Author: Irwin Collier

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Columbia Suggested Reading Syllabus Undergraduate

Columbia. Syllabus and reading assignments from economic affairs course, 1931-36

New York City Public Library reading room, ca 1911

 

 

One fine research day when I was working in the splendid reading room of the New York Public Library, I came across a ninety page syllabus for a junior year course at Columbia College “The Organization of Economic Affairs” published in 1930. From two articles in the student newspaper “The Columbia Daily Spectator” it looks like this course had a five-year run from 1931-32 through 1935-36 (see below). I was struck by the deliberate sidestepping of “economic principles”, i.e. theory, and was less than impressed by the preface to the syllabus that I have nonetheless transcribed for the digital record. In addition I have transcribed the 73 reading assignments along with the list of required reading for the course (with links to the books that I could find).  For those interested in more, there are indeed 54 pages of detailed questions and commentary for the reading assignments in the published syllabus.

Of some interest for a modern instructor is that this syllabus includes absolutely no discussion of course requirements, grading or policies. The Columbia Daily Spectator description of the course has introduced me to the concept of “Wallop Courses” which in my day at Yale (early 1970s) were referred to as “Gut Courses” and at Harvard (ca. 1910) such courses attracted “snappers”.

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Reform of Columbia College Economics Course Offerings for 1931-32.

“Contemporary Civilization 3-4 has been dropped from the schedule. The entire Economics and Social Science department’s presentation has been reorganized with many sweeping changes indicated.”

Source: Columbia Daily Spectator, Vol. LIII, No. 122 (15 April 1930), p. 1.

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Wallop Courses

         This series outlines courses in the University generally considered by students as easy, either because of the nature of the material or—the chief point—the absence of rigid study and assignment requirements. The purpose of the series is to determine, after investigation how such courses function; the attitude and methods of the instructors; the attitude of students toward course and instructor.

Merely because a course is a “wallop,” does not prevent students from deriving much benefit from it, or from doing unassigned readings if the spirit of the course can move them to it. The question is, What happens in “easy” courses? If a course is invaluable no one is to be blamed because it can be considered a “wallop.”

         Economic 3-4—The organization of economic affairs. Two points each session, and two maturity credits each session. Drs. [Addison T.] Cutler, [George S.] Mitchell and [Robert] Valeur.

This course is not a “wallop” in the strict sense of this rather vague word. It is rumored about the place that if the course is easy, (which it is not, according to some statements,) that it is due more to the ability of the instructors to get the material across than to facility of the material. There is a considerable list of assigned readings, but by paying attention in class it is deemed possible to make a fair grade with a minimum of reading.

The material studied consists of surveys of various important U. S. industries, and of studies of governmental policies toward industry and labor under the New Deal. The material is said to be about 25 per cent repetition of Contemporary Civilization B. Two term papers are required during the year, and grading of these papers is generally considered to be fairly liberal.

Fortunately, or otherwise, the course will be dropped at the conclusion of this year. The material will be included in a new course, to be known as Economics 7-8, which will combine the material of Eco. 3-4 and 5-6, a course in economic theory.

This change is expected to meet general approval of students, as, at present there is some overlapping of material between the two Courses, and both are usually taken by students specializing in Economics.

Source: Columbia Daily Spectator, Volume LIX, No. 81 (21 Feb. 1936), p. 2.

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COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK

THE ORGANIZATION OF ECONOMIC AFFAIRS
ECONOMICS 3-4

A SYLLABUS PREPARED AND EDITED BY THE STAFF OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS IN COLUMBIA COLLEGE

PREFACE

ASSIGNMENT NO. 1

To the Students of Economics 3-4:

You have completed the two-year course called “An Introduction to Contemporary Civilization.” It is assumed that you wish to explore in more detail than was possible there the problems of “Economics”. You are not unacquainted with economic affairs, for, in addition to your daily observations, you have examined to a certain extent the development of man’s ways of making a living, his ways of living with his fellow men and his ways of interpreting the world. You have also considered some of the difficult problems centering around modern industry as it expands and affects more and more all phases of life.

What then, will be the content of this course? Shall it consist of the “principles” of economics, or a study of many economic problems, or a perusal of the theoretical contribution of some authoritative economist, or something else? For better or for worse “something else” has been chosen, and that choice is roughly indicated by the title of the course, “The Organization of Economic Affairs.” The reasons for this choice and the manner of executing the task have been dictated by a number of considerations, which have to do broadly with three sorts of things: the nature of your previous experience; other curricular offerings both in and out of the field of economics; and modern descriptive and analytical trends in the study and teaching of economics. In no genuine sense will you be “specializing” even here. You will be given other opportunities for particular study: the curriculum offers courses in money and banking, labor problems, public finance, business cycles and the like.

This course will center about economic organization today. But “economic organization” is huge, sprawling and complex. The term itself is subject to considerable ambiguity. Unfortunately it is not possible to picture economic organization with the same degree of precision as might be attained in describing the layout of a given steel mill, or the organization of the United States Steel Corporation, or the organization of the steel industry. The latter type of task is puzzling enough, as you will observe in the first section of the course. But economic organization in the large is infinitely more complex and bothersome. In a hundred courses dealing with economic organization which might be offered in as many universities, it is probable that one hundred different plans of procedure would be invented. This is true of the approach to most bodies of subject matter. It is abundantly and poignantly true in the present case.

Economic affairs are in process of change. Even though this course is intended to be concerned strictly with the contemporary, rather than with the historical, it will in no sense be addressed to fixed or static conditions. It would be strange indeed, after spending a good part of two years in studying developing institutions, to assume that institutions have ceased changing. They must be caught on the wing. Changes are immediately behind us, around us, and before us. We shall probably not have frequent occasion to go back of 1920. And the impossibility of isolating a static “present” may force us into some slight projection of the future.

Another characteristic of the course is its use of quantitative data. Many, although not necessarily all, economic phenomena are matters of “more” or “less”. Quantitative tools are an increasingly important part of the equipment for the study of social phenomena. We can hardly fail to recognize this fact, whatever our private convictions as to the ultimate value of “statistics” in general, or whatever our like or dislike for playing with figures. Our quantitative data will not be used for exercises in statistical technique (there are other opportunities for that), but rather for the direct purpose of coming face to face with economic institutions in operation and discovering their meaning, or at least suggested interpretations of meaning. In this, there are two apparent dangers: (1) the student may not be able to interpret the data; (2) he may over-estimate its significance. The latter may be a real danger if a reader accepts too readily a conclusion drawn from statistical data or accepts even the elements of a statistical series, when ignorant of the methods that have been used by the statistician. We shall make our way with at least a forewarning of these dangers. Some comfort may be had from the avoidance of highly specialized and refined statistical procedures. It will be found that in many cases the authors of the materials used have shown a commendable candor in describing the limitations of their own methods.

A word as to the materials used. An emphasis on change, and the use of quantitative data, will be found to characterize the book which will provide about half the reading material: Recent Economic Changes. This is a two-volume work prepared by the National Bureau of Economic Research. It is the product of many minds. It is admittedly not perfect for our purposes; but it does present the most comprehensive and incisive picture available concerning American economic organization on the move. We present it as the best raw material for the purpose at hand. Supplementing this book various other materials appear in the outline of the course.

The outline does not follow the order of topics in Recent Economic Changes. A three-fold division of another sort is employed. First comes an analysis of a small number of important industries, in each case dealing with the industry’s technology, its business organization, and its leading problems and trends. This is for the purpose of providing specific materials for a concrete and realistic background. The classification by “industries”, rather than by topics which are common to all industries, is followed especially because the economic activities of everyday life are usually centered about some particular industry. Recent Economic Changesis not used in this section.

The second section deals with “industrial relationships”. Here we take leave of the boundaries between the specific industries such as steel and textiles, and begin to consider the institutions and practices which industries have in common, and which, taken together, provide consumers with goods and services. Included here are recent trends in industrial technology, transportation, marketing, labor, finance and especially the price system. Each of these topics is studies in its own terms and usually without confinement to any one industry. In this section the use of Recent Economic Changesas text prevails.

The third section deals with the income, the standards of living, and the consumption levels of the various groups of the population; and a consideration of desirable public policy toward the organization and conduct of industry. This study of policy will include not only some familiar current issues such as farm relief, tariff-making and trust policy, but also some larger questions of planned as against unplanned production. Here Recent Economic Changesassumes a somewhat subordinate place in the reading list.

The course centers about economic life as it is found in the United States today; but this does not imply a narrowly nationalistic viewpoint, or a total exclusion of international features of industrialism. These appear inevitably at various points and especially toward the latter part of the third section where planned and unplanned production are discussed with reference to the Russian five-year economic plan and the long-range economic program devised by the British Liberal Party, with reference as well to our own planning and control of industry during the emergency of the World War.

The fact that many or most of the topics listed are already familiar to college Juniors may cause the course to appear repetitive. Any annoyance on this score should be short-lived. The similarities in names of topics often conceal real differences. Since the course is built upon the foundations of the two-years’ study of “Contemporary Civilization”, a more concentrated and intense piece of study may be expected than would be if the extended survey had not already been made.

 

LIST OF REQUIRED READINGS

Recent Economic Changes in the United States.McGraw-Hill, 1929 (text).

Berglund, A. and Wright, P. G.: The Tariff on Iron and Steel. The Brookings Institution, Washington, 1929.

Black, J. D.: Agricultural Reform in the United States. McGraw-Hill, 1929.

Britain’s Industrial Future. Benn, 1928.

Chase, S., Dunn, R., and Tugwell, R.G.: Soviet Russia in the Second Decade. John Day, 1928.

Commons, J.R. and Andrews, J.B.: Principles of Labor Legislation(second edition). Harper, 1927. [First edition, 1920]

Ellingwood, A.R. and Coombs, W.: The Government and Labor. McGraw-Hill, 1926.

Foster, W.Z.: The Great Steel Strike and Its Lessons. Viking Press, 1920.

Garrett, P.W.: Government Control over Prices. (Price Bulletin No. 3, War Industries Board.) Government Printing Office, Washington, 1920.

Keezer, D.M. and May, S.: Public Control of Business. Harper, 1930.

Lewisohn, S.A., Draper, C.S., Commons, J.R., and Lescohier, D.D.: Can Business Prevent Unemployment?Knopf, 1925.

Page, T.W.: Making the Tariff in the United States. McGraw-Hill, 1924.

Seager, H.R. and Gulick, C.A., Jr.: Trust and Corporation Problems. Harper, 1929.

Stocking, G.W.: The Oil Industry and the Competitive System. Houghton Mifflin, 1925.

Tugwell, R.G.: Industry’s Coming of Age. Harcourt, Brace, 1927.

Tugwell, R.G., Munro, T., and Stryker, R.E.: American Economic Lifeand the Means of Its Improvement(third edition). Harcourt, Brace, 1930.

Warshow, H.T., Representative Industries in the United States. Holt, 1928.

ARTICLES

Hartl, E.M., and Ernst, E.G.: “The Steel Mills Today,” The New Republic, February 19, 1930

“Steel’s Empire is Restless.” The Business Week, February 12, 1930.

Tugwell, R.G.: “Farm Relief and a Permanent Agriculture,” Reprinted from The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, March 1929.

Tugwell, R.G.: “Experimental Control in Russian Industry,” Reprinted from the Political Science Quarterly, Vol. XLIII, No. 2, June 1929.

SCHEDULE OF ASSIGNMENTS

I. SOME IMPORTANT AMERICAN INDUSTRIES

    1. Preface to the course.
      Introduction to Section I.
    2. Berglund and Wright: The Tariff on Iron and Steel, 10-40, 75-103.
    3. Seager and Gulick: Trust and Corporation Problems, 216-242.
    4. Seager and Gulick, 243-262.
      “Steel’s Empire is Restless,” The Business Week, Feb. 12, 1930.
    5. W. Z. Foster: The Great Steel Strike, Introduction, 1-7, 16-27, 50-67, 162-175.
      Hartl and Ernst: “The Steel Mills Today,” The New Republic, Feb. 19, 1930.
    6. Reading to be assigned.
    7. Reading to be assigned.
    8. Reading to be assigned.
    9. G. W. Stocking: The Oil Industry and the Competitive System, 1-35.
    10. Stocking, 83-114.
    11. Stocking, 115-164.
    12. Stocking, 165-210.
    13. Stocking, 238-265, 303-314.
    14. H. T. Warshow: Representative Industries, 3-44.
    15. Warshow, 44-71.
    16. Meat Packing. Warshow, 440-469.

