant to the National Industrial Conference Board from 1926 to 1930, and joined the faculty of Baruch School in 1932.

His widow, Luisa, survives.

Image Source: The 1922 Columbian, p. 153.

Categories
Chicago Courses

Chicago. Empirical seminar on wages announcement. Douglas, 1926

Douglas

 

I had to consult the course announcements for 1926-27 to be sure that the course description I found in the files corresponded to that announced in the following letter from Paul H. Douglas to his chairman L. C. Marshall. We can be reasonably sure that the fifth person participating in the course was the recent Columbia Ph.D., William J. Shultz. I come to this conclusion because there is a letter in the same folder in which Douglas strongly recommends hiring William J. Schultz [sic].  The correct spelling turns out to be S-H-U-L-T-Z, and there is a New York Times obituary for William J. Shultz who was reported there to have taught economics at the University of Chicago in 1926.

____________________

The University of Chicago
The School of Commerce and Administration

July 23, 1926

My dear Mr. Marshall:

I enclose a brief and somewhat uninspired statement of a course on Wage Theory which I think may nevertheless serve as sufficient announcement to the students. Will you fill in the appropriate number of the course and the hours at which it is to be given? I would prefer two two hour sessions to four one hour.

            I will meet with Millis, Stone, and Viner in the fall to get their cooperation in the matter.

With all best wishes,
Faithfully yours,
[signature by w] Paul H. Douglas
Paul H. Douglas

PHD-W

____________________

Econ. 443

SPECIAL STUDIES IN WAGES
[1926-27, Winter quarter]

An attempt to frame a theory of wages and of distribution and to ascertain inductively some of the forces which determine the rate of wages. After a review of various wage theories, such as those of the marginal productivity, wages fund, discounted marginal productivity, subsistence, bargain, employment and vulgar theories, an analysis of the problem will be made in terms of the relative elasticity of the supply cures of the factors of production and of their curves of imputed productivity. An attempt will then be made to trace inductively in so far as possible the supply curves of labor and capital. The effect of wages upon the short-run supply of labor will be tested as regards a number of factors including: (1) the age of entrance into industry, (2) the age of departure from industry, (3) the proportion of persons within the active age groups gainfully employed, (4) hours of work, (5) absenteeism and turnover, (6) intensity of effort, (7) changes in skill, (8) immigration. The effect of changes in real wages upon the long-time supply of labor will also be tested as regards its influence upon (1) the birth rate in Great Britain and the United States, (2) the rate of net fertility, (3) the effective labor supply, (4) the percentage of unemployment.

If time permits, investigations will also be carried through on the probable nature of the supply curve of capital. After a review of the doctrine concerning saving that have been advanced by such writers as Ricardo, Senior, Mill, Cairnes, Sargent, Rae, Böhm-Bawerk, Laundry, Fisher, Cassell, etc., inductive tests will be made of the relationship between changes in the interest rate and changes in the amount of capital saved. The movement of the interest rate in Great Britain and the United States will first be studied. Indexes of capital growth in Great Britain and the United States in physical terms will then be constructed and the rates of change in the volume of saving will be compared with the rates of change in the interest rate. The probable supply curves of natural resources and of management will also be considered but because of reason of time cannot be investigated in detail. It is hoped that the work will make the probably nature of the supply curves of the factors clearer and thus help to establish a more inductive basis for the theory of distribution.

Each student will be expected to do some piece of research upon a problem connected with the general investigation.

Prerequisites–Economics 211, 240 and 301. Professor Douglas, in charge, with Messrs. Millis, Viner, Stone, and [William J.] Schultz [sic, correct spelling is Shultz] cooperating.

Source: The University of Chicago Archives. Department of Economics. Records. Box 6, Folder 7.

Image Source: University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf1-05851, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

Categories
Chicago Economist Market Economists Teaching

Chicago. Laughlin’s observations on state of economics department, 1924

 

This post features a memorandum from 1924 that summarizes a conversation between the president of the University of Chicago and the first head of the department of political economy called in after retirement to help the department in covering a vacancy in its professorial ranks. Among other things we learn that Laughlin’s pension from the university was $3000/year.

Backstory 1: Shortly after being promoted to professor of economics, Harold G. Moulton left the University of Chicago in September 1922 to head the Institute of Economics established by the Carnegie Corporation in Washington, D.C. The department had trouble finding a successor, so among temporary measures it brought James Laurence Laughlin out of retirement during the academic year 1924-25 to help cover the money field. The last item transcribed below summarizes Laughlin’s observations on the state of the department ca. eight years after his retirement in 1916.

Backstory 2: L. C. Marshall’s request to resign both the Deanship of the school of Commerce and Administration [succeeded by W. H. Spencer] and school of Social Service Administration [succeeded by Edith Abbott] was accepted to take effect 31 December 1923. He agreed to continue on as Chairman of the Department of Political Economy under the condition that funds be provided for additional clerical services.

____________________

Letter from Chairman L. C. Marshall to President Ernest D. Burton

The University of Chicago
Department of Political Economy

June 1, 1924

My dear Mr. Burton:

The department of Political Economy sees no way of filling Mr. Moulton’s place in terms of the present situation. We turn, therefore, to temporary measures.

As one phase of the matter, will you approve of bringing Mr. Laughlin back for the Autumn Quarter, in case he is available? The 1924-25 budget contains the funds. I am at this same time asking Mr. Plimpton what would be involved as far as the relationship of stipend to retiring allowance is concerned.

A carbon of this letter is going to Mr. Tufts and Mr. Laing for their information.

Yours very sincerely,
[signed] L C Marshall

LCM:OU

____________________

Letter from Chairman L. C. Marshall to Nathan C. Plimpton, comptroller

The University of Chicago
Department of Political Economy

June 2, 1924

My dear Mr. Plimpton:

In case Mr. J. L. Laughlin should be engaged to give work with us this coming Autumn Quarter would his compensation for this work be in addition to his retiring allowance for that period, or would the allowance be discontinued for that period?

The department is thinking in terms of a stipend of about $2500 if his allowance continues. If it does not, probably $3000 would suffice even though this would less than $2500 plus allowance.

Yours very sincerely,
[signed] L C Marshall

LCM:OU

____________________

Letter from Chairman L. C. Marshall to President Ernest D. Burton

The University of Chicago
Department of Political Economy

May 29, 1924

President Ernest DeWitt Burton
The University of Chicago

My dear Mr. Burton:

This is a request to include in the Political Economy budget for the year 1924-25 the sum of $1,500.00 for clerical assistance.

In order that you may not need to consult files I give below an abstract of the situation up to the present time.

  1. Along about January 1 you expressed a willingness to take up with the expenditures committee the provision of clerical assistance. While you were on your vacation I took the matter up through Mr. Dickerson and a sum was granted providing for clerical assistance during the remainder of this current budgetary year.
  2. I asked Mr. Tufts to insert in the 1924-25 budget a request for $1,500.00 but he indicated the need of awaiting your return before taking action on the matter.
  3. Sometime after your return I asked Mr. Tufts whether he wished to take the matter up with you or whether I should take it up. The reply received indicated that Mr. Plimpton was under the impression that you had some understanding on the matter.
  4. The official copy of the budget received from Mr. Tufts a day or two ago contains no such item.

Yours very sincerely,
[signed] L C Marshall

LCM:EL

____________________

Carbon copy of letter
from President Ernest D. Burton to L. C. Marshall

June 4, 1924

My dear Mr. Marshall:

In reference to your letter of May 29 I am glad to be able to state that the budget of next year as approved by the Board of Trustees carried with it an appropriation of $1500 for clerical service for your department. The statement sent to you by Mr. Tufts was intended to cover only the salaries of the teaching staff.

I am sure the Board of Trustees would approve the recommendation of the department that Mr. Laughlin be invited to give lectures in the autumn quarter. As respects his compensation, concerning which you wrote to Mr. Plimpton, the custom has been to add a stipend for such service to the retiring allowance which is continued without interruption. Mr. Small [Department of Sociology] and Mr. Coulter [Department of Botony] are both being retained next year on this basis, each of them rendering substantially half service throughout the year. The extra compensation is, in one case, $1500, in the other $2000. May I raise the question whether either sum would not be sufficient in Mr. Laughlin’s case also? In other words, $2000 for the special service, in addition to the $3000 of his regular retiring allowance?

Very truly yours,

Mr. L.C. Marshall
The University of Chicago

EDB:HP

____________________

Memorandum of Conversation with
Professor Laughlin
—November 19, 1924

On returning to the University Mr. Laughlin is struck with two things in respect to the Department of Political Economy.

1) The introductory courses are not as well conducted as they were in 1916. Then some of the abler men of the department were giving them. Now they are largely in the hands of instructors and assistants.

2) There has been a large increase in the number of graduate students.

There are four Universities that have graduate departments in Political Economy that need to be taken into account by us.

Columbia has the largest department.

Chicago is second in size.

Harvard is falling off.

Wisconsin is falling off.

            The task of meeting graduate students and overseeing their work is an arduous one. We must, however, hold our own in dealing with this class of students. It would be desirable to raise the level of undergraduate work, but not at the expense of sacrificing our graduate work.

We must hold our present staff. Marshall, Clark and Viner are the best men. Wright is a good man. Field and Millis are pretty set in their ways, but this whole staff should be retained.

(In subsequent conversation with Marshall he said Field was the best man of the whole group, but that his Harvard inhibitions made it impossible for him to bring things to pass. He is afraid of what people will say and of the tendency of things. Millis is a good man, but no longer capable of much re-adjustment.)

Mr. Laughlin urges that we must get a first class man in money. He believes that the business interests should be asked to give money for this particular purpose.

The weakness of the undergraduate department is due to the lack of good men and salaries to pay them. C & A is doing most of the undergraduate work. This is not in itself objectionable. The spirit of C & A is good.

It is very desirable to unify the Department of Economics and the School of Commerce and Administration further.

 

Source: The University of Chicago Archives. Office of the President. Harper, Judson and Burton Administration Records. Box 23, Folder 6 “Department of Political Economy, 1894-1925) Part 2”

Image Source: University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf1-03687, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

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Columbia Economists Suggested Reading Syllabus

Columbia. National accounting. Course outline and readings. Barger, 1963-64

 

Harold Barger was, at least up through 2003, one of the last (if not the last) economics professor to teach in the interdisciplinary core course for Columbia undergraduates, Contemporary Civilization. Similar to the University of Chicago where undergraduate and graduate teaching in economics were strictly segregated, Columbia University’s economics faculty (see Peter Kenen’s description below) was either teaching for the college or for the university. Harold Barger was one of the few exceptions to work both sides of that street. In addition to the official Columbia obituary that gives some sense of the man, I provide a transcription of his syllabus on national economic accounts in this post.

____________________

Barger taught both undergrads and graduate students

Peter Kenen’s description of undergraduate economics education at Columbia at mid-century:

Unfortunately, the Economics Department at Columbia was different from most others there. It was divided sharply between those who taught graduate courses and those who taught undergraduates. There were exceptions. Harold Barger, who taught money and banking, also gave a graduate course on national-income accounting, and C. Lowell Harriss, who taught public finance, gave a graduate course on state and local taxation. But Columbia’s most prominent economists, Ragnar Nurkse, Carl Shoup, Arthur Burns and William Vickrey, to name only a few, did not teach undergraduate courses and did not encourage undergraduates to take their graduate courses. Furthermore, the undergraduate programme did not greatly emphasize econmic theory, because some of its members were overtly hostile to it. The senior seminar, conducted by Horace Taylor, was devoted mainly to the works of Thorstein Veblen, John R. Commons and other institutionalists.