II. INDUSTRIAL RELATIONSHIPS

    1. Introduction to Section II.
      Changes in new and old industries. Recent Economic Changes, 79-95.
    2. Technical changes in manufacturing industries. Recent Economic Changes, 94-146.
    3. Technical Changes in manufacturing industries. Recent Economic Changes, 147-166.
    4. Suggested theories to account for increased productivity. R.G. Tugwell: Industry’s Coming of Age, 29-64.
    5. The changing structure of industry. Recent Economic Changes, 167-194.
    6. The changing structure of industry. Recent Economic Changes, 194-218.
    7. Recent Economic Changes, 425-462.
    8. Recent Economic Changes, 462-490.
    9. Proceedings, 1928 Convention of the American Federation of Full Fashioned Hosiery Workers.
    10. Excerpts from the Proceedings of the 1929 Special Convention of the American Federation of Full Fashioned Hosiery Workers (see Appendix).
    11. Transportation: railways. Recent Economic Changes, 255-279.
    12. Transportation: railways. Recent Economic Changes, 279-308.
    13. Transportation: shipping. Recent Economic Changes, 309-319.
    14. Recent Economic Changes, 321-343.
    15. Recent Economic Changes, 343-374.
    16. Recent Economic Changes, 374-402.
    17. Recent Economic Changes, 402-421.
    18. Money and credit and their effect on business. Recent Economic Changes, 657-679.
    19. Money and credit and their effect on business. Recent Economic Changes, 680-707.
    20. Foreign markets and foreign credits. Recent Economic Changes, 709-725.
    21. Foreign markets and foreign credits. Recent Economic Changes, 725-756.
    22. The system of prices. Tugwell, Munro, and Stryker: American Economic Life (third edition), 368-378.
      Excerpt from W. C. Mitchell: Business Cycles, the Problem and its Setting (see Appendix).
    23. Price movements and related industrial changes. Recent Economic Changes, 602-623.
    24. Price movements and related industrial changes. Recent Economic Changes, 623-655.

III. THE FRUITS OF INDUSTRY AND SOCIAL POLICY

    1. Introduction to Section III.
      Consumption and the standard of living. Recent Economic Changes, 13-51.
    2. Consumption and the standard of living. Recent Economic Changes, 51-78.
    3. The national income and its distribution. Recent Economic Changes, 757-774.
    4. The national income and its distribution. Recent Economic Changes, 774-813.
    5. The national income and its distribution. Recent Economic Changes, 813-839.
    6. Farm relief policy. J.D. Black: Agricultural Reform in the United States, 232-270.
    7. Farm relief policy. Black, 321-366.
    8. Farm relief policy. Black, 368-405.
    9. Farm relief policy. R.G. Tugwell: “Farm Relief and a Permanent Agriculture,” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, March 1929.
    10. Tariff policy. T. W. Page: Making the Tariff in the United States, 41-99.
    11. Tariff policy. Page, 100-170.
    12. Tariff policy. Page, 171-239.
    13. Social legislation. Commons and Andrews: Principles of Labor Legislation, 1-34.
      Ellingwood and Coombs: The Government and Labor, 20-26.
    14. Social legislation. Ellingwood and Coombs, 443-450, 461-467.
      Reprint of Lochner vs. New York (see Appendix).
    15. Social legislation. Ellingwood and Coombs, 559-579, 516-537.
    16. Social legislation. Lewisohn, Draper, Commons, and Lescohier: Can Business Prevent Unemployment? 152-210.
    17. Public policy toward large businesses. Keezer and May: Public Control of Business, 40-84.
    18. Public policy toward large businesses. Keezer and May, 85-120.
    19. Public policy toward large businesses. Keezer and May, 121-148.
    20. Public policy toward large businesses. Keezer and May, 149-183.
    21. Public policy toward large businesses. Keezer and May, 184-229.
    22. Planned production in Russia. Chase, Dunn, and Tugwell: Soviet Russia in the Second Decade, 14-54.
    23. Planned production in Russia. Chase, Dunn, and Tugwell, 189-215, 55-66.
    24. Planned production in Russia. R.G. Tugwell: “Experimental Control in Russian Industry,” Political Science Quarterly, June 1929.
    25. Planned production in Great Britain. Britain’s Industrial Future, the report of the Liberal Industrial Inquiry, v-vii, xvii-xxiv, 3, 14-20, 61-92, 116-120.
    26. Planned production in Great Britain. Britain’s Industrial Future, 139-141, 205-225, 265-279, 341-366.
    27. War-time planning and control in the United States. Excerpt from American Industry in the War (see Appendix).
      W. Garrett: Government Control Over Prices, 23-39.
    28. War-time planning and control. Garrett, 40-87.
    29. War-time planning and control. Garrett, 151-194.
    30. War-time planning and control. Garrett, 195-244.
    31. War-time planning and control. Garrett, 350-360, 380-414.
    32. A review of recent economic changes. Recent Economic Changes, 841-874.
    33. A review of recent economic changes. Recent Economic Changes, 874-910.

Source: Copy of The Organization of Economic Affairs–A Syllabus (1930) at the New York Public Library.

Image Source: The New York City Public Library Reading Room. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

 

 

 

Categories
Cambridge Exam Questions Germany

Cambridge. Exam question from a Ricardo quote translated into German, 1922

by Thomas Phillips, oil on canvas, circa 1821

 

 

The last post began with the exam question below taken from the 1922 Cambridge Economics Tripos.

Meanwhile at the Facebook outpost of Economics in the Rear-view Mirror Ross Emmett asked quite naturally “Who is the quote from?” Charles Robert McCann Jr did a Google books search on the quote and came up with a link to page 234 in Volume 5 of the series Ausgewählte Lesestücke zum Studium der politischen Ökonomie edited by Karl Diehl and Paul Mombert and published in 1912.

I was able to track down a pdf copy of the Diehl and Mombert volume at the University of Mannheim (see link below).  The quote actually comes from a Ricardo letter to Malthus quoted by Marshall in his Principles. The examination bastards board must have wanted to double-disguise the quote’s Ricardian/Marshallian origins, presuming the examinees would have been intimately familiar with Marshall’s Principles. Or perhaps this was merely a gratuitous test of German reading skills? Anyhow, mystery solved. You’re welcome!

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Cambridge Economics Tripos
PART I

Monday, May 29, 1922. 9—12.
GENERAL ECONOMICS. I.

  1. “Ich bestreite nicht den Einfluss der Nachfrage weder auf den Getreidepreis noch auf dem Preis aller andern Dinge; aber das Angebot folgt ihr dicht auf den Fusse, und alsbald erlangt es die Macht, den Preis von sich aus eigenmächtig zu bestimmen, und indem es ihn regelt, ist er durch die Produktionskosten bestimmt.” Comment.

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Where this German translation comes from

Alfred Marshall, “Note on Ricardo’s Theory of Value“: Anmerkung über Ricardos Werttheorie, Handbuch der Volkswirtschaftslehre, pp. 477-486. German translation from the 4th edition [sic] of Marshall’s Principles by Hugo Ephraim and Arthur Salz (Stuttgart and Berlin, 1905). Reprinted in Karl Diehl and Paul Mombert (eds.) Ausgewählte Lesestücke zum Studium der politischen Ökonomie, Band 5 Wert und Preis, II. Abteilung (Karlsruhe: 1912), p. 234.

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Original: Ricardo to Malthus (1820)

“I do not dispute either the influence of demand on the price of corn or on the price of all other things; but supply follows close at its heels and soon takes the power of regulating price in his [sic] own hands, and in regulating it he is determined by cost of production.”

Source: Letter LXXIV (November 24, 1820) of Ricardo to Malthus, in James Bonar (ed.) Letters of David Ricardo to Thomas Robert Malthus, 1810-1823 (Oxford, 1887), p. 179.

Image Source: Thomas Phillips portrait of David Ricardo in 1821. Public domain copy at Wikimedia Commons.

Categories
Cambridge Exam Questions

Cambridge. Economics Tripos Examinations, 1922.

 

Links to economics examinations from the Economics Tripos at Cambridge University for other years:

Economics Tripos 1921.

Economics Tripos 1931.
Economics Tripos 1932.
Economics Tripos 1933.

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PART I

Monday, May 29, 1922. 9—12.
GENERAL ECONOMICS. I.

  1. “Ich bestreite nicht den Einfluss der Nachfrage weder auf den Getreidepreis noch auf dem Preis aller andern Dinge; aber das Angebot folgt ihr dicht auf den Fusse, und alsbald erlangt es die Macht, den Preis von sich aus eigenmächtig zu bestimmen, und indem es ihn regelt, ist er durch die Produktionskosten bestimmt.” Comment.
  2. “In a sense all rents are scarcity rents, and all rents are differential rents” (Marshall). Comment on this statement.
  3. What are the chief social evils resulting from mal-investment of the community’s savings? What are the main causes of such mal-investment?
  4. “Profit is the test of service to the consumer.” Consider this defence of the economic motive.
  5. “Wages are determined by bargaining strength.”
    “Wages must correspond to the marginal net product of labour.”
    Are these views compatible ?
  6. “Whatever may be urged against attempts by the State to fix standard rates of pay, the fixing of maximum hours in all occupations has advantages that must outweigh any possible attendant drawbacks.” Comment.
  7. “In view of the heavy burdens of taxation under which British industry must for many years labour, it is inconceivable that we should quickly regain our pre-war position in our trade with those nations that do not suffer from similar handicaps.” Discuss this statement.
  8. “The fact that the general level of prices has fallen 40% during a period when the quantity of money has undergone little variation and production has been declining shows that the Quantity Theory provides a very inadequate explanation of the forces governing the general level of prices.” Comment.
  9. Discuss the view that the Law of Diminishing Returns is only a special case of a more general law of the combination of factors of production.
  10. How is the representative producer defined? Explain the use made of this idea in modern economics.

 

Monday, May 29, 1922. 1½—4½
RECENT ECONOMIC AND GENERAL HISTORY OF THE UNITED KINGDOM AND THE BRITISH EMPIRE.

  1. Consider the objects and results of the policy of enclosures in the late eighteenth and the early nineteenth centuries.
  2. Sketch the growth of British power in Asia during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
  3. Discuss the causes of social unrest in England in the years immediately following the peace of 1815.
  4. “The accession of Queen Victoria coincided with serious troubles in our oversea dominions.” Explain what these were. Do you consider that they had any common cause?
  5. What were the principal causes of the expansion of British trade and industry between 1828 and 1853?
  6. Explain the causes of the flow of emigrants from the United Kingdom during the latter half of the nineteenth century and indicate to what extent the emigrants have gone to other parts of the British Empire.
  7. Consider the relative importance of the agricultural and the pastoral industries in the development of Canada and Australia.
  8. Discuss the influence of the gold discoveries in the Transvaal on the economic and political development of South Africa.
  9. “Between 1830 and 1880 British Labour turned from political to economic methods.” Explain the reasons for this and sketch the progress of the Labour movement in the United Kingdom in the period 1880-1914.
  10. To what extent did the great industries of England become localised during the nineteenth century? Explain the reasons for the localisation in each case.

 

Tuesday, May 30, 1922. 9—12.
SUBJECTS FOR AN ESSAY.

  1. The future of the world’s shipping industry.
  2. Subject races, mandates and protectorates.
  3. Modern applications of psychology to the study of industrial conditions.
  4. “The experiment of free government is not one which can be tried once for all. Every nation and every generation must try it for itself.”
  5. The economic transition in India.
  6. London as a financial centre.

 

Tuesday, May 30, 1922. 1½ — 4½.
RECENT ECONOMIC AND GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE AND THE UNITED STATES.

  1. “Napoleon suppressed the political and maintained the social and economic results of the Revolution in France.” Discuss this statement.
  2. Sketch the history of American political parties down to the formation of the Republican Party in 1854.
  3. “The long peace which Europe enjoyed after 1815 was due to the justice of the settlement made at Vienna.” Discuss this opinion.
  4. Account for the rapid spread of settlement over the Mississippi Valley.
  5. Compare the progress made in railway construction in France and Germany down to 1870 and the principles on which each country acted.
  6. What influence had economic forces on the causes and the result of the American Civil War?
  7. “Que devenait la question des compensations? C’est ce que tout le monde se demandait dans notre pays, où l’on jugeait avec raison l’équilibre européen et les intérêts de la France compromis par le subit et énorme accroissement de la puissance prussienne. C’était bien l’avis de Napoléon III.”
    Explain the position of France at this juncture. By what means and with what success did Napoleon III endeavour to improve it?
  8. “Kurz, wenn ich in der Wahl zwischen dem russischen und dem österreichischen Bündniss das letzte vorgezogen habe, so bin ich keineswegs blind gewesen gegen die Zweifel, welche die Wahl erschwerten.”
    Discuss the problem of German foreign policy here indicated. In what manner did Bismarck deal with it?
  9. Compare the industrial development of Germany and the United States since 1880.
  10. “America’s foreign policy is summed up in the Monroe Doctrine.” Examine the truth of this statement as applied to the period since 1865.
  11. “The mutual suspicion of England and Russia was always the most serious part of the Balkan problem.” Discuss this opinion.

 

Wednesday, May 31, 1922. 9—12.
GENERAL ECONOMICS. II.