Source: Chapter 12, “Peter B. Kenen” in Exemplary Economists: North America , Vol. 1 edited by Roger Backhouse and Roger Middleton (Edward Elgar, 2000), p. 259.

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Harold Barger (1907-1989)
Columbia University Obituary

Harold Barger, former chairman of Columbia’s department of economics and the first director of the University’s Paris center, died Aug. 9 at his home in Kinderhook, N.Y., after a long illness. He was 82.

Barger taught at Columbia almost 40 years, beginning in 1937 as an instructor in economics. He became an assistant professor in 1943, associate professor in 1947 and professor in 1954. Chairman of the economics department from 1961 to 1964 and acting chairman from 1969 to 1970, he had been professor emeritus since his retirement in 1975.

Barger directed Columbia’s Paris campus, Reid Hall, for a year after it was acquired by the University in 1964. Located in the Montparnasse district of Paris, the center houses undergraduate programs of Columbia, Barnard and various other U.S. colleges and universities.

A faculty member of Columbia College from 1943 to 1975, Barger was assistant to the dean of the College from 1954 to 1959. From 1959 to 1964, he was a faculty adviser at the College.

“I remember Harold Barger most for his integrity and total devotion to the University, especially Columbia College,” said Columbia economics professor Donald Dewey. “He always looked out for the interests of students at the College.”

Albert Hart, Columbia professor emeritus of economics, said: “He had a very broad interest in the field of economics and his lectures were full of substance. He was very precise and knew how to organize material.”

Harold Barger was born Apr. 27, 1907, in London. He received the B.A. from Cambridge in 1930 and the Ph.D. from the London School of Economics in 1937. He was a lecturer at the University of London from 1931 to 1936 and from 1938 to 1939.

A specialist in monetary policy and income and employment theory, Barger served as a consultant to the U.S. Bureau of the Census and Bureau of Mines. He conducted studies for the National Bureau of Economic Research from 1940 to 1954 and served in the Office of Strategic Services of the U.S. Army from 1943 to 1945. From 1945 to 1946, he was an assistant division chief for the State Department.

Barger was the author of numerous articles and books on economics, including the textbook Money, Banking and Public Policy(1962). He coauthored his last book, College on Credit (1981), with his wife, Gwyneth.

Barger was married to the former Anne Macdonald Walls, who died in 1954. In 1955, he married Gwyneth Evans Kahn, who survives him. Other survivors include two nieces and a nephew.

A memorial service was held at Spencertown Academy in Spencertown, N.Y., on Aug. 26. In lieu of flowers, gifts may be made to the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation of the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center or the Chamber Music Series of Spencertown Academy.

Source: Columbia University Record. Vol. 15, No. 1 (8 September 1989), p. 6.

____________________

ECONOMICS G4431x
Professor Barger
1963-1964

THE MEASUREMENT OF INCOME AND WEALTH

Students should possess the following books containing required readings (marked *):

Richard Ruggles, National Income Accounts and Income Analysis (2nd ed. 1956, $6.50)

Survey of Current Business, Supplement, “US Income and Output,” 1958 (Government Printing Office, $1.50).

The following books also contain required readings (marked *):

Colin Clark, National Income and Outlay

International Association for Research in Income and Wealth,Income and Wealth, Series I, VIII.

National Bureau of Economic Research, Studies in Income and Wealth, Vols. II, VI, VIII, XII, XLV, XX.

A.C. Pigou, Economics of Welfare, 3rd (1929) or subsequent edition.

Richard Stone, Role of Measurement in Economics.

Simon Kuznets, Economic Change.

United Nations, National Income and its Distribution in Underdeveloped Countries (1951).

Milton Gilbert and I.B. Kravis, International Comparison of National Products (1954; reissued 1957 as Comparative National Products and Price Levels).

Alexander Eckstein, The National Income of Communist China.

Abram Bergson, The Real National Income of Soviet Russia Since 1928.

U.S. Congress, Joint Economic Committee, “Comparisons of the U.S. and Soviet Economies,” Papers submitted by Panelists, Parts I and II, 1959 (Government Printing Office, $1.45).

The following books contain recommended readings:

John P. Powelson, Economic Accounting.

Harold Barger, Outlay and Income in the United States (NBER Studies in Income and Wealth, Vol IV).

James C. Bonbright, Valuation of Property, Vol. I.

Simon Kuznets, National Income and its Composition; National Income Since 1869.

Wassily Leontief, Structure of the American Economy.

National Bureau of Economic Research, Studies in Income and Wealth, Vols. III, X, XVIII.

International Association for Research in Income and Wealth,Income and Wealth, Series II, III, IV.

Survey of Current Business, 1954 National Income Supplement.

 

  1. INCOME
    1. ELEMENTARY IDEAS: HISTORY OF THE SUBJECT: RELATION OF SOCIAL ACCOUNTING TO WELFARE
      1. *Ruggles, pp. 3-15
      2. *Clark, Chap. X
      3. *Pigou, Part I, Chaps. I, II
      4. Phyllis Deane in Economic Development and Cultural Change 1955, pp. 3-38
      5. Phyllis Deane, Economic History Rev. 1956, pp. 339-354; Apr. 1957, pp. 451-461
    2. FUNDAMENTALS OF ACCOUNTING
      1. *Ruggles, pp. 16-44
      2. Powelson, Ch. 1-8
    3. THE STRUCTURE OF SOCIAL ACCOUNTS
      1. *Ruggles, pp. 45-106
      2. *Stone, “Functions and Criteria” in International Association Series I, or Stone, Role of Measurement, pp. 38-60
      3. Powelson, Chaps. 9, 10, 15, 16
    4. GNP AND NATIONAL INCOME AS ACCOUNTING CONCEPTS
      1. *Ruggles, pp. 107-131
      2. *“U.S. Income and Output,” pp. 50-69; 114-116
      3. Powelson, Chs. 17-20
      4. Copeland in Studies, Vol. XX, pp. 19-111
    5. RELATION OF NATIONAL INCOME ACCOUNTING TO INPUT-OUTPUT AND MONEY FLOW ANALYSIS
      1. *Ruggles, pp. 187-210
      2. Studies, Vol. XVIII, especially pp. 137-182, 253-320
      3. Leontief, Structure of the American Economy
    6. THE PROBLEM OF DEFINING INCOME
      1. *Pigou, Part I, Chs. III, IV
      2. *Haberler and Hagen in Studies, Vol. VIII, pp. 3-31
      3. *Hance, in Studies, Vol. VI, pp. 238-270
      4. Kuznets, “Government Product and National Income” in International Association, Series I
      5. Kuznets, National Income and its Composition, Ch. I
      6. 1954 National Income Supplement, pp. 40-60
    7. STATISTICAL MEASUREMENTS
      1. *Ruggles, pp. 158-186
      2. *“U.S. Income and Output,” pp. 70-105
      3. Goldsmith in Studies, Vol. III, pp. 220-244
      4. Kuznets, National Product since 1869, Parts I and II
        ______, National Income and its Composition, Chs. 3, 12
      5. 1954 National Income Supplement, pp. 61-152
      6. Barger, Ch. III and pp. 302-04
    8. THE DEFLATION PROBLEM AND INTERNATIONAL COMPARISONS
      1. *Ruggles, pp. 131-143
      2. *Pigou, Part I, Chs. V-VII
      3. *Gilbert and Kravis, pp. 13-33, 61-95
    9. NATIONAL INCOME MEASUREMENTS IN UNDERDEVELOPED COUNTRIES
      1. *Kuznets, Economic Change, pp. 145-191, 216-252
      2. *United Nations, Chs. I and II
      3. *Kravis in Studies, Vol. XX, pp. 349-400
      4. *Eckstein, pp. 1-90
      5. Rao in International Association, Series III
    10. NATIONAL INCOME IN SOVIET RUSSIA
      1. *Bergson, pp. 1-298
      2. *Joint Economic Committee, Part I (Campbell, Nutter, Turgeon) and Part II (Bornstein, Boddy)
  1. WEALTH
    1. THE ESTIMATION OF NATIONAL WEALTH
      1. *Kuznets in Studies, Vol. II, pp. 3-82
      2. *Goldsmith and Hart in Studies, Vol. XII, pp. 23-186
      3. *Goldsmith in Studies, Vol. XIV, pp. 5-73
      4. Goldsmith in International Association, Series II and IV
      5. International Association, Series VIII, pp. 1-59
      6. Bonbright, Vol. I, Chs. I-XII
      7. Kuznets, National Income since 1869, pp. 185-234

Source: Columbia University Rare Book & Manuscript Library. William Vickrey Papers, Box 35, Folder “Columbia Correspondence, 1947-1969”.

Image Source: Harold Barger from J. W. Smit “Wisdom, Training and Contemporary Civilization”, Columbia College Today (November 2003).

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Uncategorized

Wisconsin. Business Cycles Syllabus. Theodore Morgan, 1951

 

Theodore Morgan had a distinguished career as professor of economics at the University of Wisconsin. Rather unusual for someone going on for a Ph.D. in economics (even for the 1930s/40s) is that Morgan earned his A.B. and A.M. degrees in English. He shared this distinction with one of my Yale professors, the economic historian William Parker whose A.B. at Harvard was also in English. It would be interesting to have a list of other economists who began their academic journeys in the humanities before crossing over to economics. 

Incidentally the business cycles syllabus transcribed below was found in Martin Bronfenbrenner‘s Papers at Duke’s Economists’ Papers Archive. 

___________________

Harvard Economics Ph.D. (1941)

JOSEPH THEODORE MORGAN, A.B. (Ohio State Univ.) 1930, A.M. (ibid.) 1931, A.M. (Harvard Univ.) 1940. Subject, Economics. Special Field, Economic History since 1750. Thesis,”The Development of the Hawaiian Economy, 1778-1876.” Adjunct Professor of Economics, Randolph-Macon Woman’s College.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1940-41, p. 182.

___________________

[Pencil note: Morgan]
University of Wisconsin
Spring semester, 1950-51

Economics 181
Business Cycles

I. Business Cycles: History and Description

Feb 5 – 9 Achinstein: Introduction to Business Cycles, Chs. 14-16, 18-20 121 pp
Kondratieff: “The Long Waves in Economic Life”, Ch. 2 in Readings in Business Cycle Theory 22
Hansen: Monetary Theory and Fiscal Policy, Ch. 1 (“The Historical Ratio of Money to Income”) 13
Feb 12 – 16 Schumpeter: “Railroadization”, in Business Cycles, Vol. 1, pp. 325-351 26
Feb. 19 – 23 Hansen: Business Cycles and National Income, Chs. 1-5 86
– Optional:
Schumpeter: “The Analysis of Economic Change”, Ch. I, in Readings in Business Cycle Theory
Garvy: “Kondratieff’s Theory of Long Cycles”, Review of Economic Statistics, November 1943
Beveridge: Full Employment in a Free Society, Appendix A

 

II. Theories of Business Cycles

Feb 26 –
Mar 2		 Hansen: Monetary Theory and Fiscal Policy, Ch. 2 (“The ‘Creation’ of Money” 26
Achinstein, Chs. 1-5, 11-13 92
– Optional:
Hansen: Business Cycles and National Income, Chs. 13-20
Mar 5 – 9 Clemence and Doody: The Schumpeterian System 93
Hansen: Monetary Theory and Fiscal Policy, Chs. 9, 10 24
– Optional:
Hansen: Business Cycles and National Income, 13-24

 

III. The Measurement of Income, Output, and Employment

Mar 12 – 1 Achinstein, Ch. 17 23
– Optional:
“How Much Unemployment?” symposium in the Review of Economics and Statistics, February, 1950
Morgan: Introduction to Economics, Ch. 25.

 

IV. Savings and Investment: the Keynesian, Robertson, and Swedish Approaches…The Keynesian System

Mar 19 – 23 Achinstein, Chs 6-10 (pp. 55-117) 62
Keynes: General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, pp. 27-34, 245-249, Ch. 22 (pp. 313-332) 29
Morgan: Introduction to Economics, Ch’s 30, 31; Ch. 32 to p. 583; Ch 28 to p. 505 68
Skim:
Keynes, Ch. 23 and 24
– Optional:
Dillard: The Economics of J.M. Keynes, pp. 59-71, and Ch. 5 (pp. 75-101)
Duesenberry, in Income, Employment, and Public Policy Ch. 3 (“Income-Consumption Relationships and their Implications”, pp. 54-81)
Haberler, Prosperity and Depression, 1941 ed., in Ch. 8 (“Some Recent Discussions Relating to the Theory of the Trade Cycle”), pp. 170-185
Hansen: “The Robertsonian and Swedish Systems of Period Analysis”, Review of Economics and Statistics, February, 1950.
R.F. Harrod, J.A. Schumpeter, and P.M. Sweezy, “Keynes, the Economist: Three Views”, Chs. 8, 9, 10 of S.E. Harris, ed., The New Economics
Mar 26 – 30 G. Haberler and J.M. Keynes on The General Theory Chs. 14 and 15 of S.E. Harris, ed., The New Economics

 

V. The Stagnation Thesis

Achinstein, Ch. 24 (pp. 373-387) 14 pp.
– Optional:
Terborgh: The Bogey of Economic Maturity

 

VI. Secular Trends, and Public Policy

May 7 – 11
14 – 18		 Achinstein, Chs 21, 22, 25 (pp. 319-348, 388-409) 205
Hansen: Economic Policy and Full Employment, Chs. 5, 9, 10, and 11-22
May 21 – 25 Hansen: Business Cycles and National Income, Chs. 25-31 (pp. 501-605
Skim:
The Economic Report of the President, January 1951
Schumpeter: Business Cycles, Vol. 2, pp. 1011-1050 39
May 28 – June 1 Clark, Kaldor, Smithies, Uri, Walker: National and International Measures for Full Employment (A United Nations Report, 1949), pp. 19-47, 75, 81-84. (can be found in Gayer, Hariss, Spencer: Basic Economics, pp. 437-457) 20

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Economists‘ Papers Archive. Martin Bronfenbrenner Papers, Box 25, Folder “Macro-economics: problems and exercises 1 of 2. 1961-70, n.d.

___________________

 

MEMORIAL RESOLUTION OF THE FACULTY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON
ON THE DEATH OF PROFESSOR EMERITUS THEODORE MORGAN

Faculty Document 2138
5 October 2009

Theodore Morgan, age 98, died peacefully on Sunday, February 8, 2009. He had been in failing health following a stroke on December 4, 2008. He was an economist and writer, valued colleague, loving husband and father, and affectionate friend with a wry and gentle sense of humor.

Professor Morgan was born on May 31, 1910, in Middletown, Ohio, the youngest of three sons of Ben and Anna Louella (Knecht) Morgan. He grew up on the family farm and survived the flu he contracted in the great flu epidemic of 1917. His first two years of schooling occurred in a one-room school. He went on to complete his AB and MA (1931) in English at Ohio State University, with Phi Beta Kappa honors and a thesis on Joseph Conrad.

Shortly after graduating he was diagnosed with melanoma. The cancer was cured and never returned. At the time, however, he thought his life might be shortened, and he developed a sense of adventure. He sailed to Japan and China in 1934, working in the engine room of the SS President Coolidge. In the summer of 1935 he traveled by bicycle and train through Europe, observing the harsh economic conditions of the time and brewing political changes in France, Germany, and the Soviet Union. While there he took hundreds of photographs that vividly depicted the economic effects of the world-wide depression. A selection of these photos was published with commentary in the Wisconsin Academy Review (2004).

Professor Morgan’s teaching career began at the University of Hawaii-Manoa where he taught English from 1936-38. His stay in Hawaii began a life-long affection for the islands. It also gave him material for the first of many books. His curiosity about the causes of the Great Depression led him to shift from English to economics. He enrolled in Harvard University’s graduate economics program in 1938 and was awarded his PhD in Economics in June 1941. He spent the next year teaching economics at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in Lynchburg, Virginia. He returned to teach at Harvard from 1942 to 1947. While teaching at Randolph-Macon, he met at a tennis match Catharine Moomaw, a painter and adjunct professor of art at the college. They were married in 1943.

In 1947 Professor Morgan joined the economics department at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and, with the exception of nine years abroad, taught there until his retirement in 1980. The year he joined the Wisconsin department Ted’s career received a major boost when he published Income and Employment, one of the first books to present the new approach to macroeconomics developed by John Maynard Keynes. His academic focus soon shifted, driven in part by a new emphasis in U.S. foreign policy to aid the underdeveloped countries of the world. In his early work he made important contributions in assessing the growth effects of changes in the terms of trade of developing countries and understanding the discrepancies between the export value of goods and services reported by these countries and the recorded import value of these goods reported by the countries receiving these goods.

Ted was skeptical of the theoretical models of economic development widely discussed in the 1950s and 1960s. He became one of the first development economists to assert that the complex process of economic development should reflect local priorities and values rather than imported Western theories. His views on economic development, published in numerous books and articles, were influenced by his years of work overseas. In addition to many articles in professional journals and reports on economic conditions in the countries where he worked, he authored or coauthored a number of books, including: Hawaii: A Century of Economic Change, 1778-1876 (1948); Introduction to Economics (1950); Readings in Economic Development (1963); Economic Planning in Southeast Asia (1965); and Economic Development: Concept and Strategy (1975). He published his last academic paper in 1995.

Professor Morgan’s overseas work began with service as economic adviser to the government of Ceylon and deputy director of the Central Bank of Ceylon from 1951-53. He directed the Wisconsin-Ford Foundation project and taught at Gadjah Mada University in Indonesia from 1959-60. In 1964-65 during the Johnson Administration, he served as a senior staff economist at the President’s Council of Economic Advisors in Washington, D.C. His other overseas posts included teaching at the University of Singapore (1967-69), advising the Ministry of Economic Affairs in Thailand (1970), and additional work in Kenya, Chile, Malaysia, and in Sussex and Manchester, England. Finally, in 1990 he taught economics at Nankai University in China, a decade after his retirement.

Throughout his career, Professor Morgan strongly supported the education of foreign graduate students in the United States, and he headed an American Economic Association committee that in the late 1950s established the Economic Institute in Boulder, Colorado, to prepare foreign students for successful graduate studies in economics. He maintained warm friendships with many of his former students and delighted in their accomplishments.

An enthusiastic athlete, Ted played a fine game of tennis, and enjoyed bicycling, skiing, swimming, and running. He loved hikes and walks, and took pleasure in gardening, especially growing tomatoes and begonias. As a student he learned by heart many poems of, among others, Tennyson, Browning, Shakespeare, and Swinburne, and could still recite them into his 99th year. His parents, his brothers Donald and Mark, and his wife of 57 years, Cathy, all died before him. He is survived by three daughters, Stephanie (Madison), Marian (Charlottesville, VA), and Laura (New York, NY); one grandchild Brihannala (San Francisco, CA); nephews and nieces, cousins, and many friends.

MEMORIAL COMMITTEE

Robert E. Baldwin
W. Lee Hansen, chair
David B. Johnson
James Stern
H. Edwin Young

Source:  Theodore Morgan memorial. University of Wisconsin. Memorial resolutions presented to the Faculty Senate, 1999 February—2016 April.

Image Source: Portrait of Theodore Morgan. University of Wisconsin Archives. Images. UW-Madison Collection.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Locational Economics. Readings and Exams. Isard, 1952-53

Image Source:  Walter Isard, ca. 1960. From David Boyce presentation: Leon Moses and Walter Isard: Collaborators, Rivals or Antagonists.

___________________

Harvard Ph.D. (1943)

WALTER ISARD, A.B. (Temple Univ.) 1939, A.M. (Harvard Univ.) 1941.
Subject, Economics. Special Field, Economic Fluctuations and Forecasting.
Thesis, “The Economic Dynamics of Transport Technology.”

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1942-43, p. 105.

___________________

Tentative Schedule of Topics

Economics 235—Problems of Location of Economic Activities
Fall Term—M.W.F. at 9 A.M.

  1. Realistic Theory
    1. Introduction
    2. Transport Orientation
    3. Labor Orientation
    4. Other Orientation
    5. Agglomeration
    6. Competing Market and Supply Areas, Theory of Space Pricing (Basing Point included)
    7. Agricultural Location Theory (with reference to an aggregate)
    8. The General Equilibrium Framework (The Total Picture of a Space-Economy—The Interaction of the Industrial and Agricultural Sectors)
  2. Empirical Analysis with Special Reference to Regional Development
    1. Case Studies
      1. Iron and Steel Industry
      2. Glass Industry
      3. Aluminum Industry
    2. Trends—Past and Near Future
      1. General Historical Background
      2. Changes in Resource Utilization and in the Pull of Materials, Markets, and Labor Locations
      3. Industrial Concentration and Dispersion
      4. Urban-Metropolitan Development Processes
      5. Regional Industrialization Processes
  3. The Far Future: Technique in Predictive Analysis
    1. Implications of Atomic Energy
    2. Implications of Aircraft and other Innovations

Summary

[Note:  A.1 through A.5 above—“With reference to the individual firm and the industry as well as to groups of industries]

*  * *  *  * *  *  * *  *  *

Economics 235a—Economics of Location and Regional Development: Principles

Fall Term—M.W.F. at 9 A.M.