  1. Give a formula for measuring elasticity of demand. Consider the meaning of unit elasticity, and test it by an example.
  2. What are external economies? Consider the relations of a business to (a) its locality, (b) its industry, (c) general national conditions.
  3. What is theoretically included in the National Dividend? Show the difficulties of avoiding leakage and double counting.
  4. Discuss the statement that “the standard of life is the standard of activities adjusted to wants.”
  5. Discuss the relation of mobility of labour to the problem of unemployment.
  6. Describe critically any two types of sliding scale as methods of payment of wages.
  7. “The shareholders’ ultimate control is based upon the fact that they bear the financial risk of the concern.” Consider this justification of the existing control of industry.
  8. “Si vraiment l’évolution industrielle conduit aux monopoles, il est clair qu’elle conduit aussi à l’établissement du socialisme intégral. Lorsque toutes les industries auront subi la transformation annoncée comme necessaire, lorsqu’elles n’auront plus qu’une tête, lorsque la concurrence aura partout disparu, il sera logique et fatal qu’elles soient nationalisées. ” Consider this view.
  9. What are the chief sources of demand for foreign bills? Under what conditions is each form of demand most active?
  10. On what principles should bank loans be regulated (a) in a period of rising prices, (b) in a period of crisis?

 

Thursday, June 1, 1922. 9—12.
GENERAL ECONOMICS. III.

  1. Discuss the extent to which the future development of Economic knowledge is dependent upon either (a) mathematical methods, or (b) statistical investigations.
  2. To what extent is modern advertising an economic waste?
  3. Explain one form of the theory of “overproduction” and discuss its validity.
  4. Discuss the merits, limitations and social potentialities of Profit Sharing.
  5. Explain the process of dealing in futures in any produce market and give some details.
  6. Discuss the alleged advantages of “devaluation” at the present time.
  7. Discuss the economic problems that have arisen through the accumulation of gold in the United States.
  8. What use can properly be made of banking statistics in judging the extent to which inflation or deflation is proceeding?
  9. What is the relation between the burden of the National Debt and the National Income in the immediate future?
  10. Discuss the modern tendency to use taxation as an instrument for modifying the distribution of wealth.

 

PART II

Monday, May 29, 1922. 9—12.
ECONOMIC PRINCIPLES.

  1. “Der Tausch ist, obgleich historisch älter als Ein- und Verkauf, in mancher Beziehung verwickelter.” Explain and elaborate.
  2. “Le fait est que l’abondance ou la rareté de l’argent, de la monnaie, ou de tout ce qui en tient lieu n’influe pas du tout sur le taux de l’intérêt, pas plus que l’abondance ou la rareté de la cannelle, du froment, ou des étoffes de soie.” Comment.
  3. How far can a policy of emigration be regarded as a remedy for unemployment?
  4. “There is no essential difference between domestic and international trade, and consequently no place for any special theory regarding the latter.” Discuss this statement.
  5. Examine the possible effects of inventions upon the economic rent of land.
  6. “A controlling influence over the relatively quick movements of supply price during short periods is exercised by causes in the background which range over a long period.” Indicate some of the ways in which such an influence may be exercised; and examine the general significance of the above proposition.
  7. Do you consider that it would be good policy for a country like Great Britain to discourage the export of capital?
  8. “The problems of distribution and exchange are so closely connected that it is doubtful whether anything is to be gained by the attempt to keep them separate.” Discuss this statement.
  9. Examine critically the assistance given to economic analysis by the method of classifying industries under the headings of (a) decreasing, (b) constant, (c) increasing returns.
  10. “Now the quantity of wealth abstained from is gauged by its value; and its value depends on its cost of production. If, then, we introduce abstinence as an element in determining value, and value as a factor in the measure of abstinence, we are clearly guilty of using the thing to be measured as part and parcel of our standard for measuring it.” Comment.

 

Monday, May 29, 1922. 1.30—4.30.
ECONOMIC FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT.

  1. State, in its most plausible form, the principle of minimum sacrifice in relation to taxation, and consider its practical application. Is there a corresponding principle of maximum benefit, which is applicable to public expenditure?
  2. Is it desirable to subsidise from public funds (a) housing, (b) postal services, (c) University education?
  3. Examine the nature of the real burden of a public debt. For what purposes and within what limits is it legitimate to borrow in order to meet public expenditure?
  4. Examine the special arguments in favour of protective duties on imports from countries with depreciated foreign exchanges.
  5. “Expenditure on armaments is economic waste.” “The services of soldiers and sailors form part of the national dividend, no less than the services of policemen, plumbers and physicians.” Discuss these statements.
  6. Discuss the possibility of taxing a monopolist in such a way as to induce him to lower his selling price, and consider the practical difficulties in the way of making such a policy effective.
  7. “The removal of taxes on articles of working-class consumption will enable employers to reduce wages and will, therefore, benefit employers and not workmen.” Examine this view, distinguishing between cases where wages (a) are, and (b) are not, paid on a cost-of-living sliding-scale.
  8. In most countries, the State regulates the employment of women and children in industry more extensively and more stringently than that of men. Can this discrimination be justified on economic grounds? Consider separately the regulation of (a) wages, (b) hours, (c) working conditions.
  9. “Contrairement à ce qui se passe en Prusse, où la régie des chemins de fer, instrument fiscal, verse ses produits dans la caisse de l’Etat, en Suisse la régie garde pour elle ses bénéfices, de même qu’elle supporte les pertes, s’il s’en présente.” Which of these two arrangements do you consider the better, and why?
  10. “Eine gleichmässige Wertsteuer von allen wirtschaftlichen Gütern, oder was dasselbe heisst, eine Steuer auf den Aufwand, ist von vornherein die beste Steuer, denn sie leitet den Aufwand der Individuen nicht aus seinen natürlichen Kanälen.” Comment

 

Tuesday, May 30, 1922. 9—12.
MONEY, CREDIT AND PRICES.

  1. Discuss the influence exerted upon the general level of prices by a change in the amount of credit granted by manufacturers and traders to their customers. Would you treat trade- credit as “money” in expounding the Quantity Theory?
  2. “No bank can lend more money than is deposited with it.” Examine this statement and, in particular, its bearing upon the power of banks to increase the supply of money.
  3. Enumerate the principal items in the “Floating Debt” of the British exchequer. Would the general level of prices be either lowered or made steadier if a large part of this debt were (a) converted into long-term loans, (b) paid off out of taxation? Support your conclusions by arguments or evidence.
  4. Compare the present position of the Bank of England in the London money market with its position before the war, paying special attention to its power of controlling credit. Are the changes which have occurred likely to be permanent?
  5. How would you construct an index-number of prices to be used in testing the view that the foreign exchanges tend towards “purchasing-power parity”? Should such an index- number differ from one designed to measure the changes in expenditure necessary to enable a particular class of people in a particular country to purchase the same “standard of comfort” at different dates?
  6. Discuss the practicability of stabilising the price-level by currency regulation. Would this make for stability of trade?
  7. Compare the situation which developed in the London money market in August 1914 and the measures which were taken to meet it with the corresponding features of previous crises.
  8. Examine the causes which influence the day-by-day rate in the London money market, and discuss its relation with the Bank Rate.
  9. What were the principal respects in which the pre-war banking systems (a) of the United States, (b) of Germany differed from that of Great Britain?

 

Tuesday, May 30, 1922. 1.30—4.30.
DISTRIBUTION AND LABOUR.

  1. In several recent arrangements for changes in wages equal weekly amounts, instead of pro rata amounts, have been added or subtracted over a wide range of districts and occupations within an industry. Discuss the effect of this on the supply of labour to districts and occupations.
  2. Describe any one of the existing scales connecting wages to the index-number of Cost of Living. Discuss the view that these scales eliminate the variability in the purchasing power of currency and so facilitate wage-bargaining in relation to other factors.
  3. To what extent could industry accommodate itself to fluctuations of demand if there was no reserve of labour and if no overtime was worked? Is there any economic justification for paying higher rates of wages for overtime?
  4. Under what circumstances is the argument for a legal minimum wage strongest? Why in fact does the minimum continue in coal-mining while it is abolished in agriculture?
  5. How far does the classification of income by economic categories (arising from capital, enterprise, labour, etc.) correspond to a classification by persons? What were the sources and nature of information before the war about incomes of persons and how far are these sources still available?
  6. Distinguish between co-partnership and profit-sharing. Why are these methods commonly disliked by organised labour?
  7. Consider the advantages and disadvantages of bonus systems of wage payment, giving examples of such systems.
  8. In what way and to what extent does the provision of friendly benefits by a trade-union affect its bargaining power? Why do some unions provide large friendly benefits and others scarcely any?
  9. “The theory that people tend to receive as their remuneration the marginal net product of their services amounts, when analysed, to no more than that they tend to get what they tend to get.” How far is this criticism justified?

 

Wednesday, May 31, 1922. 9—12.
STRUCTURE AND PROBLEMS OF MODERN INDUSTRY.

  1. Examine the claims of industrial combinations to promote industrial stability.
  2. “There are few who do more to increase the efficiency of labour in creating material wealth than an able and upright company promoter.” Comment.
  3. To what principal causes would you attribute British predominance in the shipping trade during the last half century? Analyse the influence on British shipping of the country’s Free Trade policy.
  4. How would you expect a great development in the means of transport and communication to affect the localisation of industry?
  5. In what types of industry is there (a) the strongest, (b) the weakest case for the ownership or control of industry by the State?
  6. To what extent is the large amount of time and money devoted by many manufacturers to advertisement, and selling organisation generally, evidence (a) of the existence of “increasing returns,” (b) of the wastefulness of competition?
  7. Discuss the probable limits to the future growth of the British co-operative movement. How might the question be affected by a marked change in the distribution of income?
  8. Consider and weigh against one another the arguments for and against greater publicity regarding business profits.
  9. “The necessity that those who bear the risks should exercise the control bars out all projects for workers’ control of industry.” “Workers’ control of industry is justifiable on the ground that they alone bear the risks of unemployment, accident and fluctuating wages.” Discuss these statements.

 

Wednesday, May 31, 1922. 1.30—4.30.
SUBJECTS FOR AN ESSAY.

  1. “Nothing is true in theory which is not also true in practice.”
  2. The relation of economics to ethics.
  3. The prospects of the League of Nations.
  4. Free Trade.
  5. Population — quantity and quality.
  6. “For each age is a dream that is dying,
    Or one that is coming to birth.”

 

Thursday, June 1, 1922. 9—12.
MISCELLANEOUS ECONOMIC QUESTIONS.

  1. “The assertion that unemployment is due to German reparations must mean that, owing to reparations, German goods are flooding our markets to a far greater extent than before the war. In fact, the proportion of such goods brought to this country last year was only one-quarter of what it was before the war.” Mr Bonar Law in the House of Commons. Comment.
  2. Distinguish the more important forms of economic pro vision for the future. Do you consider that the provision normally made in modern societies, under any of these forms, is either markedly excessive or markedly inadequate?
  3. The national capital may be estimated either by capitalising income or by multiplying the value of estates passing by death in a year by an appropriate factor; the latter method yields the smaller result. Can the discrepancy be explained by differences in definition of national capital?
  4. Distinguish the various types of inheritance tax which are, or might reasonably be imposed in modern communities, and compare their economic effects.
  5. Distinguish the chief causes of trade fluctuations in this country since 1918, and estimate their comparative importance.
  6. Show how the conception of the elasticity of demand as applied to an individual’s desire for income throws light upon (a) the effect of changes in wage-rates upon output, (b) the effect of taxation upon enterprise and saving.
  7. Discuss the more important conclusions which may be drawn from recent enquiries into industrial fatigue.
  8. “Reduction of wages causes reduction in purchasing power and therefore results in decreased rather than in increased employment.” Is there any element of truth in this statement?
  9. Is it reasonable that the cost of roads should fall mainly on the community and the cost of railroads on the users thereof?

 

Thursday, June 1, 1922. 1.30—4.30.
THE THEORY OF STATISTICS.

  1. How far does the precision of measurement of prices by index-numbers depend (a) on the theory of sampling, (b) on the theory of weighted averages? In your answer distinguish between the purposes for which such numbers are used.
  2. Discuss what system of averages, measurements of dispersion, etc. is best suited for comparing two wage groups, such as follows:

Wages of men working full time for a week in 1906
Cotton Industry

Woollen and
Worsted Industry

Under 15/-

 19 18
15/- ____ 141

134

20/- ____

 244 316
25/- ____ 193

206

30/- ____

 126

197

35/- ____

 87 65
40/- ____ 86

31

45/- ____

 58 10
50/- ____ 31

8

55/- ____

 10 3
60/- ____ 3

6

65/- and above

 2 6
1000

1000

Without doing the complete arithmetical work, show the method of calculation for the system you prefer.

  1. {{\mu }_{2}},{{\mu }_{3}},{{\mu }_{4}} are the second, third and fourth moments about the average of a frequency group containing an indefinitely great number of quantities. A variable y is formed by selecting two quantities from the group independently and adding them. M2, M3, M4 are the moments about its average of the frequency distribution of y.