Readings

  1. Introduction
    Required reading

    1. Alfred Weber’s Theory of Location of Industries (ed. by C. J. Friedrich), Introduction and Chap. I
    2. A.P. Usher, A Dynamic Analysis of the Location of Economic Activity, section 1

Supplementary reading

    1. T. Palander, Beiträge zur Standortstheorie, Chaps. I, II, V
    2. H. Schumacher, “Location of Industry,” Encyclopaedia of Social Sciences, Vol. V, pp. 585-92
    3. S.R. Dennison, Location of Industry and Depressed Areas, Chaps. I, II
    4. F. M. Hoover, The Location of Economic Activity, Chap. I

 

  1. Transport Orientation
    Required reading

    1. Alfred Weber’s Theory of Location of Industries, Chaps. II, III
    2. E.M. Hoover, Location Theory and the Shoe and Leather Industries, Chaps. I, II, and pp. 34-42
    3. William H. Dean, Jr., The Theory of the Geographic Location of Economic Activities (Selections), Chap. II
    4. A.P. Usher, A Dynamic Analysis of the Location of Economic Activity, section 4

Supplementary reading

    1. National Resources Planning Board, Industrial Location and National Resources, Chaps. 6, 9, 10
    2. T. Palander, Beiträge zur Standortstheorie, Chaps. VI-IX, XII
    3. E.M. Hoover, The Location of Economic Activity, Chaps. 2, 3, 4 (for an elementary presentation)
    4. A. Lösch, Die räumliche Ordnung der Wirtschaft, Part I (for general theoretical reading)
    5. E. Niederhauser, Die Standortstheorie Alfred Webers (for general theoretical reading)
    6. O. Englander, “Kritisches und Positives zu einer allgemeinen reinen Lehre vom Standort,” Zeitschrift für Volkswirtschaft und Sozialpolitik, Vol. V (New Series), 1926, secs. I and II
    7. S.R. Dennison, Location of Industry and Depressed Areas, Chap. III

 

  1. Labor and Other Orientation
    Required reading

    1. Alfred Weber’s Theory of Location of Industries, Chap. IV
    2. E.M. Hoover, Location Theory and the Shoe and Leather Industries, Chaps. IV, V
    3. A.P. Usher, A Dynamic Analysis of the Location of Economic Activity, section 10

Supplementary reading

    1. E.M. Hoover, The Location of Economic Activity, Chaps. V and VII (elementary presentation)
    2. National Resources Planning Board, Industrial Location and National Resources, Chaps. 7, 8, 11, 12, 13
    3. O. Englander, “Kritisches und Positives zu einer allgemeinen reinen Lehre vom Standort,” Zeitschrift für Volkswirtschaft und Sozialpolitik, Vol. V (New Series), 1926, sec. III
    4. H. Ritschl, “Reine und historische Dynamik des Standortes der Erzeugungszweige,” Schmollers Jahrbuch, Vol. 51, 1927, secs. I-III
    5. S.R. Dennison, Location of Industry and Depressed Areas, Chaps. IV, V
  1. Agglomeration
    Required reading

    1. Alfred Weber’s Theory of Location of Industries, Chaps. V, VI
    2. E.M. Hoover, Location Theory and the Shoe and Leather Industries, Chap VI
    3. William H. Dean, Jr., The Theory of the Geographic Location of Economic Activities (Selections), Chap. V

Supplementary reading

    1. National Resources Planning Board, Industrial Location and National Resources, Chaps. 14, 15, 16, 17
    2. O. Englander, “Kritisches und Positives zu einer allgemeinen reinen Lehre vom Standort,” Zeitschrift für Volkswirtschaft und Sozialpolitik, Vol. V (New Series), 1926, sec. IV.
    3. E.A.G. Robinson, The Structure of Competitive Industry

 

  1. Market and Supply Areas
    Required reading

    1. A. Lösch, “The Nature of Economic Regions,” Southern Economic Journal, Vol. V, 1938, pp. 71-78
    2. E.M. Hoover, Location Theory and the Shoe and Leather Industries, pp. 42-59
    3. C.D. and W.P. Hyson, “the Economic Law of Market Areas,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, May 1950

Supplementary reading

    1. A. Lösch, Die räumliche Ordnung der Wirtschaft, Part II
    2. T. Palander, Beiträge zur Standortstheorie, Chap. XIV
    3. H. Hotelling, “Stability in Competition,” Economic Journal, Vol. 39, March 1929, pp. 41-57
    4. E. Chamberlin, The Theory of Monopolistic Competition, 3rded., especially Appendix C, “Pure Spatial Competition”
    5. A.P. Lerner and H.W. Singer, “Some Notes on Duopoly and Spatial Competition,” Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 45, 1937, pp. 145-86
    6. A. Robinson, “A Problem in the Theory of Industrial Location,” Economic Journal, Vol. 51, June-Sept. 1941, pp. 270-75
    7. E.M. Hoover, “Spatial Price Discrimination,” The Review of Economic Studies, Vol. IV, No. 3, pp. 182-91
    8. A. Smithies, “Monopolistic Price Policy in a Spatial Market,” Econometrica, Vol. 9, 1941, pp. 63-73
    9. _____, “Optimum Location in Spatial Competition,” Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 44, June 1941, pp. 423-39
    10. H. Moller, “Grundlagen einer Theorie der regionalen Preisdifferenzierung,” Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv, Bd. 58, 1943, pp. 335-90
    11. G. Ackley, “Spatial Competition in a Discontinuous Market,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 56, Feb. 1942, pp. 212-30
    12. S. Enke, “Space and Value,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. LVI, Aug. 1942, pp. 627-37
    13. T.N.E.C. Monograph No. 42
    14. F. Machlup, The Basing Point System, Chaps. 4, 5, 6, 7
    15. S. Enke, Equilibrium among Spatially Separated Markets: Solution by Electric Analogue,” Econometrica, January 1951

 

  1. Agricultural Location Theory
    Required reading

    1. Theodor Brinckmann’s Economics of the Farm Business, pp. 1-27, 61-63, 66, 73, 78-111, 142-63

Supplementary reading

    1. J.D. Black et al., Farm Management, Chap. XVI
    2. Theodor Brinckmann’s Economics of the Farm Business, pp. 27-61, 111-163
    3. T. Palander, Beiträge zur Standortstheorie, Chaps. III, IV
    4. A. Lösch, Die räumliche Ordnung der Wirtschaft, Chap. 5
    5. F. Aereboe, Allgemeine landwirtschaftliche Betriebslehre, Parts III, V
    6. J.H. von Thünen, Der isolierte Staat in Beziehung auf Landwirtschaft und Nationalökonomie

 

  1. The General Equilibrium Framework
    Required reading

    1. A. Predöhl, “The Theory of Location in Relation to General Economics,” Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 36, June 1928
    2. B. Ohlin, Interregional and International Trade, Preface
    3. Alfred Weber’s Theory of Location of Industries, Chap. VII
    4. Isard, “The General Theory of Location and Space Economy,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, November 1949
    5. _____, “Distance Inputs and the Space-Economy: Part I, The Conceptual Framework; Part II, The Locational Equilibrium of the Firm,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, May and August, 1951

Supplementary reading

    1. H. Weigmann, “Ideen zu einer Theorie der Raumwirtschaft,” Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv, Vol. 34, 1931, pp. 1-40
    2. ______, “Standortstheorie und Raumwirtschaft,” in Johann Heinrich von Thünen zum 150. Geburtstag (ed. By W. Seedorf and H. G. Seraphim)
    3. A. Predöhl, “Das Standortsproblem in der Wirtschaftstheorie,” Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv, Bd. XXI, 1925
    4. B. Ohlin, Interregional and International Trade, Chaps. VIII-XII
    5. T. Palander, Beiträge zur Standortstheorie, Chaps. X and XI
    6. O. Englander, “Kritisches und Positives zu einer allgemeinen reinen Lehre vom Standort,” Zeitschrift für Volkswirtschaft und Sozialpolitik, Vol. V (New Series), 1926, sec. V-VIII
    7. L. Miksch, “Zur Theorie des räumlichen Gleichgewichts,” Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv, Bd. 66, 1951
    8. A. Predöhl, Aussenwirtschaft, 1949

 

  1. Regional and Interregional Input-Output Analysis
    Required reading

    1. W.W. Leontief, “Interregional Theory,” Littauer reading room
    2. Isard, “Some Empirical Results and Problems of Regional Input-Output Analysis,” Littauer reading room
    3. ________, “Interregional and Regional Input-Output Analysis: A Model of a Space-Economy,” Review of Economics and Statistics, November 1951

Suggested reading

    1. W. Leontief, Structure of American Economy 1919-1929
    2. W. Leontief, “Output, Employment, Consumption and Investment,” The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. LVIII, February 1944
    3. W. Leontief, “Exports, Imports, Domestic Output, and Employment,” The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. LX, February 1946
    4. W. Leontief, “Wages, Profit and Prices,” The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. LXI, November 1946
    5. Cornfield, Evans, and Hoffenberg, “Full Employment Patterns 1950,” Monthly Labor Review, February 1947
    6. Cornfield, Evans, and Hoffenberg, “Structure of the American Economy Under Full Employment Conditions,” Monthly Labor Review, March 1947
    7. M. Hoffenberg, “Employment Resulting from U.S. Exports,” Monthly Labor Review, December 1947
    8. W. Leontief et al., “Input-Output Analysis and its Use in Peace and War Economies,” Papers and Proceedings of the American Economic Association, May 1949

 

  1. Empirical Regularities and Distance
    Required reading

    1. John Q. Stewart, “Empirical Mathematical Rules Concerning the Distribution and Equilibrium of Population,” Geographical Review, July 1947
    2. John Q. Stewart, “Demographic Gravitation: Evidence and Applications,” Sociometry, February—May 1948
    3. G.K. Zipf, Human Behavior and the Principle of Least Effort, Chap. 9

Supplementary reading

    1. G.K. Zipf, National Unity and Disunity
    2. J.Q. Stewart, “Potential of Population and its Relationship to Marketing,” in Theory in Marketing, ed. by R. Cox and W. Alderson
    3. H.W. Singer, “The ‘Courbe des Populations’. A Parallel to Pareto’s Law,” Economic Journal, June 1936
    4. S.A. Stouffer, “Intervening Opportunities: A Theory Relating Mobility and Distance,” American Sociological Review, December 1940
    5. M.L. Bright and D.S. Thomas, “Interstate Migration and Intervening Opportunities,” American Sociological Review, December, 1941
    6. E.C. Isbell, “Internal Migration in Sweden and Intervening Opportunities,” American Sociological Review, December 1944

 

  1. Reading Period Assignment
    1. G.E. McLaughlin and S. Robock, Why Industry Moves South, pp. 1-102

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003, Box 5, Folder “Economics, 1952-1953 (2 of 2).

___________________

Final Examination January, 1953

1952-53
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 235a

Answer questions 1 and 2, and any two others.

  1. Define and briefly discuss the following concepts:

(a) locational weight
(b) rent surface
(c) demographic gravitation
(d) market orientation

  1. Design a regional input-output model. Discuss in full the limitations of such a model for projection purposes.
  2. Present Hoover’s analysis for determining the location of marketing and other intermediary establishments.
  3. Outline and evaluate Brinkmann’s theory of agricultural location.
  4. Discuss some ways in which linear programming (activity analysis) techniques may be useful in regional analysis.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Final Exams—Social Sciences—January 1953 (HUC 7000.28), Vol. 96. Papers Printed for Final Examinations. History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …, Military Sciences, Naval Science. January, 1953.