Show that {{M}_{2}}=2{{\mu }_{2}}, {{M}_{3}}=2{{\mu }_{3}},, and {{M}_{4}}-3M_{2}^{2}=2\left( {{\mu }_{4}}-3\mu _{2}^{2} \right).

Assuming, that y is formed by the addition of n (instead of 2) quantities then {{M}_{2}}=n{{\mu }_{2}}, {{M}_{3}}=n{{\mu }_{3}}, {{M}_{4}}-3M_{2}^{2}=n\left( {{\mu }_{4}}-3\mu _{2}^{2} \right), show that when n is great the frequency curve of y satisfies the conditions for Type VII (the normal curve) in Professor Pearson’s system.

  1. Show that Pareto’s Law for the distribution of incomes, N=\frac{A}{{{x}^{\alpha }}}, where N is the number of incomes above x units, and A and \alpha are constants, leads to the law “average of incomes above x varies directly as x.”
    Test graphically and otherwise whether Pareto’s law is satisfied by the following figures and estimate roughly the value of \alpha .

Number of Persons Assessed to Super-Tax, 1916-17

Income

Number

Exceeding

Not exceeding

£

 £
3000 5000

16,065

5000

 10,000 10,306
10,000 50,000

5272

50,000

 100,000 239
100,000 ___

103

31,98

 

  1. Newton’s interpolation formula may be written

y={{y}_{0}}+\frac{x-{{x}_{0}}}{h}\cdot {{\Delta }_{0}}+\frac{x-{{x}_{0}}}{h}\cdot \frac{x-{{x}_{0}}-h}{2h}\Delta _{0}^{2}+....
State on what hypothesis it rests, and illustrate its use by estimating the number of wage-earners between 30/- and 32/- in the Cotton Industry (Question 2), using only the four entries 244, 193, 126, 87.

  1. Explain the terms “crude death-rate,” “standardised death-rate,” “correcting factor.”
    Give an account of the two methods in use for removing the local variations in age distribution which vitiate the utility of the crude death-rate and consider whether they may be expected to give approximately the same result.
  2. Under what conditions may a regression locus be expected to be approximately rectilinear?
    Estimate the correlation coefficient between girth and height from the following data:

Height
inches

 Number of instances Average girth
60 2

32.7

61

 7 33.6
62 9

33.5

63

 14 34.2
64 18

34.1

65

 14 34.7
66 14

34.7

67

 12 35.0
68 10

35.1

69

 7 35.5
70 3

36.3

110

Height: average 65.6, standard deviation 2.52.
Girth : average 34.5, standard deviation 1.66.

  1. The notation used in connection with the Life Table (stationary population) is based on successive values of lx, the number of persons who reach the precise age of x.

Express the central death-rate (mx), the force of mortality ({{\mu }_{x}}), and the complete expectation of life in terms of these values.

Show that {{m}_{x}}={{\mu }_{x+\left( {1}/{2}\; \right)}}, if the line representing survivals is regarded as straight in the neighbourhood of x.

  1. “Bernoulli’s Theorem exhibits algebraical rather than logical insight.” Comment.

Source:  Economics Tripos Papers, 1921-1926, pp. 21-36.

Image Source: Cambridge University, St. John’s Library from website Vintage Postcards.

Categories
Chicago Funny Business

Chicago. A Mikado parody number. Probably 1949.

 

Among the papers of Alfred Rees at the Economists’ Papers Archive at Duke and of Milton Friedman at the Hoover Institution Archives, one finds stapled copies of a skit written by graduate students at the University of Chicago with the title “Alice in Stationary State”. The cover page includes a list of 18 contributors to the skit either as librettist and/or as a performing member of the cast/chorus. Carl Christ who was to leave Chicago and join the faculty of the Department of Political Economy at Johns Hopkins University in 1950 was named as a member of the cast/chorus. The mimeographed manuscript bears no date, but in Christ’s paper “The Cowles Commission’s Contributions to Econometrics at the University of Chicago, 1939-1955 (Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. XXXII, March 1994, pp. 30-59) two songs from the manuscript are quoted by Christ, one to the tune of “The American Patrol“. Since he dates the skit to about 1949 and we know his whereabouts for 1950, I think it is safe to trust his memory as to the 1949 date he mentions. Note the slight discrepancies with presumably a later, recycled version of the lyrics.

Other parodies of Gilbert and Sullivan that have been transcribed for Economics in the Rear-View Mirror include:  “When I was a Lad“, “The Major General’s Song” and “I’m Called Little Buttercup” . Non-Gilbert-Sullivan material  transcribed from the skit are the Song for an Entrepreneur (to the tune of “Jingle Bells”) and “First Epistle unto the entering students” .

Here is a link to a YouTube clip from the Mikado for those of us whose familiarity with Gilbert and Sullivan lyrics is not quite up to mid-20th century Chicago levels.

_____________________

DECONTROL SONG
(to the tune of “My Object all Sublime from Patience (sic*))

*Actually from Gilbert and Sullivan’s Mikado.

A more humane economist never
Did in Chicago exist;
To nobody second,
He’s certainly reckoned,
A true philanthropist.
‘Tis his most human endeavor
To make to some extent
Each individual
Tenant pay the
Equilibrium rent.		 A more humane Mikado never
Did in Japan exist,
To nobody second,
I’m certainly reckoned
A true philanthropist.
It is my very humane endeavor
To make, to some extent,
Each evil liver
A running river
Of harmless merriment.
CHORUS:

His object all sublime
He might achieve in time,
Convict the planners of their crime,
The planners of their crime.
Make those of Leftist bent
Unwillingly represent
A source of innocent merriment, of innocent merriment.

 CHORUS:

My object all sublime
I shall achieve in time —
To let the punishment fit the crime —
The punishment fit the crime;
And make each prisoner pent
Unwillingly represent
A source of innocent merriment!
Of innocent merriment!
The addle-pated
Who aggregate the unrelated data
And find instead of
The alpha they seek
A beta even greater.
The Keynesians and all their ilk
Who seek to find
Nirvana…He’ll fix them all,
He’ll fix them all,
He’ll ship them to Urbana!		 All prosy dull society sinners,
Who chatter and bleat and bore,
Are sent to hear sermons
From mystical Germans
Who preach from ten till four.
The amateur tenor, whose vocal villainies
All desire to shirk,
Shall, during off-hours,
Exhibit his powers
To Madame Tussaud’s waxwork.
CHORUS:

His object all sublime
He might achieve in time,
Convict the planners of their crime,
The planners of their crime.
Make those of Leftist bent
Unwillingly represent
A source of innocent merriment, of innocent merriment.

 CHORUS:

My object all sublime
I shall achieve in time —
To let the punishment fit the crime —
The punishment fit the crime;
And make each prisoner pent
Unwillingly represent
A source of innocent merriment!
Of innocent merriment!

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Economists’ Papers Archive. Albert Rees Papers, Box 1, Folder “Personal”. Identical copy also found at The Hoover Institution Archives, Milton Friedman Papers, Box 79, Folder 6 “University of Chicago Miscellaneous.”

_____________________

Second, revised version

MEMBER OF THE FACULTY:
(to the tune of “My object all sublime” from the MIKADO)

A more humane economist never
In Chicago did exist;
To nobody second,
I’m certainly reckoned,
A true philanthropist.
It is my most human endeavor
To make to some extent
Each individual
Tenant pay the
Equilibrium rent.		 A more humane Mikado never
Did in Japan exist,
To nobody second,
I’m certainly reckoned
A true philanthropist.
It is my very humane endeavor
To make, to some extent,
Each evil liver
A running river
Of harmless merriment.
My object all sublime
I might achieve in time,
Convince the planners of their crime,
The planners of their crime.
Make those of Leftist bent
Unwillingly represent
A source of innocent merriment
Of innocent merriment.		 My object all sublime
I shall achieve in time —
To let the punishment fit the crime —
The punishment fit the crime;
And make each prisoner pent
Unwillingly represent
A source of innocent merriment!
Of innocent merriment!
The addle-pated
Who aggregated unrelated data
And found instead of
The alpha they sought
A beta even greata.
The Keynesians and all their ilk
Who seek to find
Nirvana…I’ll fix them all,
I’ll fix them all,
I’ll ship them to Urbana!		 All prosy dull society sinners,
Who chatter and bleat and bore,
Are sent to hear sermons
From mystical Germans
Who preach from ten till four.
The amateur tenor, whose vocal villainies
All desire to shirk,
Shall, during off-hours,
Exhibit his powers
To Madame Tussaud’s waxwork.

Source: The Hoover Institution Archives. Milton Friedman Papers, Box 79, Folder 6 “University of Chicago Miscellaneous.”

Categories
Economics Programs Economist Market Gender M.I.T. Placement UCLA

M.I.T. Stats on women economics Ph.D.s, 1960-72

 

Besides documenting the figure of 5.8% of the MIT economics Ph.D.s granted during the period 1960-1972 going to women, the correspondence between the heads of the UCLA and MIT departments transcribed for this post indicates that there could be up to 14 other departmental responses to the UCLA request in 1972 regarding the gender breakdown of economics Ph.D.s. Can somebody check the UCLA archives for us?

_________________

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES

DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90024

19 September 1972

Chairman
Department of Economics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139

Dear Sir:

The Administration of the University has requested that I obtain from the fifteen best Departments of Economics (as judged by the Roose-Anderson Report) data concerning women Ph.D.s. First, how many women Ph.D.s did you produce from 1960-65, 1965-70, and 1970-72? Second, our Administration wishes specific information on those women with Ph.D.s, or those nearing completion, whom you would recommend for academic appointments.

While it might appear that this Department is about to initiate a policy of discrimination in favor of women, I want to emphasize that we shall continue to select our faculty solely on the basis of merit. Therefore, this year, as in past years, we should very much appreciate information concerning all of your Ph.D.s available for employment in 1973-74.

Sincerely,

[signed]
J.C. La Force
Chairman

JCL:aa

 

[Note: Kenneth D. Roose and Charles J. Andersen, A Rating of Graduate Programs, American Council on Education, Washington, D.C. 1970.]

_________________

 

Carbon copy of E. Cary Brown’s response

September 28, 1972

Professor J. C. La Force
University of California, Los Angeles
Department of Economics
Los Angeles, California 90024

Dear Professor La Force:

The data you requested are as follows:

Ph.D. Awarded
Women

Men
July 1, 1960—June 30, 1965

5

76
July 1, 1965—June 30, 1970

7

95
July 1, 1965—June 30, 1972

1

40
[Total]

13

211

We have not yet compiled a list of the potential supply of Ph.D.’s for next year. I will ask Professor Evsey Domar to call to your attention such women candidates as he would recommend to you. If the list is a sgood as last year’s, they could all be enthusiastically supported.

Very truly yours,

E. Cary Brown, Head

ECB/jfc

Source:  M.I.T. Institute Archives. MIT Department of Economics Records, Box 2, Folder Ph.D. Program Statistics

Categories
Chicago Exam Questions Suggested Reading Syllabus

Chicago. Theory of Distribution. Readings and exam questions. Metzler, 1961-64

 

In the early 1960s Lloyd A. Metzler taught a course at the University of Chicago that offered a mélange of production, capital, fiscal, growth and international trade theories as a/the “theory of distribution”. It is fascinating to see these very different theoretical streams converging on the topic of distribution. 

_________________________

ECONOMICS 302
Reading List—Spring, 1961

THEORY OF DISTRIBUTION
L. A. Metzler

Principal Topics and Suggested Reading

I. Production Functions and Income Distribution

Paul H. Douglas, “Are There Laws of Production?” American Economic Review, XXXVIII, No. 1, March 1948.

D. Gale Johnson, “The Functional Distribution of Income in the United States, 1850-1952,” The Review of Economics and Statistics, XXXVI, No. 2, May 1954.

Solomon Fabricant, Basic Facts on Productivity Change, Occasional Paper No. 63, National Bureau of Economic Research.

II. Capital and the Concept of Income

Knut Wicksell, Lectures on Political Economy, Vol. I, Part II.

Frank H. Knight, “The Quantity of Capital and the Rate of Interest,” Part 1, Journal of Political Economy, August, 1936, Part 2, Journal of Political Economy, October, 1936.

T. W. Schultz, “Investment in Human Beings Capital,” American Economic Review, March 1961.

Irving Fisher, The Theory of Interest (1906), reprinted by Kelley and Millman, New York, 1954.

III. Investment and Economic Growth

Evsey Domar, Essays in the Theory of Economic Growth, New York, Oxford University Press, 1957, Chapter 1.

Walter W. Rostow, The Process of Economic Growth, New York, 1952.

Trygve Haavelmo, A Study in the Theory of Investment, University of Chicago Press.

J. M. Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, Chapters 11-14.

A. P. Lerner, “On the Marginal Product of Capital and the Marginal Efficiency of Investment,” Journal of Political Economy, February, 1953.