___________________

Harvard University
Department of Economics
Spring Term 1952-53

Economics 235b—Economics of Location and Regional Development: Problems

  1. Case Studies of Industries
    Required Reading

    1. Isard, “Some Locational Factors in the Iron and Steel Industry Since the Early Nineteenth Century,” Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 56, June 1948
    2. Isard and Cumberland, “New England as a Possible Location for an Integrated Iron and Steel Works,” Economic Geography, vol. 26, October 1950
    3. F. Machlup, The Basing-Point System, pp. 3-17, 25-30
    4. T.R. Smith, The Cotton Textile Industry of Fall River, Mass., Chs. II, III, IV.
    5. E.M. Hoover, Location Theory and the Shoe and Leather Industries, Chs. VII, VIII, IX and XVI

Supplementary Reading

    1. E.M. Hoover, Location Theory and the Shoe and Leather Industries, Chs. X-XIV
    2. Isard and Capron, “The Future Locational Pattern of the Iron and Steel Industry in the United States,” Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 57, March 1949
    3. U.S. Department of Commerce, Transportation Factors in the Location of the Cast Iron Pipe Industry, Economic Series, No. 63 (by J.C. Nelson and R.C. Smith)
    4. L. Dechesne, La Localisation des Diverses Productions
    5. E.W. Zimmerman, World Resources and Industries, Parts II, III
    6. C.S. Goodman, The Location of Fashion Industries, Michigan Business Studies, Vol. X, No. 2
    7. F. Machlup, The Basing-Point System, Chs. 4, 5, 6, 7
    8. T.N.E.C. Monograph No. 42
    9. A.Smithies, “Aspects of the Basing-Point System,” American Economic Review, December 1942
    10. United Nations, Department of Economic Affairs, World Iron Ore Resources and Their Utilization
    11. W.G. Cunningham, The Aircraft Industry: A Study in Industrial Location, Los Angeles, 1951
    12. J.V. Krutilla, The Structure of Costs and Regional Advantage in Primary Aluminum Production, Doctoral Dissertation, 1952, Harvard University Archives.
    13. J.H. Cumberland, The Locational Structure of the East Coast Steel Industry, Doctoral Dissertation, 1951, Harvard University Archives.

 

  1. Trends—Past and Near Future
    a. General Historical Background
    Required Reading

    1. W.H. Dean, The Theory of the Geographic Location of Economic Activities(Selections), Introduction and Ch. III
    2. Isard, “Transport Development and Building Cycles,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 52, November 1942

Supplementary Reading

    1. G. McLaughlin, Growth of American Manufacturing Areas, Part I
    2. A.P. Usher, A Dynamic Analysis of the Location of Economic Activity, Ch. II to end
    3. A. Weber, “Industrielle Standortstheorie,” Grundriss der Sozialökonomik, Abt. VI, pp. 55-82.
    4. H. Ritschl, “Reine und historische Dynamik des Standortes der Erzeugungszweige,” Schmollers Jahrbuch, Vol. 51, 1927, secs. IV and V
    5. E.M. Hoover, The Location of Economic Activity, Chs. 9 and 10
    6. R.G. Hawtrey, The Economic Problem, Chs. IX and X
    7. C. Goodrich, Migration and Economic Opportunity, Chs. VI, VIII
    8. A.P. Usher, “The Steam and Steel Complex and International Relations,” in Technology and International Relations (ed. by W.F. Ogburn)
    9. P.E.P., Report on the Location of Industry in Great Britain, Chs. II and IV
    10. W.H. Dean, The Theory of the Geographic Location of Economic Activities, Doctoral Dissertation, Harvard University 1938, Chs. IV-VIII
    11. M.P. Fogarty, Prospects of the Industrial Areas of Great Britain, Ch. II
    12. R. Lester, “Trends in southern Wage Differentials Since 1890,” Southern Economic Journal, April 1945
    13. G. Ellis, “Why New Manufacturing Establishments Located in New England,” Monthly Review of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Volume 31, April 1949

 

  1. Industrial Concentration and Dispersion
    Required Reading

    1. S.P. Florence, Investment, Location and Size of Plant, Chs. III, IV, VI
    2. Shenfield and Florence, “The Economies and Diseconomies of Industrial Concentration: The Wartime Experience of Coventry,” Review of Economic Studies, Vol. XII, No. 32, 1944-45
    3. C. Goodrich, Migration and Economic Opportunity, pp. 314-92

Supplementary Reading

    1. S.P. Florence, Investment, Location and Size of Plant, Chs. I, II, V
    2. National Industrial Conference Board, Decentralization in Industry, Studies in Business Policy, No. 30
    3. J. Steindl, Small and Big Business, Oxford Institute of Statistics, Monograph No. 1
    4. D. Creamer, Is Industry Decentralizing
    5. National Resources Planning Board, Industrial Location and National Resources, Chaps. 4 and 5
    6. A.J. Wright, “Recent Changes in Concentration of Manufacturing,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 35, December 1945
    7. U.S. Bureau of the Census, Location of Manufactures, 1889-1929: A Study of the Tendencies Toward Concentration and Toward Dispersion.
    8. U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Business Information Service, Concentration of Industry Report, December 1949
    9. Survey of Current Business, December 1949, “State Estimates of the Business Population.”

 

  1. Urban-Metropolitan Development Processes
    Required Reading

    1. A.E. Hawley, Human Ecology, pp. 80-91, 234-87, 348-432
    2. D.E. Bogue, The Structure of the Metropolitan Community, Part I
    3. R.E. Dickinson, City Region and Regionalism (Page through and observe figures carefully. Read text only when necessary to understand the implications of these figures).

Supplementary Reading

    1. W. Christaller, Die zentralen Orte in Süddeutschland
    2. E. Ullman “A Theory of Location for Cities” American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 46, May 1941, pp. 853-64
    3. U.S. Federal Housing Administration, The Structure and Growth of Residential Neighborhoods in American Cities
    4. Isard and Whitney, “Metropolitan Site Selection,”Social Forces, Vol. 27, March 1949
    5. P.E.P., Report on the Location of Industry in Great Britain, Chap. VI
    6. R.D. McKenzie, The Metropolitan Community, Parts II, III,, IV
    7. N.S.B. Gras, “The Rise of the Metropolitan Community” in the Urban Community (ed. by E.W. Burgess)
    8. R. Park et al., The City, Chaps. I, II, III
    9. E. de S. Brunner and J.H. Kolb, Rural Social Trends, Chaps. IV, V, VI
    10. R.E. Dickinson, “The Scope and Status of Urban Geography: An Assessment,” Land Economics, Vol. XXIV, August 1948, pp. 221-38
    11. Griffith Taylor, Urban Geography
    12. D.E. Bogue, The Structure of the Metropolitan Community, Parts II and III
    13. P.K. Hatt and A.J. Reiss, Reader in Urban Sociology, Parts 1-4

 

  1. Regional Industrialization Processes
    Required Reading

    1. Pei-kang Chang, Agriculture and Industrialization, pp. 23-36, 46-55, 66-112
    2. A.W. Lewis, “The Industrialization of the British West Indies,” Caribbean Economic Review, Vol. II, No. 1, May 1950
    3. A.P. Usher, A Dynamic Analysis of the Location of Economic Activity, Sections 7, 8, and 9

Supplementary Reading

    1. Pei-kang Chang, Agriculture and Industrialization, Chaps. IV, V, VI
    2. K. Mandelbaum, The Industrialization of Backward Areas
    3. Colin Clark, The Conditions of Economic Progress, Chaps. V-XV
    4. Colin Clark, The Economics of 1960
    5. League of Nations, Industrialization and Foreign Trade, Chaps. III and IV
    6. A.J. Brown, Industrialization and Trade
    7. S.R. Dennison, The Location of Industry and Depressed Areas, Part II
    8. G. McLaughlin, Growth of American Manufacturing Areas, Part II
    9. D.M. Phelps, Migration of Industry to South America
    10. P.E.P, Report on the Location of Industry in Great Britain, Chaps. I, V, VIII, IX, X
    11. B. Barfod, Local Economic Effects of a Large-Scale Industrial Undertaking
    12. Harold H. Hutcheson, “Problems of the Underdeveloped Countries,” (Parts I and II), Foreign Policy Reports, September 15 and October 1, 1948, Vol. XXIV, Nos. 9 and 10
    13. L.H. Bean, “International Industrialization and Per Capita Income,” Studies in Income and Wealth (National Bureau of Economic Research 1946), Vol. 8, pp. 119-44
    14. Ernst Pelzer, “Industrialization of Young Countries and the Change in the International Division of Labor,” Social Research, September 1940, pp. 299-325
    15. N.S. Buchanan, “Deliberate Industrialization for Higher Incomes,” Economic Journal Volume 56, December 1946
    16. E. Staley, World Economic Development (I.L.O.)
    17. Great Britain Ministry of Works and Planning, Report of the Committee on Land Utilisation in Rural Areas (Scott Report), Parts I, II
    18. Great Britain, Royal Commission on the Distribution of the Industrial Population, Report (Barlow Report)
    19. T.R. Sharma, Location of Industries in India (2nd Edition), Chaps. XI-XV
    20. H. Perloff, Puerto Rico’s Economic Future
    21. W.A. Lewis, “Industrial Development in Puerto Rico,” Caribbean Economic Review, Vol. I, No. 1, December 1949
    22. S.S. Balzak et al., Economic Geography of the U.S.S.R.
    23. E.M. Hoover & J.L. Fisher, “Research in Regional Economic Growth,” in Problems in the Study of Economic Growth, National Bureau of Economic Research
    24. P. Neff et al., Production Cost Trends in Selected Industrial Areas
    25. R. Vining, articles on regional cyclical behavior, Econometrica, July 1945, January 1946, and July 1946; and Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Review, May 1949
    26. Interstate Commerce Commission, Dockets Nos. 29885 and 29886, pp. 55-165, Testimony of R. Vining
    27. Survey Research Center, Industrial Mobility in Michigan
    28. Hildebrand and Mace, “The Employment Multiplier in an Expanding Industrial Market: Los Angeles County, 1940-47,” Review of Economics and Statistics, August, 1950
    29. C. Clark, “The Distribution of Labour Between Industries and Between Locations,” Land Economics, May 1950

 

  1. Regional Implications of Aircraft and Atomic Power
    Required Reading and Reading Period Assignment

    1. Isard and Whitney, Atomic Power: An Economic and Social Analysis, entire book
    2. C. and W. Isard, “Some Economic Implications of Aircraft,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 59, February 1945

Supplementary Reading

    1. National Resources Planning Board, Technological Trends and National Policy, Parts I, II
    2. W. F. Ogburn, “The Process of Adjustment to New Inventions,” in Technology and International Relations (ed. by W.F. Ogburn)
    3. H. Hart, “Technology and Growth of Political Areas,” in Technology and International Relations(ed. by W.F. Ogburn)
    4. A. J. Brown, Applied Economics, Chapter VII
    5. Isard and Lansing, “Comparisons of Power Cost for Atomic and Conventional Steam Stations,” Review of Economic Statistics, Vol. XXXI, August 1949
    6. Isard, “Some Economic Implications of Atomic Energy,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. LXII, February 1948
    7. W.F. Ogburn, Social Effects of Aviation, Parts I, II, III
    8. National Resources Planning Board, Transportation and National Policy, Part II, Section I, “Air Transport.”
    9. S. Schurr and J. Marschak, Economic Aspects of Atomic Power
    10. Isard and Whitney, “Atomic Power and Regional Development,” Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, Vol. VIII, April 1952

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003, Box 5, Folder “Economics, 1952-1953 (2 of 2).

___________________

Final Examination May, 1953

1952-53
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 235b

Answer question 1 and three others.

  1. Define and discuss briefly the following concepts:

(a) location quotient
(b) freight absorption
(c) income potential

  1. Evaluate the economic feasibility of a plan based on the concepts of “small man, small plant, and small town with diversified industry.”
  2. Discuss the thesis that the concept of a nodal or metropolitan region is increasing in significance for regional analysis.
  3. What are the various forces determining the location pattern of the iron and steel industry? How do they interact under several different sets of circumstances? Illustrate with diagrams.
  4. “If private enterprise is to engage in the production of both fissionable material and power for commercial use, the location in New England of a nuclear energy installation operated by private enterprise would tend to minimize the subsidy required of the federal government.” Evaluate this statement.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Final Exams—Social Sciences—June 1953 (HUC 7000.28), Vol. 99. Papers Printed for Final Examinations. History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …, Air Sciences, Naval Science. June, 1953.

Image Source:  Walter Isard, ca. 1960. From David Boyce presentation: Leon Moses and Walter Isard: Collaborators, Rivals or Antagonists.

Categories
Berkeley Suggested Reading Syllabus

Berkeley. Money Course, Topics and References. W.C. Mitchell, 1906

 

 

When the following syllabus for  Economics 8B was published at the University of California in 1906, Wesley Clair Mitchell was a thirty-two year old assistant professor of economics. He was listed in the Report of the President of the university as the instructor of the course though he is not identified as such in the syllabus itself. The 22-page syllabus that I found at archive.com is unfortunately missing its second page but is still worth posting in its present incomplete state.

_______________

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS AND COMMERCE

TOPICS AND REFERENCES FOR
ECONOMICS 8B
MONEY

PLAN OF THE COURSE.

Part I — Monetary Systems.
Part II — Development of Monetary Systems.
Part III — Money and Prices.

PART I— MONETARY SYSTEMS.

1—The United States.

(a) Money supplied by the government,

1a— Coin: —

Gold, silver dollars, subsidiary silver, minor coins.

The mint. Standard money; legal tender.

For statistics, see current reports of the Director of the Mint. (Bound in Finance Reports.)

For laws, see C. F. Dunbar, Laws of the U. S. relating to Currency, Finance and Banking from 1789 to 1891. Boston, 1891.

J. L. Laughlin, Report of the Monetary Commission of the Indianapolis Convention, Chicago, 1898, pp. 491-543.

Coinage, Currency and Banking Laws of the U. S., 1791-1900. Sound Currency, June, 1901. Vol. 8, No. 2.

2a— Paper money: —

Gold Certificates, silver certificates.

United States notes, currency certificates, treasury notes of 1890.

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing.

For statistics, see current Reports of the Treasurer of the U. S. (Bound in Finance Reports.)

For laws, see references above.

[Note: page 2 is missing in this copy. Appears to be missing, say, 1(b) “Money supplied by Banks”? and 2(a), 2(b)?… for “2—Foreign Countries”]

[2—Foreign Countries, from page 3]

Money and Prices in Foreign Countries. (Special Consular Reports; Vol. 13, Parts 1 and 2.) Washington, 1896, 1897.

M. L. Muhleman, Monetary Systems of the World. New York, The Spectator Company. (Numerous editions.)

J. H. Norman, Complete Guide to the World’s Twenty-nine Metal Monetary Systems. New York, 1892.

R. Chalmers, History of Currency in the British Colonien. London, 1893.

R. P. Rothwell, ”The World’s Currencies.” 2d edition.

Sound Currency, 1896. A compendium, pp. 81-98.

3 — Silver-standard monetary systems.

See references under 2.

4 — Bimetallic systems.

Historical sketches in above references, and Part II, section 6, i, below.

5 — Paper-standard systems.

See references under 2 above, and Part II, section 6, k, below.

6 — Gold-exchange standards.

Stability of International Exchange. Report on the Introduction of the Gold-exchange Standard into China and other silver-using countries. (H.R. Doc, No. 144. 58th Congress, 2d Session.) Washington, 1903.

Report on the Introduction of the Gold-exchange Standard into China, the Philippine Islands, Panama, and other Silver-using countries. Washington, 1904.

A.P. Andrew, ”The End of the Mexican Dollar.” Quarterly Journal of Economics, May, 1904.

E.W. Kemmerer, “A Gold Standard for the Straits Settlements.” Political Science Quarterly, December, 1904.

“The Establishment of the Gold-exchange Standard in the Philippines.” Quarterly Journal of Economics, August, 1905.

A. P. Andrew, “Indian Currency Problems of the Last Decade.” Quarterly Journal of Economics, August, 1901.

M. Bothe, Die indische Wahrungsreform seit 1893. (Münchener volkswirtschaftliche Studien.) Stuttgart, 1904.

 

PART II — DEVELOPMENT OF MONETARY SYSTEMS.

1—Bibliographies.

W.S. Jevons, Investigations in Currency and Finance. London, 1884. Pp. 364-414 (Chronologically arranged. 1568-1882).

A. Soetbeer, Litteraturnachweis über Geld-und-Münzwesen. Berlin, 1892. (Chronologically arranged. 1871-1891.)

K. Helfferich, Das Geld. Leipzig, 1903. Pp. 532-590 (Continuation of Soetbeer’s bibliography, 1892-1902).

2—Origin of Money.

C. Bücher, Industrial Evolution. Tr. by S.M. Wickett, New York, 1901. Pp. 59-71.

W.W. Carlile, The Evolution of Modem Money. London and New York, 1901. Part II, chapters I-III.

Economic Methods and Economic Fallacies, London, 1904. Ch. X.

W. Ridgeway, Origin of Metallic Currency and Weight Standards. Cambridge, 1902. Chapter II.

K. Helfferich, op. cit. Book I, ch. I.

C. Menger, ”The Origin of Money.” Economic Journal, June, 1892.

E. Babelon, Les Origines de la Monnaie. Paris, 1897.

3—Money in Antiquity.

This subject is discussed in courses History 53 and 54.

4—From the end of the Roman Empire to the Discovery of America. The barter economy. Reappearance of Money. Local coinages. Growth of the royal prerogative. Monetary policies.

W.J. Ashley, Introduction to English Economic History and Theory. Part I, 3d ed. 1894. Ch. I, sec. 6; ch. Ill, sec. 18.

W. Cunningham, Growth of English Industry and Commerce during the Early and Middle Ages. 3d ed., Cambridge, 1896. Passim.

A. Del Mar, History of Monetary Systems. London, 1895. Ch. X-XV.

G. Schmoller, Grundriss der allgemeinen Volkswirtschaftslehre. 2d part. Leipzig, 1904. Sec. 164.

W.C. Hazlitt, The Coinage of the European Continent. London and New York, 1893.

A. Luschin von Ebengreuth, Allgemeine Münzkunde und Geldgeschichte des Mittelalters und der neueren Zeit. Munich and Berlin, 1904.

H. Engel and B. Lerrure, Traité de numismatique du moyenâge. Paris, 1905.

5—From the Discovery of America to the Close of the Eighteenth Century.

(a) General references.

Hazlitt, Luschin von Ebengreuth, and Engel and Lerrure, as above.

W.A. Shaw, History of the Currency, 1252-1894. London, 1895.

G. Schmoller, op. cit. See. 165.

(b) Increase in the supply of the precious metals and the consequences.

A. Soetbeer, Materialien zur Erläuterung und Beurtheilung der wirthschaftlichen Edelmetallverhältnisse und der Währungsfrage. Berlin, 1885. 2d ed. 1886. (Translation by F. W. Taussig in Sen. Exec. Doc. No. 34; 1st Session 50th Congress.)

R.H. Patterson, The New Golden Age and the Influences of the Precious Metals upon the World. 2 vols. Edinburgh and London, 1882. Chaps. VIII-XI.

W. Sombart, Der moderne Kapitalismus. 2 vols. Leipzig, 1902. Vol. I, ch. xiii, pp. 358-372, and following chs., passim.

G. Wiebe, Zur Geschichte der Preisrevolution im 16ten und 17ten Jahrhundert. (Staats- und Sozialwissenschaftliche Beiträge. Herausgegeben von A. von Miaskowski. Band ii. Heft 2.) Leipzig, 1895.

(c) The Rise of Banking.

See Exercises and References for Economics 8, pp. 11, 12.

(d) Monetary difficulties and reforms in England.

W. Cunningham, Growth of English Industry and Commerce in Modern Times. 2 parts. Cambridge, 1903. Passim.

Earl of Liverpool, Treatise on the Coins of the Realm. London, 1800. (Reprinted 1880.) Passim.

S.D. Horton, The Silver Pound, London, 1887. Chaps, v-viii.

(e) England’s transition to the gold standard.

See references under d, and,

W.W. Carlile, Evolution of Modern Money, Part I.

P. Kalkmann, England’s Uebergang zur Goldwahrung im 18ten Jahrhundert (Abhandlungen des staatswirtschaft- lichen Seminars zu Strassburg). Strassburg, 1895.

(f) Monetary experiences of the English colonies in North America.

This subject is discussed in History 77. For a brief sketch see,

C.J. Bullock, Essays on the Monetary History of the U. S. N. Y., 1900. Part I, chs. i-v.

(g) Establishment of a Monetary System under the constitution.

A. Hamilton, Report on the Establishment of a Mint. 1790. ”Works,” ed. J. C. Hamilton, Vol. 3, p. 149. N. Y., 1850.

J. L. Laughlin, History of Bimetallism in the U. S. 4th ed. N.Y., 1901. Ch. ii.

A. B. Hepburn, History of Coinage and Currency in the U.S. N. Y., 1903. Chs. i, ii.

D.K. Watson, History of American Coinage, 2d ed. N. Y., 1899. Chs. iii, iv.

6—Since 1800.

(a) Production of gold and silver, 1800-1848.

Soetbeer, Materialien, and Reports of the Director of the Mint, for statistical estimates.

R. H. Patterson, op. cit. Chs. xii-xv.

J. L. Laughlin, Bimetallism, ch. iii.

W.S. Jevons, ”The Variation of Prices and the Value of the Currency since 1782.” Investigations in Currency and Finance, iii.

(b) French monetary legislation of 1803.

H.P. Willis, History of the Latin Monetary Union. Chi- cago, 1901. Ch. i.

International Monetary Conference held in Paris, August, 1878. (Senate Executive Doc. No. 58. 45th Congress, 3d Sess.) Pp. 153-157. (Monetary Laws.)

F.A. Walker, International Bimetallism. N. T., 1897. Ch. iv.

(c) American legislation of 1834.

Laughlin, Bimetallism. Ch. iv.

Walker, op. cit., ch. iv.

Hepburn, op. cit., ch. iii.

Watson, op. cit., chs. v and vi.

(d) The gold discoveries in California and Australia.

R.H. Patterson, op. cit., chs. i-vi.

H.H. Bancroft, History of California, Vol. vi. San Francisco, 1888. (”Works,” Vol. xxiii.)

T.H. Hittell, History of California, Vol. ii. San Francisco, 1885. Chs. vii, ff.

T.O. Larkin and R. B. Mason, Correspondence with the Secretary of State with reference to the gold discoveries in California. House Exec. Doc. No. 1, 2d Session, 30th Congress. Pp. 51-69.

W. Westgarth, Victoria and the Australian Gold mines in 1857. London, 1857.

Soetbeer, Materialien; Beports of the Director of the Mint, for statistical estimates.