James Tobin, “A Dynamic Aggregative Model,” Journal of Political Economy, April, 1955.

IV. The Economic Consequences of Public Debt

James Buchanan, Public Principles of Public Debt, Irwin, 1958.

Lloyd A. Metzler, “Wealth, Saving and the Rate of Interest,” Journal of Political Economy, April, 1951.

Robert A. Mundell, “The Public Debt, Corporate Income Taxes, and the Rate of Interest,” Journal of Political Economy, December, 1960.

J. R. Hicks, “Mr. Keynes and the ‘Classics’: A Suggested Interpretation,” Econometrica, Vol. V, April 1937.

IV. International Trade and the Distribution of Income

Bertil Ohlin, Interregional and International Trade, Harvard University.

Wolfgang Stolper and Paul Samuelson, “Protection and Real Wages,” Review of Economic Studies, IX (1941), 58-73.

David Ricardo, Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Chapter 7.

_________________________

ECONOMICS 302
Reading List—Spring, 1963
[same for Spring, 1964]

THEORY OF DISTRIBUTION
L. A. Metzler

I. Production Functions and Income Distribution

Paul H. Douglas, “Are There Laws of Production?” American Economic Review, XXXVIII, No. 1 (March, 1948).

D. Gale Johnson, “The Functional Distribution of Income in the United States, 1850-1952,” The Review of Economics and Statistics, XXXVI, No. 2 (May, 1954).

Solomon Fabricant, Basic Facts on Productivity Change, Occasional Paper No. 63, National Bureau of Economic Research.

Marvin Frankel, “The Production Function: Allocation and Growth,” American Economic Review, LII, No. 5 (December, 1962).

Kenneth Arrow, Hollis B. Chenery, Nigicha Minhas, and Robert M. Solow, “Capital-Labor Substitution and Economic Efficiency,” Review of Economics and Statistics, XLII, No 3 (August, 1961).

R. M. Solow, “A Skeptical Note on the Constancy of Relative Shares,” American Economic Review, XLVIII (1958).

II. Income, Interest, and the Concept of Capital

Knut Wicksell, Lectures on Political Economy, Vol. I, Part II.

Frank H. Knight, “The Quantity of Capital and the Rate of Interest,” Part I, Journal of Political Economy (August, 1936), Part II, Journal of Political Economy (Oct., 1936).

T. W. Schultz, “Investment in Human Capital,” American Economic Review (March, 1961).

Irving Fisher, The Theory of Interest (1906), reprinted by Kelley and Millman, New York, 1954.

David Meiselman, The Term Structure of Interest Rates, Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1962.

[Handwritten addition:] J. A. G. Grant, “Meiselman on the Structure of Interest Rates: A British Test,” Economica, New Series, Vol. XXXI, No. 121, Feb. 1964.

Friedrich A. Lutz, “The Structure of Interest Rates,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1940-41. Reprinted in American Economic Association, Readings in the Theory of Income Distribution (eds.) William Fellner and Bernard Haley.

J. R. Hicks, Value and Capital, Oxford at the Clarendon Press (2d ed.), Parts III and IV.

Lloyd A. Metzler, “Wealth, Saving and the Rate of Interest,” Journal of Political Economy, LIX, No. 2 (April, 1951).

Robert A. Mundell, “The Public Debt, Corporate Income Taxes, and the Rate of Interest,” Journal of Political Economy, LXVIII (December, 1960).

III. Production Functions, Innovations and Economic Growth

Evsey Domar, Essays in the Theory of Economic Growth, New York: Oxford University Press, 1957, Chapter 1.

Walter W. Rostow, The Process of Economic Growth, New York, 1952.

Trygve Haavelmo, A Study in the Theory of Investment, University of Chicago Press.

Hirofumi Uzawa, “On a Two-Sector Model of Economic Growth,” Review of Economic Studies, XXIX, No. 1 (1962).

T. W. Swan, “Economic Growth and Capital Accumulation,” Economic Record, XXXII (1956).

James Tobin, “A Dynamic Aggregative Model,” Journal of Political Economy (April, 1955).

IV. International Trade and the Distribution of Income

Wolfgang Stolper and Paul Samuelson, “Protection and Real Wages,” Review of Economic Studies, IX (1941).

Paul Samuelson, “International Trade and the Equalization of Factor Prices,” Economic Journal, LVIII (1948).

Paul Samuelson, “International Factor Price Equalization Once Again,” Economic Journal, LIX (1949).

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Papers of Lloyd A. Metzler, Box 9, Folder “Reading Lists 300A+B—302”.

_________________________

Economics 302
FINAL EXAMINATION
Spring Quarter, 1963

Lloyd A. Metzler
June 4, 1963

Answer all questions:

  1. Give the formula for the Cobb-Douglas production function and prove its implications with respect to the following:
    1. The effects of a uniform increase in capital and labor upon relative and absolute wages and interest rates on the assumption that competitive conditions exist in both the factor markets and the commodities markets.
    2. The effect of a rise in the ratio of capital to labor upon relative and absolute wages, and interest rates again on the assumption of competitive conditions.
  2. Answer the same questions for the C.E.S. production function.
    1. State what is meant by a production function which is homogeneous of the first degree.
    2. Show that if a production function possesses this type of homogeneity, the output per worker depends entirely upon the ratio of capital to labor, and not at all upon the scale of production.
    3. Prove that the Cobb-Douglas production function and the C.E.S. function are both homogeneous of the first degree.
  4. The U. S. Treasury wants to reduce the long-term interest rate so as to encourage investment and at the same time increase the short-term rate so as to prevent short-term capital outflows. For this purpose it has been shortening the term structures of the federal debt. That is, the treasury has been purchasing its long-term bonds and issuing short-term bonds as a substitute.
    1. Show how such an operation might be expected to achieve the desired results.
    2. In view of the expectations hypothesis investigated by David Meiselman, would you expect such an operation to achieve its purpose? Explain carefully.
    1. Distinguish between the expectations hypothesis concerning the term structure of interest rates and the liquidity preference hypothesis and show what each implies with respect to the term structure of interest rates.
    2. Which hypothesis does the historical evidence seem to support?
    3. Is there any way of reconciling the two views?
    1. Given the yield on long-term bonds, R1, R2,…, Rn, show how a series of expected forward rates for one-year bonds r1, r2, r3,…, beginning in years 1, 2, 3, can be derived from the yield table on long term bonds. What operations would a bond holder need to undertake in order to be sure that he would receive these expected forward rates in spite of changes in bond prices?
    2. Derive the formula for the yield of a three-year forward bond, with interest rates applicable at the end of the third year, and show again, how a bondholder can realize this yield through operations in the bond market, regardless of fluctuations in bond prices.

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Papers of Lloyd A. Metzler, Box 9, Folder “Exams 302”.

_________________________

ECONOMICS 302
COURSE EXAMINATION — SPRING, 1964

Lloyd A. Metzler
June 9, 1964
1:30—3:30

ANSWER ALL QUESTIONS

  1. In the theory of distribution, it is usual to assume that the production function for output as a whole is homogeneous of the first degree.
    1. What is the meaning of a homogeneous production function?
    2. Show that homogeneity implies that commodities are produced at constant cost.
    3. Show that if the production function is homogeneous of the first degree and all factors of production are paid according to the value of their marginal products, the total amount paid will be exactly equal to the total return.
    4. Is it necessary to have homogeneous production functions to prove this proposition? Why, or why not?
    1. Define “elasticity of substitution” and show what bearing it has on the distribution of income.
    2. The following is a table indicating indexes of units of capital k and the price of capital, pk, as well as the units of workers, w, and the price of workers, pw.
P Price of workers
(pw)		 Units of workers
(w)		 Price of capital
(pk)		 Units of capital
(k)
Period I 1.00 200 2.00 100
Period II 2.00 250 1.00 500

Does this table give any indication as to the elasticity of substitution? Why, or why not?

    1. Define the Cobb-Douglas production function and the C.E.S. production function and show that: Cobb-Douglas production function is homogeneous of the first degree with an elasticity of substitution equal to unity.
    2. Show that the C.E.S. production function is homogeneous of the first degree.
    3. Show that, when \rho approaches zero the C.E.S. production function has an elasticity of substitution equal to unity.
    1. Define and evaluate the capital theories of the following economists:
      (1) T. W. Schultz
      (2) Irving Fisher
      (3) Knut Wicksell
      (4) F. H. Knight
    2. What are Knight’s objections to the notion of a period of production? Why does he believe there are no diminishing returns to the accumulation of capital?
    1. Derive the Harrod-Domar concept of a balanced state of growth, and show why it is inherently unstable.
    2. How is the concept of balanced growth related to Keynes’ theory of employment?
    1. Discuss the following theories of interest, and show how they are related to the term structure of interest rates.
      (1) Liquidity preference.
      (2) Expectations.
      (3) Constitutional weakness in the futures market.
    2. Does a downward-sloping term-to-maturity structure of interest rates conflict with the liquidity-preference theory? Why, or why not?
    3. Assuming that the interest rates for bonds of various maturities are as follows:
      year bonds R1
      2. year bonds R2
      3. year bonds R3
      4. year bonds R4
      5. year bonds R5
      6. year bonds R6
      7. year bonds R7
      8. year bonds R8
      Show how the implicit forward rates for short-term one year bonds r1, r2, r3, r4, r5, r6, r7, r8can be computed from the actual market yields, R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, R6, R7, R8.
    4. Assuming that the market rates are R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, R6, R7, R8, you are asked to derive the rate for a 3 year bond beginning in year 6 and show what market transactions the typical bondholder would have to make to insure that he actually received the interest rate implicit in this formula.

 

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Papers of Lloyd A. Metzler, Box 9, Folder “Exams 302”.

Source Image: Posting by Margie Metzler on the Metzler Family Tree at the genealogical website, ancestry.com.

Categories
Economists M.I.T. Socialism Suggested Reading Syllabus

M.I.T. Reading list on theory of central planning. Weitzman, 1977

 

 

This morning I learned from Twitter that two days ago (August 27, 2019) my second thesis adviser, Marty Weitzman had died. While I was never personally close to him, he played an enormous role in my development as an economist and I am saddened by this news. What I particularly admired in Weitzman was the fact that his formal mathematical modelling was never far from his profound economic intuition with respect to the problems he addressed. He was not a great teacher in the way Bob Solow and Stan Fischer were great. But he was able to transmit a sense of the importance of what he was teaching as well as bringing a contagious enthusiasm into the classroom. Marty Weitzman was economic theory à la M.I.T. made flesh. Today, in his memory, I have transcribed an old mimeographed list of suggested readings for his course on the economic theory of central planning.

Course materials from Martin Weitzman’s half-semester core course in microeconomic theory from 1973 and 1974 at M.I.T. have been posted earlier:

Course outline from 1974.
Final exam from 1974.
Final exam from 1973.

____________________

Martin Weitzman’s Werke

Martin L. Weitzman’s c.v. (from October 2018)

Links to most (all?) of Weitzman’s papers at the Wayback Machine archived webpage.

____________________

14.783 THEORY OF CENTRAL PLANNING
Spring 1977
M. L. Weitzman

Reading List of Suggested References

  1. Theoretical Background (Convexity, Programming, Efficiency Prices)

Koopmans, T. C., Essay I in Three Essays on the State of Economic Science.

Baumol, W. J., Economic Theory and Operations Analysis, 3rd ed., chapters 5-8, 12, 20, 21.

Manne, A. S., Economic Analysis for Business Decisions, chapters 2, 3.

Bator, F., “The Simple Analytics of Welfare Economics”, AER, March 1957.

Intriligator, M. D., Mathematical Optimization and Economic Theory.

Dorfman, R., Samuelson, P.A., and Solow, R. M., Linear Programming and Economic Analysis, chapters 6-8.

Kantorovich, L. V., The Best Use of Economic Resources, Harvard, 1965.

Kornai, J., Mathematical Planning of Structural Decisions, Part 1, chapters 1-4.

Dantzig, G. B., Linear Programming and Extensions, chapters 3, 12.

Gale, D., The Theory of Linear Economic Models.

Malinvaud, E., Lectures on Microeconomic Theory, chapters 1, 3,4,5.

  1. General Discussion of Planning Problems

Hayek, F. A., “The Price System as a Mechanism for Using Knowledge”, in Bornstein (ed.), Comparative Economic Systems: Models and Cases.

Lange, O., “On the Economic Theory of Socialism”, in Bornstein (ed.), Comparative Economic Systems: Models and Cases.

Hurwicz, L., “The Design of Mechanisms for Resource Allocation”, AER, May 1973.

Heal, G. M., The Theory of Economic Planning, chapters 1, 2.

Kornai, J., Anti-Equilibrium, chapters 23, 24.

Hurwicz, L., “Conditions for Economic Efficiency of Centralized and Decentralized Structures”, in G. Grossman (ed.), Value and Plan.

Krouse, C., “Complex Objectives, Decentralization, and the Decision Process of Organizations”, ASQ (vol. 17).

Arrow, K. J., “Control in Large Organizations”, Management Science, April 1964.

Masse, P., “The French Plan and Economic Theory”, Econometrica, April 1965.

Kornai, J., Mathematical Planning of Structural Decisions, chapters 22-27.

Kornai, J., “Thoughts on Multi-Level Planning Systems”, in Goreux and Manne (eds.), Multi-Level Planning: Case Studies in Mexico.

  1. Multi-Level Planning Algorithms

Malinvaud, E., “Decentralized Procedures for Planning”, in Malinvaud (ed.), Activity Analysis in the Theory of Growth and Planning.

Arrow, K. J. and Hurwicz, L., “Decentralization and Computation in Resource Allocation”, in Pfouts (ed.), Essays in Economics and Econometrics.

Malinvaud, E., Lectures in Microeconomic Theory, chapter 8.

Heal, G., “Planning Without Prices”, REStud, 36, 1969, pp. 347-362.

Weitzman, M. L., Toward a Theory of Iterative Economic Planning, Part I, MIT Ph.D. Thesis, June 1967.

Dantzig, G. B., Linear Programming and Extensions, chapters 23, 25. (Decomposition and Uncertainty).

Baumol, W. J., and Fabian, T., “Decomposition Pricing for Decentralization and External Economies”, Management Science, September 1964.

Kornai, J., “Mathematical Programming and Long Term Plans in Hungary”, in Malinvaud (ed.), Activity Analysis in the Theory of Growth and Planning.

Weitzman, M. L., “Iterative Multilevel Planning with Production Targets”, Econometrica, January 1970.

Kornai, J., “Multi-Level Programming: A First Report on the Model and on the Experimental Calculations”, European Economic Review, Fall 1969.

Heal, G. M., The Theory of Economic Planning, chapters 3-9.

  1. Prices vs. Quantities

Koopmans, T. C., “Uses of Prices”, pp. 243-257 in Scientific Papers of Tjalling C. Koopmans.

Kornai, J., Anti-Equilibrium, chapter 3 (“The Basic Concepts of General Equilibrium Theory”).

Marglin, S., “Information in Price and Command Systems of Planning”, in Margolis (ed.), Conference on the Analysis of the Public Sector, Biarritz, Switzerland [sic], 1966.

Whinston, A., “Price Guides in Decentralized Organizations,”, in Cooper et. al. (eds.), New Perspectives in Organization Research.

Solow, R. M., “The Economist’s Approach to Pollution and its Control”, Science, August, 1971.

Ruff, L. E., “The Economic Common Sense of Pollution”, The Public Interest, Spring 1970.

Weitzman, M. L., “Prices vs. Quantities”, REStud, 1974 (copies on reserve).

  1. Organization, Revelation, and Control

Arrow, K. J., The Limits of Organization.

Marschak, J. and Radner, R., Economic Theory of Teams. (Just scan to get basic ideas.)

Weitzman, M. L., “Optimal Revenue Functions for Economic Regulation”, copies on reserve. [published in AER, September 1973]

Kwerel, E. R., “To Tell the Truth: Imperfect Information and Optimal Pollution Control”, copies on reserve. [published in REStud, 1977]

Groves, T., “On the Possibility of Effective Collective Choice with Compensation”, on reserve.

Weitzman, M., “The New Soviet Incentive Model”, Bell Journal, Spring 1976.

  1. Input-Output Theory and the Non-Substitution Theorem

Gale, D., The Theory of Linear Economic Models, chapter 9, sections 1-3.

Dorfman, R., P. A. Samuelson, and R. M. Solow, Linear Programming and Economic Analysis, chapters 9, 10.

Chenery, H. B. and P. G. Clark, Interindustry Economics.

Kornai, J., Mathematical Planning of Structural Decisions, chapter 3.

Brody, A., Proportions, Prices and Planning, section 3.2. (Thoughts on Planning).

Weitzman, M. L., “On Choosing an Optimal Technology”, Management Science, January 1967.

Manove, M., “Soviet Pricing, Profits, and Technological Change”, Review of Economic Studies (copies on reserve).

  1. Materials Balancing

Montias, J. M., Planning with Material Balances in Soviet-Type Economies”, AER, December 1959.

Levine, H. S., “The Centralized Planning of Supply in Soviet Industry”, reprinted in Holtzman (ed.), Readings in the Soviet Economy, or Bornstein and Fusfeld (eds.), The Soviet Economy: A Book of Readings.

Montias, J. M., “On the Consistency and Efficiency of Central Plans”, REStud, October 1962.

Sherman, H. J., The Soviet Economy, chapter 6 and pp. 247-256.

Manove, M., “A Model of Soviet-Type Planning”, AER, June 1971.

  1. Pressure, Rationing, and Inventories

Levine, H. S., “Pressure and Planning in the Soviet Economy”, in Rosovsky (ed.), Industrialization in Two Systems.

Hunter, H., “Optimum Tautness in Developmental Planning”, Economic Development and Cultural Change, July 1961.

Dolan, E. G., “The Teleological Period in Soviet Economic Planning”, Yale Economic Essays, Spring 1970.

Weitzman, M. L., “Materials Balances Under Uncertainty”, QJE, May 1971.

Manove, M., “A Theory of Non-Price Rationing of Intermediate Goods with Reference to Soviet-Type Economies”, Econometrica, September 1973.

Powell, R. P., “Plan Execution and the Workability of Soviet Planning”, Journal of Comparative Economics, vol. 1, no. 1, 1977.

Keren, M., “On the Tautness of Plans”, REStud, October 1972.

  1. Economic Planning with Non-Convexities

Dantzig, G. B., “On the Significance of Solving Linear Programming Problems with some Integer Variables”, sections 26-33 in Linear Programming and Extensions.

Baumol, W. J., Economic Theory and Operations Research, 3rd ed., chapter 8.

Chenery, H. B., “The Interdependence of Investment Decisions”, in Abramovitz (ed.), The Allocation of Economic Resources.

Vietorisz, T., “Decentralization and Project Evaluation under Economies of Scale and Indivisibilities”, United Nations, Industrialization and Productivity Bulletin No. 12 [1968].

Davis, R. E., D. A. Kendrick, and M. Weitzman, “A Branch and Bound Algorithm for Zero-One Mixed Integer Programming Problems”, Operations Research, July-August 1971.

Manne, A., Investments for Capacity Expansion, MIT Press, 1967.

Weitzman, M. L., “The Optimal Development of Resource Pools”, JET, June 1976.

Chenery, H. B. and Westphal, L., “Economies of Scale and Investment Over Time”, in Margolis and Guitton (eds.), Public Economics.

Source: Personal copy of Irwin Collier.

Image Source: Martin Weitzman’s Harvard webpage (archived May 29, 2014).

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Undergraduate

Harvard. Examinations for introductory economics. Taussig, Ashley, both Cummings, 1895-96.

 

This post follows up on the previous one that focused on the economic history module taught in Harvard’s introductory economics sequence by W. J. Ashley during the spring term of 1896. For the sake of convenience I have put together transcriptions of all the exams I was able to find for the jointly taught course “Outlines of Economics” (1895-96). The first exam below, the mid-year examination (final exam for the fall term of 1895), is most likely to be the work of Frank Taussig, with questions for the special topic modules covered in the second semester coming from Ashley, Edward Cummings and John Cummings (Chicago economics Ph.D., 1894).

_______________

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 1. Professors Taussig and Ashley, Asst. Professor Edward Cummings, and Dr. John Cummings. — Outlines of Economics. — Mill’s Principles of Political Economy.—Lectures on Economic Development, Distribution, Social Questions, and Financial Legislation.

Total 338: 3 Graduates, 35 Seniors, 91 Juniors, 161 Sophomores, 8 Freshmen, 40 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1895-96, p. 63.

_______________

1895-96.
ECONOMICS 1.
[Mid-Year Examination]

  1. Is all wealth produced by labor?
  2. Compare the distinction between fixed and circulating capital with the distinction between auxiliary and remuneratory capital; and state why one or the other distinction is the more satisfactory.
  3. Are differences in profits from employment to employment similar in kind to differences in wages from occupation to occupation?
  4. In what way are differences of wages affected by the absence of effective competition between laborers? By its presence?
  5. What are the grounds for saying that rent is a return differing in kind from interest?
  6. Trace the effects of an issue of inconvertible paper money, less in quantity than the specie previously in use, on (1) the circulation of specie, (2) the foreign exchanges, (3) the relations of debtor to creditor.
  7. State Mill’s reasoning as to the mode in which, under a double standard, one metal is driven from circulation; and explain how the actual process differs from that analyzed by Mill.
  8. What are the grounds for saying that the gain of international trade does not come from the sale of surplus produce beyond the domestic demand?
  9. In what manner is the price of landed property affected by an increased quantity of money? by a rise in the rate of interest?
  10. Wherein does monopoly value present a case different from that of the usual operation of the laws of value?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Mid-year examinations,  1852-1943(HUC 7000.55). Box 3, Examination Papers Mid-years, 1895-96.

_______________

1895-96.
ECONOMICS 1.
[W.J.A., Hour Examination. March 13, 1896]

Please write on three questions only.

  1. Mill remarks in his Autobiography that the distinction between the laws of the production and those of the distribution of wealth was the most important contribution he made to Political Economy. Explain this.
  2. What does Jones mean by the division of Rents into Peasant and Farmer’s Rents?
  3. Give a brief account of the stages of industrial development.
  4. Draw a parallel between the town policy of the 15thcentury and the national policy of the 18th.
  5. Was Frederick the Great justified in his attempt to introduce the silk manufacture into Prussia?

_______________

1895-96.
ECONOMICS 1.
[Final Examination]

[Answer ten questions. Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.]

Group I.
[At least one.]

  1. Explain the meaning of two of the following terms, — margin of cultivation; wages of superintendence; rapidity of circulation (as to money).
  2. Do profits constitute a return different from interest?
  3. Explain what is meant by the law, or equation, of demand and supply; and in what manner it applies to commodities susceptible of indefinite multiplication without increase of cost.
  4. In what manner does a country gain from the division of labor in its domestic trade? In what manner from international trade?

Group II.
[At least one.]

  1. Does it fall within the province of the economist to discuss the institution of private property?
  2. Show the connection between the industrial development of the present century, and the discussion among economists as to the functions of the entrepreneur.
  3. Consider in what manner prices, or rents, [choose one] are differently determined according as they are under the influence of custom or of competition.
  4. “The idea that economic life has ever been a progress mainly dependent on individual action is mistaken with regard to all stages of civilization, and in some respects it is more mistaken the farther we go back.” Explain and criticize.

Group III.
[At least one.]

  1. If cooperation were universally adopted, what would be left of the wages system?
  2. Is there anything in what you learned as to the laws governing wages, which the action of the English trade-unions in regard to wages has disregarded?
  3. Has the course of events justified Mill’s expectations in regard to the development of profit-sharing and of cooperation? Explain why, or why not.
  4. Describe the trade and benefit features of the English trade-unions.

Group IV.
[At least three.]

  1. Is the present position of the Treasury of the United States in any respect essentially similar to that of the Issue Department of the Bank of England? In any respect essentially dissimilar?
  2. What is the test of over-issue, as to inconvertible paper money? What light does the experience of the United States and of France throw on the probability of over-issue?
  3. Arrange in their proper order the following items in a bank account:—

Capital

100,000

 Bonds and Stocks 75,000
Specie

150,000

 Surplus 50,000

Notes

 100,000 Other Assets 50,000
Loans 400,000 Other Liabilities 60,000

Expenses

 25,000 Undivided Profits 40,000

Deposits

 350,000

Could this bank be a national bank of the United States? If such a bank, how would the account stand?

    1. Compare the policy of the Bank of England in times of financial crisis with the policy of the Associated Banks of New York; and give an opinion as to which is the more effective in allaying panic.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives.  Examination papers in economics, 1882-1935 [of] Prof F.W. Taussig (HUC 7882), p. 53.

Image Source:  Gore Hall (Library). Souvenir Guide Book of Harvard College and its Historical Vicinity, Cambridge, Massachusetts: F. A. Olsson, 1895.

Categories
Economic History Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus Undergraduate

Harvard. Syllabus for Economic History Module in Principles Course. Ashley, 1896.

 

For several years at the end of the 19th century Harvard’s introductory course in economics consisted of a two semester sequence. The fall semester was dedicated to theoretical Principles of Economics à la John Stuart Mill followed by the spring semester that covered specific topics, e.g. economic history, social policy, monetary arrangements.

The economic history module was taught by Professor William J. Ashley and ran for five weeks. The material was tested once in a one-hour mid-term exam and then again in the course final examination (students were to answer at least one of four questions in Group II below).

I have only found a complete set of syllabus, reading assignments, and exam questions for Ashley’s module. In the next post, you will find all the course exams for 1895-96 that were pasted into Frank Taussig’s personal scrapbook of exams for all the courses he taught during his long Harvard career.