(e) Diffusion of the new gold and the economic consequences.

J.E. Cairnes, Essays in Political Economy. London, 1873.

Introductory and Essays i-iv.

W.S. Jevons, Investigations, ii-iv.

R.H. Patterson, op. cit., chs. xvii-xxi.

(f) Effect of the new gold on bimetallic monetary systems.

J. L. Laughlin, Bimetallism, chs. v-viii.

H. P. Willis, Latin Union, chs. iv-xi.

F. A. Walker, International Bimetallism, chs. iv and v.

Also see references under i below.

(g) Limitations on free coinage of silver.

Laughlin, Bimetallism, chs. vii-xi.

Willis, Latin Union, chs. xii-xiv.

Walker, International Bimetallism, ch. vi.

Watson, op. cit., chs. viii and ix.

Hepburn, op. cit., ch. xii.

Also see references under i below.

(h) Attempts to check the fall of silver.

Laughlin, Bimetallism, chs. xiv-xvii.

Willis, Latin Union, chs. xv-xx.

H.B. Russell, International Monetary Conferences. N. Y., 1898.

A.D. Noyes, Thirty Years of American Finance. 2d impression. N. Y., 1900. Chs. iv-viii.

Hepburn, op. cit., chs. xii, xiii, xvii.

Watson, op. cit., chs. xi-xiii.

F.W. Taussig, The Silver Situation in the U. S. 2d ed. revised. N. Y., 1896.

Also see references under i below.

(i) The bimetallic controversy.

1i—Brief summaries of the discussion.

W.S. Jevons, Money and the Mechanism of Exchange. London, 1875. Ch. xii.

F. A. Walker, Money. N. Y., 1877. Ch. xiii.

Laughlin, Bimetallism, ch. i.

W. A. Scott, Money and Banking. 2d ed. N. Y., 1903. Chs. xiv, xv.

D. Kinley, Money. N. Y., 1904. Ch. xiv.

2i—Best systematic discussion.

L. Darwin, Bimetallism. A Summary and Examination of the Arguments for and against a Bimetallic System of Currency. London, 1897.

3i—Books presenting different points of view. For further references see bibliographies cited on p. 4 above.

E.B. Andrews, An Honest Dollar. (Pub. Am. Econ. Assc’n., Vol. iv.) 1889. Republished Hartford, 1894.

O. Arendt, Die vertragsmässige Doppelwährung. 2 vols. Berlin, 1880.

Die Ursache der Silberentwerthung. Berlin, 1899.

F. W. Bain, The Corner in Gold: Its History and Theory. London, 1893.

L. Bamberger, Reichsgold. Studien über Wahrung und Wechsel. Leipzig, 1876.

Ausgewahlte Reden und Aufsätze über Geld und Bankwesen. (Schriften des Vereins zum Schutz der deutschen Goldwährung, Vol. i.) Berlin, 1900.

D. Barbour, The Theory of Bimetallism. London, 1885.

W. Barker, Bimetallism; or, the Evils of Gold Monometallism. Philadelphia, 1896.

A. I. Fonda, Honest Money. N. Y., 1895.

H.H. Gibbs and H. B. Grenfell, The Bimetallic Controversy. London, 1886.

Sir Robert Giffin, The Case against Bimetallism. 5th ed. London, 1898.

E. Helm, The Joint Standard. London, 1894.

T. Hertzka, Das internationale Währungsproblem und dessen Lösung. Leipzig, 1892.

O. Heyn, Kritik des Bimetallismus. Berlin, 1897.

S.D. Horton, Silver in Europe. 2d ed. N. Y., 1892.

E. de Laveleye, La Monnaie et le bimetallisme international. Paris, 1891.

H. D. MacLeod, Bimetallism. London, 1894.

E. Nasse, “Das Geld und Münzwesen.” (Schönberg’s Handbuch der politischen Oekonomie. 3d ed. Tubingen, 1890. Vol. i.)

J.S. Nicholson, Treatise on Money and Essays on Monetary Problems. 4th ed. London, 1897.

Reports of the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the Recent Changes in the Relative Values of the Precious Metals. London, 1st Report, 1887 ; 2d Report, Final Report, Appendix, 1888.

A.E. Schaeffle, Für internationale Doppelwährung. Tübingen, 1881.

A.P. Stokes, Joint Metallism. N. Y., 1894.

E. Suess, Die Zukunft des Silbers, Vienna, 1892.

W.L. Trenholm, The People’s Money. N. Y., 1893.

Verhandlungen der Kommission behufs Erörterung von Massregeln zur Hebung und Befestigung des Silberwerthes. 2 vols. Berlin, 1894.

F.A. Walker, International Bimetallism. N. Y., 1897.

M.L. Wolowski, L’or et l’argent. Paris, 1870.

(j) General adoption of the Gold Standard.

K. Helfferich, Das Geld. Leipzig, 1903. Book i, ch. vi. (General.)

Die Reform des deutschen Geldwesens nach der Gründung des Reichs. 2 vols. Leipzig, 1898.

Hepburn, op. cit., ch. xviii.

F.W. Taussig, ”The Currency Act of 1900.” Quart. Jour. of Econ. May, 1900.

J.L. Laughlin, ”Recent Monetary Legislation.” Jour. of Pol. Econ., June, 1900.

Matsukata Masayoshi, Report on the Adoption of the Gold Standard in Japan. Tokio, 1899.

Also references under Part I, secs. 2 and 6, above.

(k) Paper money episodes of the Nineteenth Century.

W. Lexis, “Das Papiergeld im 19ten Jahrhundert.” Handwörterbuch der Staatswissenschaften. Vol. vi; Jena, 1901. Pp. 28-38.

 

Cunningham, op, cit. Vol. iii. (See “Bank restriction” in index.)

Report, together with minutes of evidence and accounts, from the Select Committee on the High Price of Gold Bullion (ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, June 8, 1810). Reprinted in W. Sumner’s History of American Currency. N. Y., 1878.

D. Ricardo, Works, ed. McCulloch. Pp. 261-301.

T. Tooke, Thoughts and Details on the High and Low Prices of the Thirty Years from 1793 to 1822. 2d ed. London, 1824.

W.S. Jevons, Investigations, iii.

 

W.C. Mitchell, A History of the Greenbacks, 1862-1865. Chicago, 1903.

H. White, Money and Banking. N. Y., 1895. Part II, Bk. I, chs. iv, vi, vii.

Hepburn, op. cit., chs. viii-xi.

Noyes, op. cit., chs. i-iii.

W.A. Berkey, The Money Question. 4th ed. Grand Rapids, 1878.

 

J.C. Schwab, The Confederate States of America, 1861-1865. New York, 1901.

 

A. Courtois, Historic des banques en France. 2d ed. Paris, 1881. Pp. 256-269.

Bulletin de statistique et de legislation comparée, Vol. vii, pp. 247-254 and 310-337.

 

A. Wagner, Die russische Papierwährung. Riga, 1868.

H.P. Willis, “Monetary Reform in Russia.” Jour. of Pol. Econ., June, 1897.

R. Ledos de Beaufort, L’achevement et l’application de la reforme monetaire en Russie. Paris, 1899.

 

C. Ferraris, Moneta e corso forzoso. Milan, 1879.

M. Grundwald, “Geschichte des italienischen Zwangkurses und der Wiederherstellung der Valuta.” Finanz Archiv, Vol. xi, No. 1, 1894.

 

K. Kramár, Das Papiergeld in Oesterreich seit 1848. Leipzig, 1886.

G. Crivellari, “I precedenti della riforma monetaria in Austria-Ungheria” and ”La riforma monetaria in Austria-Ungheria”; Giornale degli Economisti, September, 1900, and February, 1901.

A. de Foville, “Spanish Currency.” Jour. of Pol. Econ., December, 1898.

J.P. Wileman, Brazilian Exchange: The study of an Inconvertible Currency. London, 1897.

O. Schmitz. Die Finanzen Argentiniens. Leipzig, 1895.

A. Raffalovich, ”La cours forcé et la reprise des paiements au Chili.” Journal des Economistes, November, 1897.

 

PART III— MONEY AND PRICES.

1—The Rôle of Prices in Modern Economic Life.

(a) The price system.

(b) The price system and production.

(c) The price system and distribution.

(d) Influence of the price system on the kind of goods produced.

(e) The price system and the selection of captains of industry.

(f) The price of business enterprises.

(g) Money-making as an economic motive.

(h) Influence of the price system on wants.

(i) The price system and the pecuniary point of view.

(j) Technical exigencies of the price system.

(k) Development of the price system.

(l) Summary.

(m) Neglect of the influence of the price system in economic theory.

2—The Problem of Changes in the Price Level.

(a) Statement of the problem.

(b) Meaning of ”price level.”

(c) How changes in the price level are measured.

Index numbers. Methods of averaging. Weights.

D. Kinley, Money. N. Y., 1904. Ch. xii.

J. L. Laughlin, Principles of Money. N. Y., 1903. Ch. vi.

R. Mayo-Smith, Statistics and Economics. N. Y., 1899. Ch. vi.

A.L. Bowley, Elements of Statistics. 2d ed. London, Ch. ix.

L. L. Price, Money and its Relations to Prices. London, Pp. 9-36.

J. S. Nicholson, Treatise on Money and Essays on Monetary Problems. 4th ed. London, 1897. Essay vii.

T. S. Adams, ” Index Numbers and the Standard of Value.” Jour. of Pol. Econ., December, 1901, and March, 1902.

C.M. Walsh, The Measurement of General Exchange-value. N. Y., 1901.

For further references see bibliographies in Walsh, pp. 553-574, and Laughlin, pp. 221-224.

(d) Specimen index numbers.

1d—Bulletin of the Bureau of Labor, March, 1902.

Course of prices at wholesale, 1890 to date. Continued in March issues of following years.

2d—Bulletin of the Bureau of Labor, July, 1904, pp. 703-712.

Prices of food at retail, 1890 to date. Continued in July issue of 1905.

Fuller publication in 18th Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor.

3d—Bulletin of the Bureau of Labor, July, 1904, pp. 713-932.

Relative rates of wages, 1890 to date. Continued in July issue, 1905.

Fuller publication in 19th Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor.

4d—R. P. Falkner, “Wholesale Prices: 1890 to 1899.” Bulletin of the Department of Labor, March, 1900.

5d—Dun’s index number of the cost of living, 1860 to date. Dun’s Review, passim; also Dun’s Review: International Edition, passim. Partial republication in recent issues of the Statistical Abstract of the U. S. and in Monthly Summary of Commerce and Finance.

6d— John R. Common’s index number, 1878 to 1901. Quarterly Bulletin of the Bureau of Economic Research, 1900 and 1901. Partial republication in Final Report of the Industrial Commission, pp. 29-30 and 1101-1113. For methods see Bulletin of the Department of Labor, March, 1902, pp. 210, 211.

7d—R. P. Falkner’s index number of wholesale prices, 1860 to 1891. “Aldrich Report” (Senate Report No. 1394, 52d Congress, 2d Session), Part I, pp. 27-110.

8d—Falkner’s index number of wages, 1860-1891. Ibid., pp. 110-180.

9d—A. Sauerbeck’s index number for England, 1846 to date.

Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, 1886 and following years. See, also, “Aldrich Report,” Part I, pp. 229-256; and Monthly Summary of Commerce and Finance, June, 1904.

10d—Economist index number for England.

London Economist, passim. See, also, ”Aldrich Report,” Part I, pp. 220-228.

11d—Soetbeer’s Hamburg prices, 1851-1884, Materialien, etc., pp. 98-104.

Soetbeer’s prices with Heinze’s continuation, 1847-1891. ”Aldrich Report,” Part I, pp. 257-296.

12d—O. Schmitz, Die Bewegung der Warenpreise in Deutschland von 1851 bis 1902. Berlin, 1903.

(e) Characteristics of price variations shown by these tables.

Divergencies between price variations of individual goods; of raw materials and manufactured goods; of the same goods at wholesale and retail; of labor and commodities.

Similarity in movements of the price level in different countries.

Long period and short period fluctuations.

Effect of weighing on results.

(f) Reliability of tables of index numbers as measures of change in the price level.

N. G. Pierson, “Index Numbers and the Appreciation of Gold.” Economic Journal, September, 1895. “Further Considerations on Index Numbers.” Ibid., March, 1896.

F. Y. Edgeworth, “A Defense of Index Numbers.” Ibid., March, 1896.

3—Methods of Investigating Causes of Changes in the Price Level.

(a) Study of conditions of supply and demand of single articles.

Tooke and Newmarch, History of Prices, 6 vols. London, 1838-1857. Passim.

(b) Study of tables of index numbers.

(c) Application of the general theory of value to the problem of the price level. The quantity theory.

J. S. Mill, Principles of Political Economy. Book iii, chs. viii and ix.

J. S. Nicholson, Treatise on Money. 4th ed. London, 1897. Part I, ch. v; part II, ch. v.

F. A. Walker, Money. N. Y., 1877. Ch. iii.

S. M. Hardy, “Quantity of Money and Prices, 1861-92.” Jour. of Pol Econ., March, 1895.

H. P. Willis, ”History and Present Application of the Quantity Theory.” Ibid., September, 1896.

W. A. Scott, ”The Quantity Theory.” Annals of the American Academy, March, 1897.

R. Mayo-Smith, “Money and Prices.” Pol, Sci, Quart., June, 1900.

J. L. Laughlin, Principles of Money. N. Y., 1903. Ch. viii.

W. A. Scott, Money and Banking. N. Y., 1903. Ch iv.

F. A. Walker, “The Value of Money.” Quart. Jour. of Econ., October, 1893.

“The Quantity-theory of Money.” Ibid., July, 1895.

W.W. Carlisle, ”The Quantitative Theory of Money.” Economic Review, January, 1898.

J. F. Johnson, ”The New Theory of Prices.” Pol. Sci. Quart., October, 1903.

J. L. Laughlin, “The Quantity Theory and its Critics, — a Rejoinder.” Jour. Pol. Econ., September, 1903.

H. P. Willis, “The Controversy over Price Theories.” Sound Currency, March, 1904.

C. A. Conant, “What Determines the Value of Money?” Quart. Jour. of Econ., August, 1904.

W. C. Mitchell, “The Real Issues in the Quantity-theory Controversy.” Jour. of Pol. Econ., June, 1904.

(d) Analysis of the process of price making.

S. and B. Webb. Industrial Democracy. 2d ed. London, 1902. Part III, ch. ii.

4—The Process of Price Making in Modern Business.

(a) Consumers.

Their disadvantages in bargaining. Their freedom to buy, what, when and where they like. Variations in the volume of their purchases.

(b) Retail dealers.

Their business position. Efforts to attract custom. Policy in fixing prices. Cost of retailing.

(c) Wholesale dealers.

Pressure upon them for low prices from retailers. Danger of direct dealings between manufacturers and retailers. Effect of variations in consumers’ demands. Credit relations.

(d) Manufacturers.

Technical problems. Business risks. Pressure for low prices and methods of meeting it. Effect of variations of demand in short and long periods.

(e) Dealers in raw materials.

Commission merchants. Firms buying and selling on their own account. Dealings upon the produce exchanges—speculation.

(f) Farmers.

Business and technical aspects of farming. Competition and the possibility of avoiding it. Variations in supply of agricultural products in short and long periods. Steadiness of demand. Farmers as consumers.

(g) Other producers of raw materials.

Important classes. Business organization of extractive industries. Peculiar conditions affecting supply. Variability of demand. Relation between prices of finished products and raw materials.

(h). Production goods other than raw materials.

Character. Sources of demand. Variability of demand. Organization of trade.

(i) Transportation companies.

Technical improvements. Business organization. Competition. Effect of reduction in rates on the price level. Effect of discrimination in railway freight rates. Variability of rates.

(j) Wage earners.

Pressure for low wages. Methods of withstanding. Why wage rates vary little as compared with prices of raw materials. Effect of efficiency of labor on price of products. Wage earners as consumers.

(k) Investors.

Variations in investor’s demand. Influence on business over short and long periods. Investors as consumers.

(l) Promoters.

Their work. Influence on the price of securities and on the price of commodities produced by their companies. Underwriting.

(m) Corporation securities.

“Outside” speculators. Management of corporations for stock-market profits. Financial influences. Connections between stock-market quotations and the general price level.

(n) Banks.

Why business men borrow of banks,—to pay debts, to extend operations, to start new enterprises.

Effect of bank loans for these purposes on the price level. Dependence on consumer’s and business demands.

The banker’s point of view, — security; adequacy of reserves; problems of business crises. Effect of banks on the circulating medium.

(o) Insurance.

Varieties. Influence on banking and investment market. Connection with the price level.

(p) Domestic and professional services.

Changes in rates of remuneration. Changes in incomes. Slight direct effect on the price level. Indirect effect as consumers.

(q) Government.

Stability in price of services rendered by government. Direct influence of taxation on the price level. Monetary policy and the price level. General indirect influence on the price level.

(r) Foreign influences on the price level.

Correspondence between changes in the prices of commodities at wholesale in different countries. Retail prices. Rates of wages; of interest.

Commercial relations. Financial relations. International movements of gold.

(s) Summary.

1s—The endless chain of price relations.

From consumers’ demand round the circle to consumers’ incomes.

2s—Why the price level changes.

Non-monetary causes of variations.

3s—Interrelations of price variations.

4s—Short-period cycles of business prosperity, crisis, and depression.

Their connection with the price system.

5s—The next problem.

Where monetary factors come into the process of price making in modern business.

5—Money and changes in the Price Level.

(a) Plan of the discussion.

(b) The Production of Gold.

Two types of gold mining,—placer and quartz mines.

Factors affecting supply. Relative production from placers and quartz mines at different periods. Statistics of gold production.

Soetbeer, Materialien. (See p. 5 above.)

E. Biedermann, Die Statistik der Edelmetalle. 2d ed. Berlin, 1904.

Annual Reports of the Director of the Mint upon the Production of the Precious Metals.

I. A. Hourwich, ”Production and Consumption of the Precious Metals.” Jour. of Pol. Econ., September, 1902. Pp. 577-682.

(c) Miners and the disposition of their gold.

What placer miners and mining companies do with the metal. Initial influence of changes in production on prices. Gold in the hands of refiners.

(d) The stock of gold and the supply.

Distinction between stock and supply. Elements of the current supply. Their relative importance. (For statistics, see citations under b above.)

(e) The demand for gold.

Industrial and monetary demands. Peculiarity of the latter. Circumstances under which gold is purchased for monetary uses.

(f) How the supply is divided between the two demands.

Statistics of relative importance. Distribution of money in-comes between the purchase of gold goods, and other uses. Distribution of monetary demand between gold and other forms of currency.

Conclusion.

(g) Influence of changes in the volume of gold money on the price level.

How additions to the volume of gold money are made. From the mints to the banks. Diffusion of new supplies from the banks of first deposit. Possible increase in general circulation.

How this process affects the price level. Increase in miners’ demands. Increase of gold in ”the pockets of the people.” Increase of gold in bank reserves. Effect in short-period cycles of business prosperity. Cumulative effect in the long run.

(h) International movements of gold.

International business relations. How payments are made. Reciprocal relations of price changes, interest rates and gold movement. Peculiarities of gold movements between the Occident and the Orient.

(This subject is more fully treated in Economics 8c.)

(i) Summary of the inter-relations between gold and prices.

Short periods; influence of monetary factors in the price-making process; the extension of loan-credit; business crises; the importance of bank reserves; foreign influences.

Long periods; the price level and the supply of gold; gold discoveries and improvements in methods of mining; the industrial demand; the general adoption of the gold standard; paper money episodes; development of banking methods and the increased use of banking facilities; advance of industrial technique; widening territorial area of markets; changes in the business organization of industry; international business relations; the supply of gold and the price level.

Relations between long period and short period price fluctuations.

(j) Money and prices under the silver standard.

Production of silver. Market ratio between silver and gold.

For statistics see, —

References under (b) above.

I. A. Hourwich, “Production and Consumption of the Precious Metals ii. Silver.” Jour. of Pol. Econ., September, 1903.

Industrial and monetary demand for silver. The oriental demand.

Domestic prices and wages in silver-standard countries. International business relations.

(k) Money and prices under the bimetallic standard.

Effect of increased production of either metal on the monetary circulation and on the price level. Reaction on relative prices of the metals. Reason of the breakdown of bimetallic monetary systems. Speculations regarding the influence of international bimetallism.

(l) Money and prices in countries with undeveloped banking systems.

The business world at the time of the discovery of the Mexican and Peruvian mines. Diffusion of the new supplies over Europe. Effect on the price level.

The case of backward countries in the nineteenth century.

(m) Money and prices in countries with paper standards.

How the paper money gets into circulation. Why depreciation occurs. Withdrawal of specie from circulation and its effect on prices in specie-standard countries. Factors affecting the specie value of irredeemable paper money. Effect on the price level. Methods of resuming specie payments. Effect of resumption on the price level at home and abroad.

6—Effects of Changes in the Price Level on the Distribution, Production and Consumption of Wealth.

(a) Wages.

Immediate effect on purchasing power of money wages. Attempts to readjust rates of wages. Compensating effects on regularity of employment. The ease of professional men.

(b) Interest and relations between debtors and creditors.

Immediate effect. Difference between cases of loans on long and short time. Readjustments in rates of interest. The purchasing power of the principal.

(c) Rents.

Immediate effects. Long and short leases. Renting “on shares.” Attempts to readjust rates.

(d) Profits.

Gain or loss of residual claimants resulting from loss or gain of other classes. Effect of difference in complexity of business organization. Gain or loss resulting from inequality in the price fluctuations of different commodities.

(e) Production and consumption.

Effect of above noted changes in distribution on production and consumption. How far is the world’s economic progress dependent on variations in the production of gold?

7—Conclusion.

Purpose of preceding discussion is to account for changes in the price level and their economic consequences. Difficulties attending application of the analysis; the difficulty of obtaining adequate statistical material, and the difficulty of quantitative evaluation of the various price factors. A study of the changes in the price level of the United States since 1890 is made in Economics 25.

Source: University of California, Department of Economics and Commerce. Topics and references for economics 8B. Money. Berkeley: The University Press, 1906.

Image Source: 1922 Blue and Gold. Published by the Junior Class of The University of California.