_________________

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 1. Professors Taussig and Ashley, Asst. Professor Edward Cummings, and Dr. John Cummings. — Outlines of Economics. — Mill’s Principles of Political Economy.—Lectures on Economic Development, Distribution, Social Questions, and Financial Legislation.

Total 338: 3 Graduates, 35 Seniors, 91 Juniors, 161 Sophomores, 8 Freshmen, 40 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1895-96, p. 63.

_________________

Economic History Module
William J. Ashley

ECONOMICS 1.
LECTURES ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Weekly Syllabus 1.

Prescribed Reading for the week: J. S. Mill, Principles of Political Economy, Book II, Chapters 2-5. R. Jones, Peasant Rents, Chapters 1 and 2, and Appendix pp. 169-182. G. Schmoller, The Mercantile System, pp. 1-13.

N.B. 1. The prescribed reading for the whole period covered by this set of lectures will deal with same general topics as will be considered in the lectures. But it will not be possible to make the reading of each week exactly parallel, in every case, with the lectures of that week.
2. There will be a question set every Friday, and 15 minutes allowed for answering it, on some subject suggested by the reading and lectures of that week.

  1. The Historical Movement of the 19th Century.
    Its causes:

    1. The “Romantic” Reaction against the 18th century “Enlightenment.”
    2. Evolutionary Philosophy—Hegel, Comte, Spencer.
    3. Evolutionary Biology—Darwin.
    4. Anthropology—Tylor.

Its intellectual effects:

    1. Interest in the Middle Ages.
    2. Sense of Continuity—“Uniformitarianism.”
    3. Sense of Relativity.
    4. Changed conception of the relation of the Present to the Past and the Future.
  1. Influence of the Historical Movement on other studies:
    1. On Law—Savigny, Maine.
    2. On Theology—“The Higher Criticism.”
    3. On Economics.
      The older and newer Historical Schools of Economists—Roscher, Schmoller.
  1. Value of Economic History:
    1. For its own sake.
    2. For a right estimate of modern economic theory.
    3. For insight into modern economic facts.

Provisional use of the conceptions of “Stages.”

Preliminary consideration of certain attempts to group all the phenonomena of economic history under a single formula:

    1. Friedrich List. The Five Stages in the development of the peoples of the temperate zone.
    2. Bruno Hildebrand. Naturalwirthschaft, Geldwirthschaft, Creditwirthschaft.

Weekly Syllabus 2.

Prescribed Reading for the week: J. S. Mill, Principles of Political Economy, Book II, Chapters 6-7. R. Jones, Peasant Rents, Chapter 3, and Appendix pp. 183-190. G. Schmoller, The Mercantile System, pp. 13-43.

Preliminary consideration of current generalisations concerning the development of particular sides of economic life:

Agriculture—

Extensive:

    1. Shifting Tillage (Wildfeldgraswirtschaft)

Intensive:

    1. Open Field System (Three field system, Dreifelderwirthschaft).
    2. Convertible Husbandry (Feldgraswirthschaft).
    3. Rotation of Crops (Fruchtwechselwirtschaft).

Industry  (Manufacture)—

    1. The Family System (Familienindustrie, Hausfleiss).
    2. The Gild System (Handwerk).
      1. Wage-work.
      2. Work for sale.
    3. The Domestic System (Hausindustrie, Verlags-system.)
      1. Domestic system proper.
      2. Wage-work.
    4. The Factory System
      With and without machinery.

Weekly Syllabus 3.

Prescribed Reading for the week: J. S. Mill, Principles of Political Economy, Book II, Chapters 8-10. R. Jones, Peasant Rents, Chapter 4, and Appendix pp. 190-207. G. Schmoller, The Mercantile System, pp. 43-57.

Preliminary consideration of current generalisations of the anthropologists concerning prehistoric development:

Property—

Tribal Ownership and Family Ownership.
Individual Ownership of Movables.
Individual Ownership of Land.

Theories of Early Agrarian Communism.—Recent Discussions.

Progress of the Arts of Subsistence(Morgan) —

Savagery —

Older period—Fruits and Roots.
Middle period—Fish and Fire.
Later period—Game and the Bow.

Barbarism —

Older period—Pottery.
Middle period—Pastoral Life.
Later period—Iron and Agriculture.

Civilisation —

Sketch of the Economic Development of the European Peoples since the Early Middle Ages.

Reasons for this limitation.

  1. Period of Village or Manorial Economy.
    1. Sketch of Manorial System:

Lord and Serfs.
Demesne and Land in Villenage.
Open Fields.
Week-work and Boon-Days.

  1. Economic Characteristics:

“Natural-economy.”
Self-sufficiency.
Stability.

Relative absence of conditions usually assumed by modern economists.

Weekly Syllabus 4.

Prescribed Reading for the week: J. S. Mill, Principles of Political Economy, Preliminary Remarks. R. Jones, Peasant Rents, Chapters 5 and 6. G. Schmoller, The Mercantile System, pp. 57-91.

Interacting phenomena: (1) Commutation of Services, (2) The Rise of Markets.
Appearance of town life in the midst of conditions still predominantly agricultural.

  1. Period of Town Dominance.
    1. The Town Economy:

The Town Market: The Gild Merchant.
The Town Industry: The Craft Gilds.
Subordination of the Country Districts.

    1. The Beginnings of Modern Economic Conditions:

Wage-labor.
Capital.
Profit.

[Then followed in Germany a Period of Territorial Economy.
Its characteristics.
Question whether such a period is distinctly marked in France or England.]

 

  1. Period of National Economy.

Strong central governments.
The spirit of Nationality.
Mercantilism, its Origin, Purpose and Methods.

A. National Economy and Domestic Industries

    1. The new influence of Capital:

On Industry.
On Agriculture.

    1. The action of the State:

Control of Commerce.
Encouragement of Manufactures.
Industrial Legislation.

Weekly Syllabus 5.

Prescribed Reading for the previous month, to be revised: J. S. Mill, Principles of Political Economy, Preliminary Remarks and Bk. II, chs. 1-10. R. Jones, Peasant Rents. G. Schmoller, The Mercantile System.

  1. Period of National Economy.

B. National Economy and the Factory System.

    1. Necessary Characteristics of the Factory System.
    2. The World-Market, and Fluctuations of Trade.
    3. Break-up of the Old Industrial Organisation; due to (a) changed conditions, (b) the influence of ideas of natural liberty.
    4. The Age of Individualism, and Industrial Freedom.

Question whether the beginnings may be discerned of a Period of International or World Economy.

Note: The various recent movements towards the reconstruction of a stable industrial organization, and the solution thereby of the “Labor Question,” will be the subjects of the lectures during the following weeks by Professor Cummings.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1). Box 1, Folder “1895-1896”.

_________________

1895-96.

ECONOMICS 1.
[W.J.A., Hour Examination. March 13, 1896]

Please write on three questions only.

  1. Mill remarks in his Autobiographythat the distinction between the laws of the production and those of the distribution of wealth was the most important contribution he made to Political Economy. Explain this.
  2. What does Jones mean by the division of Rents into Peasant and Farmer’s Rents?
  3. Give a brief account of the stages of industrial
  4. Draw a parallel between the town policy of the 15thcentury and the national policy of the 18th.
  5. Was Frederick the Great justified in his attempt to introduce the silk manufacture into Prussia?

    _________________

1895-96.

ECONOMICS 1.
[Final Examination]

[Answer ten questions. Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.]

Group I.
[At least one.]

  1. Explain the meaning of two of the following terms, — margin of cultivation; wages of superintendence; rapidity of circulation (as to money).
  2. Do profits constitute a return different from interest?
  3. Explain what is meant by the law, or equation, of demand and supply; and in what manner it applies to commodities susceptible of indefinite multiplication without increase of cost.
  4. In what manner does a country gain from the division of labor in its domestic trade? In what manner from international trade?

Group II.
[At least one.]

  1. Does it fall within the province of the economist to discuss the institution of private property?
  2. Show the connection between the industrial development of the present century, and the discussion among economists as to the functions of the entrepreneur.
  3. Consider in what manner prices, or rents, [choose one] are differently determined according as they are under the influence of custom or of competition.
  4. “The idea that economic life has ever been a progress mainly dependent on individual action is mistaken with regard to all stages of civilization, and in some respects it is more mistaken the farther we go back.” Explain and criticize.

Group III.
[At least one.]

  1. If cooperation were universally adopted, what would be left of the wages system?
  2. Is there anything in what you learned as to the laws governing wages, which the action of the English trade-unions in regard to wages has disregarded?
  3. Has the course of events justified Mill’s expectations in regard to the development of profit-sharing and of cooperation? Explain why, or why not.
  4. Describe the trade and benefit features of the English trade-unions.

Group IV.
[At least three.]

  1. Is the present position of the Treasury of the United States in any respect essentially similar to that of the Issue Department of the Bank of England? In any respect essentially dissimilar?
  2. What is the test of over-issue, as to inconvertible paper money? What light does the experience of the United States and of France throw on the probability of over-issue?
  3. Arrange in their proper order the following items in a bank account:—
Capital 100,000 Bonds and Stocks 75,000
Specie 150,000 Surplus 50,000
Notes 100,000 Other Assets 50,000
Loans 400,000 Other Liabilities 60,000
Expenses 25,000 Undivided Profits 40,000
Deposits 350,000

Could this bank be a national bank of the United States? If such a bank, how would the account stand?

  1. Compare the policy of the Bank of England in times of financial crisis with the policy of the Associated Banks of New York; and give an opinion as to which is the more effective in allaying panic.

Source: Harvard University Archives.  Examination papers in economics, 1882-1935 [of] Prof F.W. Taussig (HUC 7882), p. 53.

 

Image Source: Entry for William James Ashley in University and their Sons. History, Influence and Characteristics of American Universities with Biographical Sketches and Portraits of Alumni and Recipients of Honorary Degrees. Editor-in-chief, General Joshua L. Chamberlain, LL.D. Vol II (1899), p. 595.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Sociology Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Sociology. Syllabus, reading assignments, final exam. Carver and Joslyn, 1927-28

 

This post has two functions: it adds to the syllabi for sociology taught at Harvard previously transcribed:  

Economics 3. Thomas Nixon Carver and William Z. Ripley, 1902
Economics 8. Thomas Nixon Carver, 1917-18.

It also serves as a meet an economics Ph.D. alumnus from Harvard post. The 1927-28 offering of Economics 8 was co-taught by Professor Carver and his sociology graduate student, Carl Smith Joslyn.

Carl Smith Joslyn (b. 20 Aug 1899 in Springfield, MA.; d. 23 Dec 1986 in Worthington, MA) went to Central High School in Springfield. At Harvard he received the Class of 1844 Scholarship (1919-1920). He went on to chair the sociology department at the University of Maryland, during which time he hired young C. Wright Mills.

________________

Carl Smith Joslyn
Harvard Ph.D. in Economics, 1930.

Carl Smith Joslyn, A.B. 1920
Subject, Economics. Special Field, Sociology. Thesis, “The Social Origins of American Business Leaders.” Instructor in Economics and Tutor in the Division of History, Government, and Economics, and Tutor in Sociology and Social Ethics, Harvard University.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1929-30. Page 120.

________________

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 8a1hf. Professor [Thomas Nixon] Carver and Mr. [Carl Smith] Joslyn.— Principles of Sociology

Total 79: 7 Graduates, 23 Seniors, 36 Juniors, 2 Sophomores 11 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1927-28. Page 74.

________________

8. Principles of Sociology

[This is for 1928-29, virtually identical to 1924-25 description]

Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 12.
Professor Carver and Mr. Joslyn

A study of human adaptation. Progress defined as adaptation. In what does progress consist, how may it be verified, what are the factors that promote or hinder it? The biological as well as the psychological, moral, economic, and political factors are studied. Attention is given to problems of moral adjustment and readjustment, of active control of the environmental factors, of economizing human energy and of social control.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics 1928-29.  Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XXV, No. 29 (May 26, 1928), p. 68.

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Economics 8

I.
Introduction

  1. The Nature, Scope, and Method of Sociology

A study of purposeful human association.
Relation to Linguistics, Psychology, Jurisprudence, Ethics, Politics, Economics.

Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, pp. 1-14; 65-79.
Bushee, Principles of Sociology, ch. 1.

  1. The Evolutionary Concept in Sociology:
    (1) Continuity; (2) Change; (3) Differentiation; (4) Fixation.

Spencer, Principles of Sociology, Pt. I, ch. 1. Pt. II, chs. 1-4.
Bristol, Social Adaptation, pp. 29-40; 123-149.

  1. The Mechanism of Organic and Super-organic (Social) Evolution Compared.
    (1) Variation. (a) spontaneous or artificially produced; (b) minute or extreme.
    (2) Selection. (a) Natural. (b) social.

Bristol, Social Adaptation, pp. 55-79.
Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, pp. 276-299.
Bushee, Principles of Sociology, pp. 42-56.
Carver, Essays in Social Justice, pp. 1-27.

  1. The Origin and Development of Human Society.
    Survival value of (a) associated effort; (b) social inclination.

Giddings, Principles of Sociology, pp. 199-229; 256-323.
Dealey and Ward, Textbook of Sociology, Ch. I.

  1. The Nature and Conditions of Social Progress. Progress considered as the adaptation of the organism, man, to his environment: the method of adaptation being (a) Passive, or (b) active; the character of the environment being (a) physical, or (b) social.

Bushee, Principles of Sociology, pp. 19-41; 73-103.
Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, pp. 88-120.
Bristol, Social Adaptation, Preface and Introduction.

  1. The Limits of Social Progress: A mutual fitting together or balancebetween the passive and the active forms of adaptation.
    (1) on the physical side, (a) such modifications as will enable it to live healthfully in the modified physical environment, (b) such improvements of the physical environment as will so fit the modified human organism as to enable it to live healthfully.
    (2) on the moral side; (a) such modifications of the intellectual and moral nature of man as will cause individuals to react favorably to such stimuli as can be brought to bear upon them by an improved system of social control: (b) such improvements in the system of social control as will secure favorable responses from the improved intellectual and moral nature of man.

Bristol, Social Adaptation, pp. 221-304.

II.
A. Passive physical adaptation.

  1. Race and Environment as Factors in Social Progress.

Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, pp. 174-243; 498-500; 631-636.
Bristol, Social Adaptation, pp. 105-120.

  1. The Stability of the Racial Factor in Historic Time: the Inheritance of Acquired Characters.

Bushee, Principles of Sociology, pp. 362-368.
Popenoe & Johnson, Applied Eugenics, pp. 25-74; 99-115; 402-423.

  1. The Displacement of Natural Selection by Social Selection and its Consequences:
    (a) the Differential Birth-rate; (b) Philanthropy; (c) The Punishment of Criminals; (d) Military Selection.

Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, pp. 392-409; 647-653; 676-696.
Popenoe and Johnson, Applied Eugenics, pp. 116-146.
Bushee, Principles of Sociology, pp. 386-413.
Bristol, Social Adaptation, pp. 92-102.

  1. The Correlation of Ability and Social Status; Nature and Nurture in Social Stratification. Tests of Ability; (a) economic. (b) psychological.

Popenoe & Johnson, Applied Eugenics, pp. 1-24; 75-98.
Bushee, Principles of Sociology, pp. 326-361; 369-385.

  1. The Qualitative Control of Population; Eugenic and Dysgenic Factors in Modern Society.

Popenoe and Johnson, Applied Eugenics, pp. 176-279.

  1. The Increase of Population in Modern Times:
    a) General, (b) local, (c) occupational.

East, Mankind at the Crossroads, pp. 45-109; 146-198.

  1. The Quantitative Control of Population; the Operation of Positive and Preventive Checks in Modern Society.
    The Redistribution of population to relieve congestion. (a) local; (b) occupational.

Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, pp. 133-173.
East, Mankind at the Crossroads, pp. 231-283.

  1. Marriage and the Family; Disintegrative Forces and their Control.

Bushee, Principles of Sociology, pp. 252-273.
East, Mankind at the Crossroads, pp. 318-339.
Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, pp. 317-375; 674-675.

B. Passive Intellectual and Moral Adaptation.

  1. The Raw Material of Mental and Moral Development; Human Nature and its Re-Making

McDougall, Social Psychology, pp. 19-120.

  1. The Original Nature of Man; Instinct vs. Environment in Human Institutions.

McDougall, Social Psychology, pp. 121-227.

  1. The Psychology of the Crowd; Fundamental Processes of Social Behavior; the Nature of the “Group Mind”.

Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, pp. 503-521.
Bushee, Principles of Sociology, pp. 417-444.
McDougall, Social Psychology, pp. 279-301, 322-351.

  1. Education as the Instrument of Intellectual Adaptation; a Sociological View of the Objective and the Methods in Education.

Spencer, Education, pp. 21-128.

  1. Religion as the Instrument of Moral Adaptation; an Appraisal of Current Tendencies in Religion and Ethics.

Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, pp. 481-497.
Bushee, Principles of Sociology, pp. 529-549.
Carver, Religion Worth having, pp. 3-24; 93-140.

  1. The Problem of the Morally Unadapted; the Nature and Causes of Crime; a Program for Social Control.

Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, pp. 654-673.
Ferri, Criminal Sociology (to be assigned).
Parmelee, Criminology (to be assigned).

C. Active Physical Adaptation.

  1. Material Adaptation as the Productive Utilization of Human Energy; Prevalent Forms of Waste and their Elimination.

Carver, The Economy of Human Energy, pp. 140-181.
Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class, pp. 35-101.

  1. The Problem of Material Mal-Adaptation; Poverty and its Causes; a Program for Social Reform.

Carver, Essays in Social Justice, pp. 349-383.
Warner, American Charities, pp. 36-90.

  1. The Nature and Justification of Property; Problems of Ownership and Control in Modern Industry.

Carver, Essays in Social Justice, pp. 304-323.
Tawney, The Acquisitive Society, pp. 1-83.

  1. Radical Programs of Social Reform; Socialism, Anarchism, Syndicalism, and their Variants.

Carver, Essays in Social Justice, pp. 232-263.
Taussig, Inventors and Money-makers, pp. 76-135.

  1. Liberty and Equality as Practicable and Compatible Ideals; the Peculiar Destiny of the American Nation.

Carver, Essays in Social Justice, pp. 264-280.
Carver, The Present Economic Revolution in the United States, pp. 15-65; 233-263.

D. Active Moral Adaptation, or Social Control in its Broader Aspects.

  1. The Place of the State in Human Adaptation. Physical Compulsion as a System of Social Control. Punishment. Voluntary Agreement. The Problem of the Reconciliation of Group Interests and Individual Interests.

Bushee, Principles of Sociology, pp. 176-205.
Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, pp. 750-763.
Mill, Essay on Liberty, chs. 1, 2, and 4.

  1. The Essential Nature of Democracy; Sensitivity and how it is achieved (a) in a coercive state, (b) in a non-coercive business.

Spencer, Principles of Sociology, Pt. V, Chs. XVII, XVIII and XIX.

  1. Problems of Modern Democracy; a Survey of the claims of Democracy as the “Ideally Best Polity”

Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, pp. 764-787.
Mill, Essay on Representative Government, chs. 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6.

  1. The Possibility of Progress; a Recapitulation of Inorganic, Organic, and Social Evolutions and a Forecast of Future Developments.

(Reading to be assigned)

 

Reading Period

Ec 8a Professor Carver.

Sumner and Keller: Science of Society, Vol. I. Chs. I-X inclusive, Chs. XVIII, XIX.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1) Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1927-1928”.

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1927-28
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 8a1
Final Examination

Allow about one hour to each part of the examination.

I

  1. Below are given two contrasting views regarding: (a) the effects which an increase in numbers “in any given state of civilization” might be expected to have on the productive capacity of society; (b) the cause of want and misery in society. Which of these seems to you the more reasonable in each of these respects, and why? State in each case the considerations which, in your opinion, led the writer to take the particular view of the matter which he did.
    “A greater number of people cannot, in any given state of civilization, be collectively so well provided for as a smaller. The niggardliness of nature, not the injustice of society, is the cause of the penalty attached to over-population.”
    “I assert that in any given state of civilization a greater number of people can collectively be better provided for than a smaller. I assert that the injustice of society, not the niggardliness of nature, is the cause of the want and misery which the current theory attributes to over-population.”
  2. What is the attitude of Sumner and Keller on the question of “natural” rights? What is your own attitude? Would a man whose labor is absolutely superfluous to society have any right to a subsistence, in your opinion? Explain fully the grounds on which you base your judgment.

II

  1. Discuss the relation of sensitivity to democracy and point out the principal ways by which those who govern or manage are made sensitive to the interests of those who are governed or managed.
  2. What is meant by the vertical mobility of labor and what social institutions tend to decrease and what tend to increase it?
  3. Suppose that, from the beginning of human evolution, individual effort had been more effective than associated effort, do you think that men would have developed a social nature? Give reasons for your answer.

III

  1. Sumner and Keller have traced back all of our important social institutions to four primary interests in man. What are these interests and what are the institutions arising from each of them?
  2. Explain concisely each of the following terms, showing by your answer that you have a clear understanding of their several meanings:
    1. the man-land ratio;
    2. parallel induction;
    3. intellectual egalitarianism;
    4. maintenance-mores;
    5. ghost-fear;
    6. non-sustentative lethal selection;
    7. Marx’s theory of economic stratification;
    8. assortative mating
  3. Men are not sufficiently equipped with instincts to insure automatic behavior which has survival value in the complex life of modern society, neither are they sufficiently endowed with intelligence to secure rational behavior which has survival value. Between the limited field of behavior controlled by instinct and the equally limited field of behavior controlled by reason, there is apparently a wide gap. How is this gap filled?

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers Mid-years, 1927-1928(HUC 7000.55). Papers printed for Mid-year Examinations: History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …, Military Science, Naval Science. January-February, 1928.

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JOSLYN AWARDED $6000
END PRIZE FALLS TO PENN. MAN

May 22, 1920

Carl Smith Joslyn ’20 of Springfield, now working his way through college, has won the Truxton Beale prize of $6000. This award was made as a result of the Walker Blaine Beale memorial contest for a Republican Platform suitable for use in the approaching campaign. The prize was offered by Truxton Beale for the purpose of stimulating political study among young people, and was to be won by a Republican not over 25 years of age.

His Platform Decisive and Complete

Mr. Joslyn’s platform is a well-built and well-reasoned document, embracing nearly a score of the outstanding questions of the day. His Republican convictions are set forth with incisive moderation, which lends emphasis to every statement. He deals expeditiously with the various international and socialistic delusions; sets forth a peace program as clear as it is decisive; makes a quick analysis of the league of nations and puts well defined limits to its powers. The greater part of his platform is, however, devoted to domestic problems, beginning with the high cost of living and following its economic and sociological ramifications through the relations of labor and industry, production and economy, taxation, railroads, foreign trade and merchant marine. ment. He ends with the following paragraphs:

“The Republican party appeals to the people for their support on the stand which it has taken against the abuse of the executive power and for the preservation of the sovereignty and independence of the United States. Its principles and policies are all formulated by a liberal and constructive statesmanship. Its creed is one of undivided Americanism; one faith, one loyalty, one devotion–and these in the service of upbuilding and strengthening the great United States of America, the country which gave the world the ideals of liberty and justice and which has dedicated its future to their perpetuation and advancement.”

Other Prizes Also Fall to College Men

The second prize of $3000 goes to Howard B. Wilson of Philadelphia, a student at the University of Pennsylvania and the third of $1000 to W. P. Smith, a student at the University of Michigan. The judges were President Nicholas Murray Butler of Columbia University, former United States Senator Beveridge and former United States Ambassador David Jayne Hill.

Source: Archive of the Harvard Crimson, May 22, 1960.

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History of U. Maryland’s Sociology Department

Although classes began on this campus in October 1859, the first sociology course was not taught until fall semester 1919.  The course was “Elementary Sociology.”  From the time of this first course until 1935, when a separate Department of Sociology was established, all sociology courses were offered by the Economics Department. During the 1970s, the Sociology Department was restructured and Anthropology and Criminology became separate programs.  Today, the Sociology Department houses the Center for Innovation, Program for Society and the Environment, Maryland Time Use Laboratory, Center for Research on Military Organizations, Group Processes Lab and is affiliated with the Maryland Population Research Center.

Over the years, the sociology faculty has included many nationally and internationally renowned scholars.  In the 1920s, sociology courses were taught by George Peter Murdock, who later created the Human Relations Area Files.  In 1938, Logan Wilson, who later became the President of the University of Texas, joined the faculty for a few years.  C. Wright Mills, the author of The Power Elite, White Collar, and The Sociological Imagination, was a member of the faculty from 1941-1945.  The most renowned scholar on the faculty during the last quarter-century was Morris Rosenberg, the world’s foremost student of how social forces shape the self-esteem.

Since its founding, the Department has had eleven leaders: Theodore B. Manny, Carl Joslyn, Edward Gregory, Harold Hoffsommer, Robert Ellis, Kenneth C. W. Kammeyer, Jerald Hage, William Falk, Lee Hamilton, Suzanne Bianchi, and Reeve Vanneman. The current chair is Patricio Korzeniewicz.

Among the many people who have earned a degree from this department and subsequently achieved considerable recognition are William Form, the first person to hold a Ph.D. (1944) from this department; Parren Mitchell, who became a member of the U.S. House of Representatives; Adele Stamp, for whom the Stamp Student Union is named, and Charles Wellford of the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice.

Source: University of Maryland, Department of Sociology. Webpage: “History of the Sociology Department”.

Image Source: Thomas Nixon Carver (left) and Carl Smith Joslyn (right) from the faculty photos in the Harvard Class Album 1932.